A Walking Tour of Amsterdam

Amsterdam, the city of pot, prostitutes and bicycles. Oh, and canals. Children know it as the city with the canals. I saw all sides of it with Bethy (one of the interns and a long time friend of Jen's) who knows the city very well and lead me through all of the necessary areas (except the Jordaan and Anne Frank Huis, which I plan to visit on Thursday). 

We met in Den Haag Centraal station, where we hopped on an intercity train to Amsterdam. The same train that I took from the airport to Den Haag last week, only in the other direction. When we arrived we stopped to buy some coffee and then walked over to Saint Nicolasskirk, which is near the station.

It was very pretty inside. I took several pictures with my phone, since I decided to leave my big camera at home for this trip. I'm going back to Amsterdam though so never fear my photography inclined friends, there will be plenty of nice Amsterdam photos to look at later. 

After a peek inside the church, Bethy lead me through the Green and Red Light districts. It was day time, so they were fairly quiet, but there were still girls in the windows in the Red Light. She explained to me how Red Light businesses are marked throughout the city, and that a coffeehouse is NOT where someone gets a cup a' joe. Not that I couldn't already tell of course, since I could smell it. Amsterdam is a silly town. 

We then headed towards Dam square. We stopped for street frites with fritessaus on the way. They were delicious! I don't know why we call them french fries at home, we should call them dutch fries, but then maybe we call them french because they pale in comparison. (No offense to french food of course.) I think I saw a place in the Hague that sells them earlier today. I will have to stop by next time I'm in Centrum and get them because they were AMAZING. Anyway, the delicious frites aside, when we arrived in Dam square, we happened upon the Homeless Cup. According to Bethy, this is a series of football (soccer) games played by homeless men from various towns in the Netherlands and all the proceeds go to charities that help these men. Holland is so cool. We should have something like this in the US. Really. Someone who plays more sports than me start this. I'll help with marketing. Here's a photo that includes the tents (as well as the Queens seat in Amsterdam).

We spent a few moments watching the game while we finished our frites, and then we walked in the direction of the Museumplein. It was a bit of a walk, but not too bad. We walked by the Bloomenmarkt on the way. That's the famous flower market, but it was all bulbs at this time of year. I wish I could bring some back to the states for my mother's yard, but I don't think California would be pleased (sorry Mom).

When we reached the Museumplein, we stopped by the "I amsterdam" sign for a photo (below) before heading to the Van Gogh Museum. 

The museum itself was very interesting, and just the right size for the amount of time I wanted to spent in a museum that day. It was really cool to see Van Gogh's early work along with the paintings everyone knows. I saw a lot of paintings I had never seen before along with a lot of familiar ones. We saw the recently restored Bedroom in Arles, it's so bright now! I don't think there is an image of it since the most recent restoration on the internet, but it's quite colorful. One of the most interesting things that the museum has done with Van Gogh's work is try to figure out what he painted on top of, since he is known for reusing his canvasses. They had xray images of several paintings and all sorts of interesting details about how he did his work. Maybe it's because I'm an adult now, or because it's a famous artist, but I really enjoyed our visit. 

After the museum, Bethy knew of a nearby bakery that we walked to. I got a Croque Monsieur and it was delicious! I feel like I've had one before now, but I don't know where. Perhaps in Puerto Rico. Regardless, it was a warm sandwich with ham and mayonnaise inside and cheese toasted onto the outside. Yum. 

At this point, I was pretty tired of walking, so we went to find a tram that would take us back to Amsterdam Centraal. On the way we walked through part of Vondelpark, which is very pretty, and past a movie theater showing a Jack Nicholson film festival. There was a fancy looking party happening on the balcony. 

We did find the tram soon thereafter and rode back through town, passing some places we had been earlier. We then took the train back, and I stopped at Lush on the way home to get a bath bomb to help ease my feet. 

Once I returned to the apartment, I relaxed for a little while and then went out again to Albert Hein, which is the main grocery chain here in the Netherlands. I took the bike which Peter has lent me, and followed the route that we took on Wednesday morning. I bought all sorts of practical things, including veggies, cheese and bread. I already know that I will miss dutch cheese dearly when I return to the states. It's better than any cheese I have had at home. The jong cheese tastes like... maybe mild cheddar but better, and the old cheese definitely tastes like white cheddar but again, better. I also bought some fresh pasta and spinach sauce which I ate for dinner last night. My evening was pretty relaxed after that, and I slept very early. 

Today I spent in the Hague, having a rest day. I went to lunch with Bethy in Centrum, and took a bike trip to Hema up here in Scheveningen (on Keizerstraat, a cute shopping area), which was near my destination of a bookstore with a post office. But the bookstore was closed, so I just went to Hema and bought a pen, since I forgot to bring one. I rode back part way along the beach and it was nice and sunny. 

Then here I am, sitting at the table in the apartment facing the window looking out on the beach, listening to the chaos of karaoke and real bands playing in the various clubs along the boardwalk. 

Tomorrow I am going to Delft!

Two days in Paris

When I first told people I was only going to Paris for two days, they looked at me and said "only??" as if it was impossible to get around and see everything one would want in that period of time. I'm not saying it was easy, and I'm not saying I have no need to go back, but Jen and I managed my full list of monuments and we still had time to sleep and go shopping.

We left early Thursday morning for the train, and travelled by tram, intercity train, high-speed Thalys and the Paris metro to arrive at the hostel in Paris. Our travels were not without their mistakes, as we went the wrong direction on the Paris metro towards a suburban town called "Louvres" instead of the single stop to the mid-town hub where we would transfer to get to the Musee du Louvre. In the end we got there alright, if a little irritable.
We spent the rest of Thursday walking around. After eating at a streetside cafe, and witnessing some rather heavy rain, we decided to go to the shops on Rue de Rivoli. So, we did that, and it became sunny again! After a little shopping, we decided to walk down to the river and follow it in the direction of the Champs-Elysees, since I wanted to see where the Tour de France bikes had been less than a week before. The river walkways and bridges were very pretty and I took several pictures of them and the many large, architecturally interesting buildings we passed along the way. [I will upload the photos from the Canon Rebel I have been using when I return.] When we reached the Tuileries, we turned away from the river and went to the Ferris Wheel, where we had some crepes and took a ride. The view from the top was gorgeous. After our ride we walked through the Tuileries towards the Obelisk and the Arc de Triomph. We made a few stops on the way, and switched to the metro for part of the way up the Champs-Elysees (we were both tired by this point), but eventually we reached the Arc de Triomph, located the underground passage and went up to it to take photos.

You'll never believe this was at around 8pm!

It was certainly interesting to look down the Champs-Elysees and see the Obelisk and the Louvre back down where we started. After some very touristy behavior, we stopped at a nearby cafe for some drinks (Orangina!) before heading back into the subway to go to the Tour Eiffel. We got out of the subway just as they turned on the lights on the tower, and followed the herds in the general direction of the base. We then, of course, took the proper number of photos:

After photographing the Tour and the river, we decided it was best to take a taxi back to the hostel, since we were hot and tired and our feet hurt. So, I can say I have ridden a taxi in Paris and I didn't die, though I'm pretty sure Paris is a more dangerous city for pedestrians, given the way people drive. Within 5 minutes of being out of the metro in Paris, we saw a fender-bender at a cross walk. No one was hurt, but still!

Friday morning we woke to a free breakfast at the hostel (jam, fresh bread, hot chocolate and juice) and headed over to the Musee du Louvre. After walking through the relatively fast paced line we arrived inside the pyramid and went down to purchase tickets into the galleries, which were 10 Euro. Not bad! Jen and I definitely didn't get to everything, but we went to see the things that I knew would be interesting the whole time and never boring. Someday I will go back and visit the painting galleries that we did not visit this time around. We first went to the Mona Lisa, since I figured the crowds would be smaller since it was early. It was still crowded, but not so much so that it was extremely difficult to get this photo:

We then walked through almost the entire Egyptian gallery and some of the Greek and Roman stuff. The most interesting things there were the ink on papyrus writings and drawings. Those were so cool to see!! I took some pictures with my camera, they'll be up later with the others :). We also went through Napolean III's apartments. Fancy!
After the Louvre, the last thing on my list was Notre Dame. After some lunch and the most delicious quiche I have ever eaten, we took the metro to Cite, got off and walked the block and a half to Notre Dame. We took some photos and rested outside for a few moments before getting in line to enter.

The inside was so pretty! But very dark so I only have photos from the nice camera. I'm glad I made a point of going here.
After Notre Dame, Jen and I took the metro back to the shopping district where we used the restroom in the super nice McDonald's on Rue du Rivoli. Seriously. It's all digitized and well lit and nice. It was sort of odd. After, we went into some stores and I bought a pair of skinny jeans so I could be fashionable walking around Europe. Everyone here wears skinny jeans, all the time. This new pair are actually quite comfortable!
After that we went to a creperie and had another small meal and drank some French wine. We got the Rose, since most of the other wines looked drier than is to either of our tastes. It was quite good! After a long rest there, we toodled our way back to the hostel, stopping at some souvenir shops on the way, got our bags and took the metro back to the station for the Thalys. We got on the train fine, but then it was delayed for an hour and a half! We did not return to the apartment in the Hague until around midnight, at which point I promptly went to sleep.

Today I go to Amsterdam! Perhaps another post tonight. If not, tomorrow. I am loving Europe so far!

The Hague: Madurodam and meet the interns!

Today was quite busy! Well, after 11 anyway.

I woke up early due to jet lag, and was up and about at around 6:30. I went to the grocery store with Peter, and in the process learned several dutch words and how the bicycles work. After Jenni woke up, we decided we would go to the ICTY (International Tribunal for Yugoslavia, operated by the UN, which Peter works at) for lunch with the interns and then on to Madurodam and Centrum in the afternoon.

The ICTY was very high security (I had to give them my passport in exchange for my visitors pass) and I obviously didnt get to see much, but it was cool to be on the premises of such a famous and important institution. The interns were, of course, entertaining :).

After eating and chatting, Jen and I walked the approximate 1km to Madurodam, which is, for those who don't know, Holland in miniature. Here's the view from the tram stop:

We then went inside, and Jen played tour guide, reading from the booklet about each building we found interesting, and I took pictures. They'll all show up later in my Netherlands album. For now, have a photo of me recieving my 1 Euro souvenir from a clog factory truck and a self pic of Jen and I at Madurodam :)

Hooray! 

After Madurodam, we took a brief rest back at the apartment and then headed back out to the center of town to do some shopping. I got a new wallet that functions better for all the euro coins. It has some hedgehogs on it, and thus makes me smile. After that, we walked to one of the interns/ a friends apartment for dinner, wine and conversation. It was a very good evening. :)

Tomorrow early, Jen and I head to Paris for our 1 night stay. Probably no posts until Saturday evening. See you then!

Arrivals

I did it! It was somewhat terrifying, aggravating, thrilling etc, but my journey across 9 time zones has concluded sans injury. I am here, sitting on the couch in the Robinson's apartment in The Hague, on my best friend's computer typing away about my journey while the oven heats up. Once it's warm I can put the Dutch version of Bagel Bites (they come in Hawaiian!) in, and then I can have foods. I haven't eaten since late dinner on the plane. It's been a bit hectic okay?


Anyway, either you all read my tweets or it will be long boring tale. I will give you the highlights from before I arrived in Holland, before I left San Francisco even. 


I arrived at SFO plenty early this morning, checked in, went through security and even had breakfast before boarding the plane to Philadelphia. Everything went to plan until we were out of the gate and the captain checked his weather map. At which point, everything fell apart, not because of the weather, but because of the map. The weather radar on the plane was apparently broken. So, we sat on the plane hoping they'd fix it. They took too long, so they pulled everyone off the plane and sent the international passengers down to purgatory in the bag claim area while one person worked on all 50 of our transfers to different flights and/or carriers. You can imagine that did not go well. Somewhere along the line, I and another woman travelling alone to Amsterdam, heard about two seats on a Delta flight. So we went upstairs and managed to get ahold of...one. We ro sham bo'd for it. I won. I am here now, instead of tomorrow. Yes. My travel plans hinged on whether I picked scissors or rock. I picked scissors, it all worked out. 


My flights themselves were fairly uneventful, except for my lovely position in children-to-young-to-ride-planes central on the flight to Amsterdam. I didn't sleep as much as I'd have liked to, but at this point I think I'll be okay until this evening. It helps to have only half the day instead of the originally planned whole day. 


Upon arrival, I walked right up to the immigration counter, the guy took my passport and stamped it with hardly a glance. I knew instantaneously that I was in fact, not in Kansas anymore. Customs was merely a gate that said "No items to declare." There wasn't even a person there! Either the Netherlands is super laid back about stuff that comes in, or the US is a total stickler (probably both of those things actually.) 


Anyway, it was at about this time that I had a scare of sorts. I went to the ATM that was on the back side of the exchange booth inside the baggage claim area. I would've gone to the front if there were a person, but no one was working. So I went to the ATM and tried to withdraw 450 Euro. It looked like it worked, and it spat my card back out, but it didn't give me any money. Naturally I was confused and distressed. That was most of my funds for the trip and if the stupid airport ATM had eaten them I was going to be very very sad. I knew that that wasnt all of my funds however, and I needed 20 Euro to get to the Hague (it was actually about 10, at the end of the day) so I bravely tried again and it behaved perfectly, giving me 20 Euro and a confirmation screen. Okay, I thought, I didn't get the confirmation screen last time, maybe it hasn't gone through and it was just too much. So I tried the top listed amount, 250 Euro. It said "you don't have enough money for that," which gave me a minor panic, since I knew that even with the 450 Euro evaporated I should still have 250 Euro. So I tried 100. Again, it behaved like a little sheep and did exactly as it was told. I came out with a 20 Euro and 2 50 Euro bills, and a worry that my money had been taken away. I took a photo with my phone of the "problems?" placard, just in case. 


The next dilemma was tickets for the train to the Hague. I first stood in line for a while at one of the yellow ticket stands, but soon realized that none of them take cash. It took me a couple minutes, but I eventually located the well labeled train ticket booth where a nice lady gave me a ticket for 7,90 (they use commas for Euro cents, instead of periods) and told me that I needed to go to platforms 5 and 6 (which is something I already knew, thanks to Jenni) and that the train left in 5 minutes. I dashed off to the platform, and discovered, happily, that not only are such trains bright yellow, they're double decker! I rode on the bottom level since I had my luggage, but next time... :D


The train ride was fairly uneventful and mostly filled with me reviewing Jenni's directions for once I got to the Hague and fretting over the confusing ATM. Once I arrived, I found my way to the tram stop, awkwardly made my way onto the tram with much too much stuff, and rode the tram to the proper spot. It took me a little bit of wandering and guessing, but I found my way to the apartment and got settled in.


Then I became hungry, and since I am forbidden from sleeping, I decided to go investigate the grocery Jenni had told me about. The apartment is situated on the coast in Scheveningen, which is very touristy area. There is a boardwalk, populated by half a dozen gimmicky looking restaurants and a promenade filled with clothing shops. I walked through all this, observing that while most Dutch people speak English, they normally speak Dutch and throw in the occasional English phrase. Restaurants and sign-makers operate like this too. It's rather odd. Anyway, I walked past all that and the somewhat tempting Dutch Burger King and located "Deli - Food Shopping" where I purchased, for just under 6 Euro a bag of baby carrots, the aforementioned Dutch Bagel Bites, and a bag of Croky Superfrites because the bag amused me. 

I also discovered that eggs are really expensive here? Maybe I was looking at it wrong but it looked like a box of 4 was 11 Euro! That seems very...incorrect.
On the way back, I walked by the famous Kurhaus hotel. I will take better pictures later with the good camera, but as I was just on a food excursion all I had was my phone and a lame angle.

That's all for now, sorry for the VERY LONG post. They should be shorter in the future. 


Nap time!

Packed and Ready!

Tomorrow morning I board a plane in SFO headed for Philadelphia and then on to Amsterdam!


Keep an eye on my twitter (Midna07 or the feed over there -->) for updates on my air travels!


All of my things are packed, the confirmation for the hostel in Paris (Thursday and Friday's adventure) is sent, my clothes are laid out and all that is left is to charge my cell phone and stay up as late as possible. 


I will post again when I have braved my way across Holland to get to the Robinson's apartment in Den Haag! See you then!

Hallo!

Welcome to my blog for my upcoming trip to the Netherlands!


For those of you that don't know, I will be going on a trip to the Netherlands (and Paris) in 2.5 days. I leave Monday morning, and will arrive in Amsterdam the following morning. That will be around 11pm here in PST. The time difference is +9 hours for Amsterdam time. (For those of you in mountain time, that's +8.) I will be staying at Jenni's father's apartment in The Hague for the majority of the trip (Hooray!). I will arrive back on the evening of August 6th. 


My plan is to post here daily/ almost daily and use it as a journal of sorts that I can share with all of you! I figure this will be easier than trying to tell all of you about everything when I get back, and nicer on my fingers than actually journalling like I have in the past. Also, I can add photos :) Therefore, I will try to remember to share to Facebook, G+ and Twitter when I post (since blogger doesn't do it automatically to my knowledge, though it might to G+) BUT as that might come out sort of spammy, if you want to read every post as they happen you should bookmark and check back!


Todays preparatory tasks include shopping, so I had better get on that!