This past Friday, a group of us packed up and headed north to Amsterdam. We booked a room in a boat hostel, or botel, which was actually pretty comfortable for its size. Each morning we ate a nice big breakfast in the dining room of the boat before heading out. Not much was planned for this trip other than a big electronic music concert in Utrecht on Saturday night so everything was pretty much up in the air. Friday night we met up with some girls Vincent knew from t.u. that are studying abroad in Barcelona. We walked to the museum district before finding a nice Italian restaurant to eat at. Every time that I’ve gone to an Italian restaurant in Europe, I’ve ordered the same thing, lasagna. Every place has their own twist that makes it so unique and delicious that I’ve basically started a lasagna tour.
Saturday morning we walked around the city, exploring the different shops, being typical tourists. We then made our way back to the museum district where we split up to go to the Van Gogh museum or the Rijks museum. Because I was on a tight budget trying to save money for spring break and having already been to the Van Gogh museum, I decided to walk around that part of the city and relax in a nearby park. After the crew regrouped, we hung out at the park and watched some locals play pickup basketball which was pretty funny. We then started our trek back to our botel to get ready for the concert. Last minute I realized that the concert may not accept the barcode on my phone as our ticket so we ended up spending half an hour trying to find a library and printing out our tickets. After a short 30 minute train ride to Utrecht with other rave goers we arrived at the venue.
Having only been to a few electronic concerts in the US, this was by far the best experience yet. The set up was typical, having 1 main room with 2 smaller satellite rooms each with their own line up with differing styles. The effort that went into the engineering of the light show synced with the music is what floored me. Posted are some stills of the visuals. There were so many people, bass, sound, and lights that it was quite the sensory overload. After seeing most of the more popular artists, the rest of the group decided to head back to Amsterdam to get what sleep they could before the train back to Bonn. Since I have a eurail pass and every train is available to me, I decided to stay to finish out the concert with some friends I had made. After the concert, I made my way back to Amsterdam with a few friends where we hung out for a couple more hours before the checkout time for our botel. After grabbing my stuff and parting ways with the rest of the group, I found a place to rest and slept for a few hours before leaving the city for Bonn.
This weekend was one of the most fun and eventful times of my life and its only 1 week until my spring break..! There are 3 lessons I learned over the weekend. First, I need to learn how to budget my money better. Second, if I ever want to feel average height, visit Holland… everyone is at least 6 feet tall if not 6’5”! And lastly, ALWAYS buy a reservation for a train longer than 2 hours. It was terrible trying to find a seat and when I did, within 10 minutes of getting comfortable, someone would come by to claim their seat. I ended up sitting on the ground in the corner of a train for 4 hours… which is NOT fun.
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