Dam, What's That Smell?

These past few weeks have been insanely busy, so I've decided to break down the blogs a little bit. Although Amsterdam was only a weekend, it was a really good, really busy weekend, so I thought I would give it its own blog post.

After Emily and I finally made it through our five trains and made it to the hotel, we decided to walk around a bit and look for a place to eat. It was dark by then and cold, but Amsterdam was still beautiful. The canals were all frozen over, and there was snow and ice hanging on all the leafless trees on either side of the water. It was perfectly picturesque. Amsterdam is filled with cool sculptures, and the stores and restaurants are all very aesthetic. The whole city seems to revolve around biking. There were these little side roads along the roads for all of the bikers. And if you happened to step in the bike lanes you would definitely get run over. Emily and I ended up walking the entire half circle of Amsterdam before we realized how late it was. Unfortunately by then most restaurants were closed, so we walked into the next one we saw. They ended up opening the kitchen back up for us, and we had burgers and coffee (because of the homework we still had to do that night) and hung out with the waiters. 

Afterwards we made the beautiful walk back to the hotel, and then sadly started homework. The wifi was slow, and it was depressing to be doing homework while in Amsterdam, but we pushed through and finished 211 around 5 am. Then crashed.

The next day we got up early to go on a walking tour of the city. Our guide was super fun, and we met a ton of people from all over-- Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Canada, America (from Texas actually!), and England. The amount of times someone in our group asked "what's that smell?" was comical, and it eventually led our guide to explaining the drug problem/acceptance of Amsterdam. He was very insightful about all of Amsterdam-- the city has an incredible history that I don't think many people know about. The tour ended in Dam square, where we ended up eating with the other people from America that were on the tour with us.

After our tour, Emily and I went and toured the Anne Frank house, something you must do if you go to Amsterdam. We ended the day with the best food of all time. Lauren and her dad met us on Saturday for dinner, at a place called BBQ Castell. This place makes the best ribs you will ever have in the entire world. I think I would fly out to Europe just for those ribs. 

On Sunday, Lauren, Emily and I went to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, also must-sees. The weather was beautiful-- everyone was outside. People were even ice skating on the canal water. 

That afternoon we packed our things and headed back to the train station. Again, we had 4 connecting trains, but this time we had some time between each connection. It was going to be a peaceful ride home. At least we thought it was.

The first three trains went smoothly. It was almost midnight by the time we made it back to Cologne, but a train ride to Bonn from Cologne only takes 20 minutes so it wasn't a big deal. We got on our last train and were all really looking forward to getting back. At one of the stops along the way, we notice that the train seems to be off, and looking around, notice we are the only ones on the train. We quickly run off, and see the crowd disappearing down the stairs. We follow, and end up walking to a bus station. A lady who spoke English kindly explained that the train had broken down. I'm sort of freaking out at this point, because a taxi back to Bonn would be expensive. We were also leaving for France that morning, and I needed to unpack and then repack, shower and hopefully sleep. About an hour later a bus pulls up. It drives around for a bit, making a few stops here and there, and then makes a final stop at a different train station. Its about 2 am at this point. We were all unloaded and loaded back on a train, but then sat for another 30 minutes before the train left. 

Eventually we made it back to Bonn, but it was past 3 am at this point. Lauren and I unpacked, packed for France, and walked back out to meet the bus and the rest of the AIB group at 5 am. 

It was an exhausting trip, especially with the hectic ride home, but we made it on time for the bus Monday morning, and we had a week in France and spring break to look forward to, so I can't complain too much.