Amstel Dammel

Alrighty, well from March 25-29 Alex and I were in Amsterdam. I always thought it was in Germany, turns out it's in the Netherlands. Luckily, we still made it to our destination :)

Our first night we met up with some of Harry Picken's (Alex's friend who we were staying with) friends for dinner. Afterward they wanted to go to a coffee shop. You know what happens there, and Alex and I sat by while we watched a professional hockey player from Prague do it. Really, it was probably just as entertaining as getting high would have been anyway. And this was free.

The next, our first, morning we ate at a coffee place for breakfast her friend Tessa recommended: Bagels and Beans (it was so good we ate there again our last morning)

We walked around that day just seeing the sights and all the shops down by the canals in the central part of town.


Went to Anne Frank's house that evening. I've never read her diary, but being in there was insane enough just knowing the basics. It is really well preserved and has alot of information on Anne Frank and the others that hid there. Now I shall go by the book. (The building is the one in the middle not lit up. Craziest part is people live RIGHT next door! Like, other side of the wall--I'd freak out).
Then met some of Harry's other friends and went dancing, where I got a bright red drink spilt on my white scarf :S
We slept 4.5 hours and then got up to go to the Amsterdam Dungeons. If I would have known what it was (1 hour of things jumping out and scaring you) I may have passed, alas, I didn't. So I had a steady heart attack for the length we were there. Then we ate at a ballin restaurant called La Place, that's like fancy cafeteria style with super good food. By the way, all the things we ate on our trip were beyond good.

Boat tour, where all of us nodded off at one point.
Then to a marketing firm called Sid Lee to watch a drawing battle between their office and the Cardiff branch. (Alex is a marketing major, and apparently the company Sid Lee is big in the biz. That's how we found out about it, and she was unbelievably stoked to go). It was probably one of the coolest things I've done here yet, just because it was so unique. Cool party too, lots of music and chatting, and these guys taggin it up the whole time. (The home team ended up winning, more photos in the FB album)
After that we took a trip down to the Red Light District. It's about what you would imagine, lots of barely dressed ladies in windows and large groups of men gawking at them. A quick walk up and down the main road and we got the idea.

We walked about 45 miles that day because we missed the night bus home, I was a little grouchy. But we made it home and slept til 1 the next afternoon. Thank goodness.

Rented bikes when we first got out and about and went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum that afternoon. I suppose it was kind of neat, though I wouldn't recommend paying for it as being worth it. Oh well, we still met alot of celebs.

Since everything closes really early on Sundays, we decided to go see a movie. That movie turned out to be Avatar in 3D. I enjoyed it, definitely cool to watch, and glad I got to see it in 3D before it left theaters. That night we biked around town a bit to see the area, then went home.

Monday morning we said our goodbyes to Harry Picken and went off to do a Mike's Bikes tour of the country side.


On the tour we stopped off at a cheese farm and clog making factory (in the same building, so Dutch). The cheese was delicious!

We then quickly made our way to the Van Gogh museum, where I learned a lot more that I had known about him. For instance, I didn't even know he had shot himself? And he did some Japanese art for a while. I saw some pieces I'd never seen before that made me like him more, and some I'd never seen before that made me much less impressed by him. But in the end, it was really cool to see a bunch of his originals.

After that we made our way to the airport, where there were a lot of delayed flights. Once we got past security there were a ton of people standing around the one screen displaying departures and gates, some looked like they'd been there awhile. Plus, once we got through security, there was no food (so our plan to eat lunch after we got checked through was out) and also no bathrooms?? We went into slight panic mode and ate this huge candy bar she had with her. It turned out our flight was basically on time, just didn't get posted right away. But atleast we were full for the short flight home. When we got to the airport our coach back to Hatfield had broken down (as had a few others) so we got a taxi back compliments of the Luton airport.

We had probably the worst taxi driver this side of the Atlantic, he didn't know where we were going at all, had ME type in the directions on his GPS, had to stop to get gas,and missed the turn when we told him where it was. But Footloose did play on the radio station he had on, so he redeemed himself pretty quick. Nice enough fella, anyway.

And that, friends, was AmsterdamT It was was nicer that I ever thought it'd be, and beautiful in general. A contender to Switzerland for sure.

All the pictures.

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

From Wednesday-Sunday I was in Switzerland, a country one year ago I thought I'd never go to. I stayed with Michael Meier (from the hockey team 07-09) and Geoffrey met us there as well, since he's studying in the Czech.

First day was just trying to get there and get ahold of Mike via cell phone, which isn't as easy as you'd think. But I a very nice lady named Gabby helped me at the train station and Mike did call me so I made it to his home in Aarau safely around 11 pm.

Thursday morning Michael had to go to work, so I went to Zurich to meet Geoff when he got there from his 10 hour bus ride.

It snowed pretty much all day, but it was still a nice temperature so I didn't mind it a bit. Plus I wore the boots Grandma got me which helped :) We didn't get meals so much as we just got coffee and pastries along the way. The coffee there, btw, is phenomenal.

We also went to a museum and then watched Michael at hockey practice that night.

Friday morning it was sunny out! Geofferson and I stayed in Aarau and explored the town, which we decided we LOVED. It's a lovely country.

That night Michael made us fondue despite his very strict "No Cheese in the Apartment" policy. Thank goodness too, because it was delicious. We then went to a club where ladies got in free (Frauen: Gratis), met some of Michael's native friends, and of course danced. Only down side was people could smoke inside, so my eyes burned well into the next morning.

Saturday we went skiing in the Alps. An added bonus was he drive us there. Let me tell you, you never realize just how nice riding in a car is until you can't do it for 5 months.

I sucked ridiculous amounts at skiing. I fell on my tail bone really hard the 3rd slope I went down, so that made the rest of the day pretty long. It really was a lot of fun though, and Geoff and Michael stuck with me the whole day. God bless them.

Up there was the prettiest scenery I think I have ever seen, a lake surrounded by mountains?? That's the dream location!

That night we just made stupid amounts of spaghetti and recovered from the day. There had been a soccer game vs. Zurich FC that evening while we were getting in. We stood on the balcony and watched the away team fans walk to the train station and sing sing sing like they do. A bit after that, we heard more commotion and went outside again to see the jerkier fans getting in fights and throwing rocks at the cops in riot gear and their caged vans. They were real houligans!!! I'm sure I'd be more annoyed like Michael if I lived there, but it was just really awesome.

I had to leave the apt at 8 the next morning to get back to the airport and the boys joined me :) How nice. And then I left them...it was like the best thing to see people I knew, and to do it in Switzerland? Why, that was just a big heaping pile of Nutella icing.

Ps. I want to learn German soooooooo bad now. Coolest language ever!

Willst du more photos?