Amsterdam, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium

Amsterdam is all along
 the water, it's beautiful!

This weekend we had a birthday celebration for Miss Amy Kelly!  Our celebration consisted for heading to Amsterdam, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium for the weekend.

We left Friday night for our first overnight train, which was quite the experience. The night was off to a rough start as our cab never showed up. We ended up piling in with another group, putting ten people into an eight-person cab- crammed to say the least! Since our cab came late, we missed our first train and had to catch a regional train at a different train station. THEN (yes, more transportation issues) our train stopped somewhere because we were stuck behind another train. We were freaking out because we were stuck on a train and didn’t think we’d make our transfer train in time. As soon as the train stopped, we SPRINTED to our next platform and found out that our train was 15 minutes delayed so we all let out a cry of relief and did a dorky group hug. Needless to say, we got a few stares. 

I'm definitely my mother's daughter:
I can sleep ANYWHERE!

After celebrating making it on time, it was time to “cuddle up” and sleep on the train. Luckily for me, I can sleep ANYWHERE (thanks for the skill, mom!) and sleep on every train we’ve ever gone on. This ride was even more comfortable as it was an overnight train equipped with little pods for everyone to sleep in. They also keep it dark and quiet (except for the old lady snoring in front of us). Luckily I'm used to people snoring (Dad during movies! haha)

Our names signed in the Guest
Book at the Anne Frank House.

We made it to Amsterdam around 9:45 and headed to the Anne Frank House. Our plan was to meet up with the beautiful Miss Kelsi Stevenson (who is studying abroad in Amsterdam) to see her and have her help us navigate the city. Unfortunately we were late getting to the Anne Frank house and then we had no way to communicate with each other, so we kept looking for each other with no success. Left to navigate our own way, we decided to start out with the tour of the Anne Frank House. It was such a cool tour and very moving to see real artifacts that have been preserved for so long.

Our next stop was the famous “I Amsterdam” sign. We stopped for a while and took pictures, despite the crazy weather. It was ridiculous! It would be sunny and warm one second, then dark and raining the next. Odd.

Me in the "I AMsterdam" sign

After eating lunch and doing a little shopping in Dam Square, we headed to the Red Light District. We were warned not to go at night, and boy am I glad we didn’t! The street was sketchy enough during the day!

We left Amsterdam around six, ready to go to Brussels. Unfortunately we got kicked off the train because our Eurails were not “activated”. Although this had never been a problem before, the man was very persistent and kept telling us that we had to get off the train and get them activated or he would charge us 50 euro each! Being the poor college kids we are, we chose to get off the train! Well it turns out the train station we got off at doesn’t activate them, so we had to take a bus to a different train station that would do it. After a few wrong busses, we got our tickets activated. The dumbest part about this whole thing was that the activation was a stamp that literally took a second to do. The lady at the train station even rolled her eyes when we told her and said that the man on the train took his job too seriously. By the time all was said and done we got to Brussels around 11 and had a few drinks at the hostel for Amy’s birthday. Probably not the way she wanted to celebrate, but we were waaaay to exhausted to go out!

Me on the bus tour of Brussels

After sleeping in a very odd hostel (with “mats” to sleep on) we decided to wake up early and see Brussels. And for us, of course, that meant another bus tour! Although the bus was cold and it was gloomy weather, it was still a good way to get around in the city. The one place we stopped was at the statue of the peeing boy in the town square. I guess the story behind the statue is that there was once a bomb in the middle of the town and a little boy walked by and peed on it, destroying the fuse and saving the town. They now have this funny little statue and dress it up on special occasions.

To end our day we sampled some Belgian chocolate and had Belgian waffles at a local restaurant. Our waffles were covered in vanilla and chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce and caramel sauce, fruit and whipped cream! It was DELICIOUS and definitely a good way to end a long weekend!

This weekend we’re headed off to Berlin, which should be a good time! And even more exciting, I am OFFICIALLY caught up on all of my blog entries! As you’ve probably noticed, I did not post these as the weekends passed, but I decided half way through the summer to do it. It has been a long and exhausting project (I think I’m developing carpal tunnel) but I will be happy to have it in the future! J