Spring Break 4

We made our train in time and everything. We had assigned seats, but we were all seated close to each other. It was a very pleasant 4-hour ride that I mostly slept through. I woke up in time to see amazing buildings in Rotterdam. I then read my book on Mussolini, for Italian history, until the train arrived at its last stop...Amsterdam! 

Central Station is an amazing building that was fortunately a very short walk from our hostel. The buildings looked like the ones I had liked so much in passing Rotterdam. Our hostel was not one of those impressive buildings though. It was a dark place with a common room with a pool table, which was nice. We had to walk up four steep sets of stairs to get to our EIGHTEEN person room! Isn't that crazy?! I actually turned out to be fine. Nobody was loud or anything...there were just a ton of people in the room! Our security lockers were next to our bunks, and they were huge metal barrels! They held a lot, but I was definitely not expecting them!

We took naps and then went out to explore the city. Our hostel ended up being right on the edge of the Red Light District. It was veryyy strange to walk through that area...I didn't take any pictures because I don't necessarily care to remember that! There were literally women waiting to get chosen behind panes of glass. They were in tiny cubicles of rooms with a bed and like a mirror. Red lights illuminated them. My friend said she saw one "lady" sitting on her bed eating McDonald's waiting to be chosen! I think that is funny, a little disturbing, but amusing nonetheless. 

We did more walking around just observing all the crazies on Friday. We went to the Anne Frank House, which required waiting in a reallly long line. The space she lived in for two years was so small that they could only let a few tourists in at a time. It was very surreal to imagine a family living in an inclosed area for so long. They had to be very careful when they walked and talked during the day so they wouldn't be heard be people downstairs. It was really disturbing to think about Anne's situation during the Holocaust, and I really wish I had read her book.

The Van Gogh Museum was expensive, so I just got a picture of the outside! As you can tell from the pictures, the weather was really nice, and Amsterdam is actually a really pretty city, despite its reputation.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting lost on the Metro and ending up in some small Dutch town. We got onto a train for some reason just assuming it was the correct one (because of the track information I think). We knew we had to be on it for a while...we were headed to an improv comedy show...but we realized we were on the wrong train we we arrived at its last stop: Ijberg, Holland! We finally got on the correct train and made it to the show in time.

The comedians did really well at the beginning taking suggestions from the audience and keeping everyone laughing. Towards the end though nobody laughed very often...I feel the comedians just got tired.

I think Amsterdam was a good last-leg destination. We were able to see some sights, relax and enjoy nice weather before heading back to school.

I have posted all my pictures and videos to remember my travels forever!