cheryl goes global: 3/15/09

Sorry it has been so long since there was an update! I was in Amsterdam all weekend, from Thursday morning to Monday morning, but don't worry, I didn't miss any class!

Amsterdam was quite a treat. We arrived bright and early Thursday morning (our plane left at 6:50, so early!!!) and dropped stuff off at our hostel:

the outside of the hostel (white) and a corner of our room

The rooms weren't too shabby. Our first hostel experience in a 6 bed mixed dorm and we came out of it none the worst for it. Kayla and I shared the room with an English girl, Erika, an Irish boy, Aidan, and two self-professed Spaniards although it didn't sound like spanish that they were speaking... It wasn't too rough, and we never had to wait on the bathrooms or shower which is one thing I was afraid of. But it all worked out. And our hostel offered continental breakfast, a definite life-saver for us in the mornings: you could make toast with butter and jelly or make a ham and cheese sandwich and add juice to top it off. Pretty basic, but it did the trick.

After dropping our stuff off, we hit the ground running and began our version of a walking tour. e stumbled upon the Rijks museum with all the Dutch masterpieces and decided to take a look.

the outside of the museum

the garden part and arch by the entrance

It was fabulous! They had so many different pieces of art, from a huge replica of a ship to paintings by Vermeer to antique silver to busts of leaders to landscapes. It was a great museum, well worth our time and money. We spent a good bit of time there just going through the centuries of art work. I wish I could give you pictures of some of the artwork but cameras weren't allowed

After the Rijks, we kept walking and discovered the Vincent Van Gogh museum, and some of you may know that I was ecstatic because he is one of my favorite painters! And what do you know... they had a special collection on loan and had THE STARRY NIGHT there. In person. The real thing. I almost wet my pants. Again, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I may have taken advantage of my iPhone and snapped a couple...

A sign for the exhibition, and THE STARRY NIGHT

Following the Van Gogh musuem we decided to head back to our Hostel to form a game plan for the rest of the day, which surprisingly, was almost gone. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at a nice little Italian place near our hostel with Aidan, our Irish roommate, it was pretty good, but the Euro hurts our wallets a lot more than the Czech koruna. After grubbing, Kayla and I turned in for the night, after our exhausting day of traveling and walking for about 7 hours.

huge clogs, a look down the canal, some stone iguanas

of course I found the Hard Rock, a pretty place near the Rijs, a hippy ad

an interesting alley, a funly painted stand, a clock tower near Anne Frankhuis

green balloons!, interesting stop lights, huge blocks of cheese

interesting stairs, a teepee

The next day, we got up around 9, took advantage of our continental breakfast then headed out again in search of Anne Frank's house (known in Amsterdam as the Anne Frankhuis). We found it, no problems! And since it was pretty early, there wasn't a long line to get in. It's insane to look at the building and just know that this is where two families lived in hiding for years. It's a crazy thought. The house was pretty cool, with some of Anne's pictures still on her bedroom walls and video interviews of some of the people who worked for Otto Frank and knew the family. Also, excerpts from Anne's diary littered the wall, adding a touch that nothing else could. The amount of space in their living quarters, "the annex" were not large. And I don't know how they managed to stay so quiet all day, I don't think I could have done it. But just a fabulous place to go and see, something I highly recommend because it just helps put things in perspective. While there, I got a copy of her diary at the gift shop, so now I can always say I bought her diary where she spent her time writing it. Crazy.

After visiting Anne Frank's house, we walked around a little bit until it was time for lunch then we went to this highly recommended place called "The Pancake Bakery" And now I know why it is highly recommended. Imagine a pizza-sized pancake (with a crepe like thickness) toppped with anything you could think of. Myself, I had bananas and apples and Kayla had the 'Egyptian' with lamb and peppers and cheese and more. It was fantastic! So good, and they're syrup was so rich, it was almost like candy apple coating. A fantastic little place for lunch.

the delicious syrup, my pancakes

my children's ice cream, which apparently means it comes with a sparkler! I felt like it was my birthday

After stuffing our faces we continued our wandering ways and walked around, shopped a little for some souvenirs and ended up back by the Central Station, a huge building where all the trains come through and most of the trams meet up. It's a wonderful walk with all the buildings on the canal and boats and bikes (BUNCHES of bikes) everywhere.

That was our Friday, which we topped off with dinner at Cafe Van Zurlony (or something like that) with a friend of Kayla's who paid (how nice!!!) for our dinner. A pretty inexpensive evening!

After another early start, we woke up Saturday morning and went in another direction for our walk. We ended up way, way far from where we were staying along the Amstel River. Along the way we came upon this little Saturday morning market which went on for blocks! It was really cool because they had fruit, fish, meat, clothers, jackets, sunglasses, souvenirs, basically anything you could think of, they probably had it. It was cool to walk through it and just see all that stuff. After that we tried to find our way back home and hopped on a tram, and ended up coming out by the Heineken Brewery. So Aidan and Kayla and I went in for the 'Heineken Experience.'

Basically we learned how they brewed their beer, and even became a beer (!!!) through the interactive ride thing that they had. We just relaxed and enjoyed looking at all the parts of the factory and the process. They even had a tasting (but I'm still just not a big fan of beer in general, grosssss). It was a good time.

the outside facade, aidan "irish boy" and me, kayla with some ads

the ingredients, huge vats, and me

stirring the concoction, a look by the horse stalls, and the tasting room

the glass bottle ceiling, some posters

After that we headed back to our place and napped. All the walked around is exhausting! Then we decided to eat at this place that Kayla's friend recommended, Cafe de Klos. He asked if we liked meat, and of course my answer was a resounding yes, so he told us about this place and said they had the best ribs. I was a little skeptical because, well, ribs in Europe? I didn't think they would be too good. But we went and tried and out and let me tell you, the BEST ribs I have ever had!

BEST RIBS EVER

I cleaned my plate. They were fantastic! Even dry, without sauce, they were the best tasting ribs I have ever had. I was shocked how good they were! So if you ever go to Amsterdam, you absolutely have to go to this place!!!

That was our highlight eating wise.

Sunday we traveled to find Nieumarket, apparently the place to find Chinese and Thai food. So we headed in the right direction and found it! But it was still too early in the day to eat, and we had heard that the Red Light District wasn't far so we decided to try and find it. Which we did. Not many of the brothels were open which is probably a good thing, but also a surprising thing, but I guess it was 10am. The most surprising thing, though is there was a church right close to the center of the Red Light District and it even had some of the brothels facing it. I thought that was really odd, but... who knows.

the church that was near the sketchiness, a coffee shop, a curtained red-light window

a horse drawn carriage, a brothel

again the church surrounded by brothels, a famous coffee shop, and notice the store right by the church clock tower

a brothel

But then it was time for lunch so we got ourselves some Chinese, Mango Chicken for me, and Chicken Curry for Kayla. And of course it was delicious.

buildings in the Asian district

Kayla's and my yummy dishes

After that we meandered toward Dam Square where Madame Tussaud's is and lots of people dressed up for money (we even saw one as Darth Vader!). We opted out of Madame Tussaud's because it was so expensive to get in, more than any of the real museums we had been to, and instead roamed around some more and looked at some of the shops. We went into this one department store and it was supernice but exorbitantly priced so we just looked. The shopping in Amsterdama is greater than that of Prague, Kayla and I decided, but we didn't indulge too much.

some buildings bordering the square

street entertainers

Madame Tussaud's

That was basically our trip to Amsterdam, though. We were really good tourists and saw all the big stuff and we ate well. All those together equals a happy Cheryl and a great trip!

Here are some more pictures from our wanderings, hope you enjoy! We are going to Plsen this weekend with our program so hopefully I'll have some more good pictures after that. Ciao!