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08-18-10

Day 9, 10 and 11 : Amsterdam

Day 9 Amsterdam

It was a 3 hour train ride to Amsterdam from Paris. I was a bit overexcited and my OCD really acts up on travel days. I really can’t calm down until I’m where I need to be and know I will not miss my departure. Yes, I’m one of those annoying people who likes to get the airport way too early then end up sitting around for an hour or so in the terminal. Call me weird but I like that time before getting on a flight, it’s peaceful for me. But it annoys Andrew a bit, “We could have had coffee and breakfast at so-n-so place for the time we’ve spent here!” But he also knows That if we did stop beforehand I would be wiggling, looking impatiently at my watch and sighing alot. It’s usually best that we get there early anyhow cause it sometimes takes longer than we would have planned to pick up our tickets and such, especially when it’s in a foreign language. 

This was my first long train ride, I was excited for the new experience and it gave me time to process Paris.  

I’d been looking forward to it as I truly love their music, movies, art, culture in general, but Paris got me a little down in the dumps. Not that the city itself wasn’t wonderful and the people were generally friendly. Let me put it this way, anyone who thinks that people who come to America should automatically speak English, go to Paris. Try to get around knowing barely any French and you’ll change your mind. You’ll see how tough it feels just trying to do the simplest things. Many Europeans are fluent in more than one language. I let Andrew do most of the talking in Paris cause I could barely even pronounce the words right. France is very proud of their language, it’s polite to just try to speak it. They will generally give up trying to understand your broken French and speak to you in English. I was so very thankful for that each time and would tip bigger because of it.    

We arrive in Amsterdam and had the same problem with the pay phones as we did in Paris, so we had to make another expensive cellphone call to our next AirBnB host, who promised to pick us up from the ferry. The room was very home-y, cozy and our host was so super nice. Then we went off to get bikes.

 
Amsterdam is more tourist friendly and their people are more willing to speak English. The woman renting us bikes was throwing around English, Dutch, German and I think even French. So jealous.

Thanks to my realization I had motion-sickness, most likely from the mix of the train and ferry, we took the day easy. You will see in all the Amsterdam photos that I’m wearing lil black sweat bands, my motion-sickness prevention bracelets, since we have to take the ferry at least twice a day or more. We did make it out to the Red Light District for drinks, its like the Mardi Gras Parade, but every night. We did find a decent bar and talked to some New Yorkers. The bartender took a liking to me as he caught me gulping down my beer to hand him the empty glass. I’m pretty sure he was raised by pirates, but I gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek none-the-less. 

Day 10 started out with a wonderful collection of yogurt and fruit thanks to Andrew’s trip to the market, then were were off on a bike adventure. The plan was to go to the Stedelijk modern art museum but it is still under renovation. We enjoyed the area anyhow as there were many food stands with traditional Dutch favorites. Andrew was a little too excited about the herring sandwiches. Jenni held her nose and enjoyed her ice cream.

Vondelpark is a wonderland of bikes, hotdogs, beer and funny smells. It was an unusually warm day and we were a bit travelworn so we decided this was the perfect opportunity to hang out in a park all day.

Day 11 started in the east side of Amsterdam for breakfast then to the Jewish Historical Museum where they had an exhibit by Charlotte Salomon and the history of the Portuguese Jews migrating to Amsterdam. 
   
 

Then there was a bit of shopping

And then we decided to try to find an electronic music event in a Westerpark that we had randomly read about in a Dutch magazine, but gave up and just enjoyed the park instead. We started getting hungry and came across a section of the park where an industrial area had been remade into a square and restaurant, Westergasterras and a dance club with the electronic event we were looking for next door! It was clear from the look on the waiters face that this was a place mostly frequented by locals, but they were very nice and helpful with the Dutch-only menu.

The dance club was getting more kickin’ when we arrived after eating, it was really great music, non-douchy atmosphere and we had a blast. There was this super happy guy dancing and really seemed to like us, especially once he found out we were from Texas. He knew the promoter throwing the party and introduced us to him. When finding out what we were doing in Amsterdam, he commented “Americans seem to treat Europe like it’s one big country.” I didn’t know what to say to that so I shrugged, then he promptly asked how we found out about the event. I told him we found it in a Dutch magazine and he said, “Really? In a magazine? I wasn’t told it was going to be published in a magazine!” and stormed off. I felt a little odd after that, but we continued to dance until out feet couldn’t take it anymore and biked home in the rain.