A Weekend in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Day 1 - Friday, Sept. 25th 2009
Our first travel weekend - the faculty and staff of Kasteel Well are taking us to the capital city of the Netherlands, Amsterdam! We started our Friday morning early; our lovely and dedicated RA’s making the rounds to beat loudly on everyone’s doors at 6:15 am, lest we forget the buses leave promptly at 8 am (and yes, Doine, we know that you’ll leave without us). Surprisingly, in the midst of drowsy students and the hazy beauty of a European country morning, both of our buses managed to leave on time. I spent the bus ride talking in funny voices with Claire and diligently reading Darwin’s Origin of Species for my honors seminar. We pulled into Amsterdam at about 11 am, and at least 4 of us managed to collide with bicycles and scooters while getting off the bus (rule #1 in Amsterdam: look 8 ways before crossing the street…or bike paths…or tram tracks). In true Kasteel fashion, there was no time to rest. We checked into the hostel (StayOkay Vondelpark - a good choice), dropped off our bags, and started our small-group city walking tour. I had the foresight to choose Dulcia, the head of the Kasteel Well program, as my faculty guide for the walking tour: not only does she love Amsterdam, but she also wrote the test that we had to take on the history of the city and the Netherlands. We strolled along the canals, stopping for pictures and zoning in and out of Dulcia’s eloquent monologues. My favorite part of the tour was the “secret plaza” in the heart of the city, a small square mostly inhabited by university students that can only be accessed through an imposing wooden door and elaborately tiled walkway. Once inside, you can’t even hear the bustle of the city surrounding you; it’s like being in another (very quiet) dimension. We finished up our tour and Erin, Rachel and I decided that Dam Square would be an appropriate locale to scarf down the mediocre bag lunch (except for the paprika chips!) the school provided. At least it was free. The three of us spent the rest of our lunch break wandering the boulevards near Dam Square, posing with wooden clogs in one store, marveling at the hundreds of cigar varieties in another, and of course perusing our first sex shop (yes, I said first). We also managed to fit in an epic graffiti photo shoot in an alley next to a cheese shop off the main street - definitely a highlight of the weekend. Next, we met up with the group again and headed to the Rijksmuseum. It was adequate and worth the visit, but not the best I’ve been to. However, it was very cool to see the original of Rembrandt’s Night Watch. Afterwards, the “castle dwellers” feasted Indonesian-style - it was one of the best meals I’ve had in recent memory. That concluded the first school-sponsored day in Amsterdam, and now it was time to party. After resting a while at the hostel, a large group of us (I’d guess 12?) went out to experience nightlife in Amsterdam. And yes, it’s all they say it is. Being the cheap college students we are, we only went into the free or relatively inexpensive places: the first of which was a pirate bar. I don’t really know how else to describe it: tropical-themed, loud music, crazy lights, and we were the only ones dancing. Womp. So we moved on to a real club (my first) and it just so happened to be a gay club. I’m not gonna lie, it was incredibly fun. Little by little, our group started to disintegrate (aka the pansies went to sleep) but me, Hallie, Kristen, and Andrew kept going. On the way back to the hostel, we hit up New York Pizza (yep, like the one around the corner from campus) and also bought the first of many croquets from the place that sells food out of the wall. We made it back about 4:30 am. And I can assure you I slept like a baby… until we had to get up 4 hours later. Fail.
Day 2 - Saturday, Sept. 26th 2009
Like I said, I only got 4 hours of sleep. And when I woke up, I was still feeling something. Let’s leave it at that. Nevertheless, we had to start our second day of summer camp. My first stop was to tour the Amsterdam Historical Museum, led again by the one and only Dulcia Meijers. I really enjoyed this museum, but it didn’t hold a candle to my next stop: the Van Gogh Museum. This one, by far, hands down, one hundred percent, give me a pie and call me Nancy Drew, was my favorite museum. I’ve always loved Van Gogh, but after spending a couple hours in this shrine to impressionism, I have a renewed love for him (fun fact: he only cut his earlobe off, not the whole ear). Plus I almost died when I saw “Almond Blossom” in person. End day 2 of summer camp. Afterwards, Erin, Kate, Taylor and I relaxed at Museumplein square and took uber-touristy pictures at the I amsterdam sign. We took the rest of our afternoon to rest up for another night of fun. Although this night wasn’t quite as crazy as the previous, it was still a night of firsts. A group of friends (smaller, this time) and I started our night in the red light district. Although the Dutch generally look down upon its legal existence, it’s really a fascinating place when you think about the social implications that surround it. But I wasn’t thinking about that at the time, I was thinking about what the hell happens inside Banana Bar and which sex shop to go into to laugh at the DVD’s (we found a good one, don’t worry). As you can imagine, all this exploration makes a person hungry! Lucky for us, we found a pancake house that not only served phenomenal Dutch pancakes (ours had vanilla icecream, cherries, and cherry liquer - boy did we inhale that), but they also offered 10 Jaeger shots for 10 Euro. It was too good a deal to pass up… so we didn’t. And they were served in test tubes, which always makes things more fun! Aside from peeing in a public urinal, I don’t really remember much after that (but only because I’m finally writing this two weeks later, Mom, promise) but we ended up back at the hostel for a good night’s sleep.
Day 3 - Sunday, Sept. 27th 2009
We got to sleep in a little this morning, and spent a while exploring a new section of the city that we hadn’t gotten to see before, and in the process found a lovely street market filled with amazing artwork. Needless to say, I would be bringing home hundreds of Euro worth of art if I had the money to buy it. We met up with the group at the Anne Frank House, and spent the rest of the morning touring the house and museum - it was a moving experience. I wish I could articulate how, but I’m sure it would be different for everyone, so I’m just going to urge you to visit there if you have a chance. Afterwards, Claire, Erin, Rachel, Eric and I ate a leisurely lunch at the museum’s cafe overlooking the canal. We still had a little bit of time before our train, but Claire and Eric were tired/boring so they went to the train station. Meanwhile, the rest of us attempted to take a canal cruise and failed, but we found this really cool and fun (and colorful) store called Kitsch Kitchen which was a blast, and also a bookstore straight out of a fairytale that was unfortunately closed. Then we enjoyed our sunny, warm walk back to the train station. And of course, no travel weekend would be complete without some humorous transportation mishap… As it was our first time using the Dutch rail system, we didn’t really know what the hell we were doing. It turns out that the train we got on in Amsterdam didn’t go all the way to our destination (which we didn’t realize at the time). However, there was a helpful LCD display inside the train that showed the last stop that the train was going to. Well, while we were stopped at one particular station (with a name no one could pronounce) for an unusually long amount of time, the LCD display changed from what it said previously to “A’dam Centraal.” About the same time that we noticed that, I noticed that the sign on our platform had changed and said that the train we were on was going back to Amsterdam. We all had a collective deer-in-the-headlights moment, and then one of us yelled “GET OFF THE TRAIN!!!” The other people on the train looked bewildered, but we were off that thing in 4 seconds flat. And it’s a good thing, too, because the train left about 30 seconds after we got off. Long story short, we made it back to the Castle in one piece and in time for dinner. And it was the first of many amazing weekends traveling through Europe.
