Soooo, I'm in Amsterdam. Woohoo! The trip was a total 16 hours by train, and boy did we get lucky. Out of all of the train cars, the people who were in our car, were people from our program at IES! There were some Austrians that got on later, but by that time, we had decided to upgrade to a sleeper car, thanks to our new friend Alex who easily persuaded the conductor, with the help of some money, to let us have one of the free sleeper cars. If not for him, I would have been very cranky by the time we got to Amsterdam, but instead, I was well rested and ready to seize the day. The first night there, we just walked around on an epic journey to help my buy my bus ticket to Brussels. When you don't use public transportation in Amsterdam, or the typical bike that everyone uses, it takes a while to get anywhere in the city, so it took quite a while, but on the way we were able to see a lot of the city, so it was fine. That night, we went out to a nearby bar, and were the only ones in the place, but it was nice b/c the bartender was cool and the only other customer bought us drinks, so all was well! The place where I stayed the first night, was at a friend of a friend's place, so I had to sleep on the floor (with no carpet or anything) but I figure it was character building and didn't mind, although it was a bit cold.
The next day, we did more sightseeing stuff and then spent time with some of the people in the IES Amsterdam program at night. Monday, I left for Brussels at 9 in the morning, but had to be there at 8:30 to check in and was all the way on the other side of town, so I had to get up at 7, but once again...character building haha. I got there right on time, maybe a few minutes to spare and started my journey on the 3.5-4 hour bus ride. Once there, I met up with my friend Thomas, who showed me all around Brussels and then bought me lunch which was fries and this meat called Boulet which was really good and seemed different from any other meat I've eaten. Fries are a big thing up here. They put ketchup, mayonnaise, and onions on the fries and eat them with little forks. People do it all over and the shops are open at all hours of the night. Crazy haha. Then, we drove to the coast and played on the beach a little. We spent very little time in the water, and didn't even go in all the way b/c it was so cold and the waves were huge, but it was fun anyways! Our next stop was a little town on the way to his place in Liege where we stopped to have dinner with one of his closest friends from school and her family. Right when we got there, they had 2 pitchers of wine waiting and let us order whatever we wanted. It was a pizza joint and I ordered a pizza with champignons (mushrooms), jabon (ham), artichoke, and anchovies (almost all the pizzas had anchovies, so I decided to try it). The pizza was delicious! Then they ordered 3 servings of tiramisu to share and the waitor came around again and they ordered another round of drinks, so I tried this yellowish-green drink that was quite good, although I have no idea what it was. After that, his friend and her parents grilled me about American political issues for about 20 minutes and the party continued at his friends place where we listened to good music and drank beer.
We finally got to his hometown of Liege around 2 in the morning and he drove me around a bit, but by that time we were so tired that we just went back to his place and slept till 11 the next day. He had a meeting at 12, so I took my time taking a shower and eating and then met him at his music college, after getting a little lost (story of my life here ha). The college was very quaint, and I thought it was in better condition than the one in Brussels, which he showed me the day before by lying and saying he was a student there haha...We had just enough time to walk around a bit and buy some chocolate before I had to catch my train back to Brussels in order to catch my bus back to Amsterdam. Phew. Lots of traveling.
Arrived back in Amsterdam around 9:30 and then had to make my way back to Funen Park by metra and bus by myself which isn't an easy task when you don't know how the public transportation works, but that is why I asked someone for help. My best advice to anyone traveling, is to ask for help when you need it because people here have always been willing to help, and I've needed to ask for help alot so far! Since I didn't want to sleep on the floor anymore lest my back die of bone-breakage, I took up the offer of staying with my friend Juliette who actually wasn't going to be in Amsterdam that night, so I had the room to myself. She gave me the keys a few days before and gave me instructions on how to find her room once I was at her place, little did I know, it was about an hour and a half walk from the place I was staying originally. So, I had about an hour to repack some stuff into a backpack so that I didn't have to haul everything over there, and went out with the girls for a little bit since it was on the way there anyways. We got a tad lost getting to Juliette's apartment, but once there, I was so relieved to have a bed to myself and a little peace and quiet since the trip so far had been kind of a whirlwind. I'm not very good about being around people alll the time. A little peace and quiet always eases my mind.
To Be Continued....so much typing!
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