Amsterdam

Alright, well I promised it, so here it is.

Martina and I left for Amsterdam at about 3am on November 1st, which means we got to enjoy the sight of all the Halloween drunks meandering home on our way to the airport. The flight there and all that was pretty uneventful. We made it to our hostel and checked in, with the one big surprise of the day being that the hostel had a resident kitty! And you all know how I love kitties! So then we ended up just wandering around, as we always do. The area our hostel was in was pretty active for night life, but that meant it was absolutely dead before 10am. One thing that was open though was an H&M, where we ended up as our previous pants buying expedition had been unsuccessful and the jeans I was wearing were literally disintegrating. But with the goal of new pants finally accomplished and since it was raining (a fact that would end up to be true of just about the entire duration of the trip), we ended up hanging out in a restaurant drinking way overpriced cocoa and coffee and eating poffertjes, which are little Dutch pancakes. I, of course, tried all the available sauces and syrups, as I only really like food as a vessel for condiments.

That night we did our obligatory run at the Hard Rock Cafe. I can't say it was my favorite Hard Rock, but I did appreciate that we were directly overlooking a canal, which was very pretty. Plus they gave us both free sundaes, even though we only had a coupon for one! And these were like legitimate sized sundaes, not those little healthy person sundae shooters. Normally these cost like 7 euros each. So I have to give them props for that :)

The next day we decided to get up and do the free walking tour. This is another thing that we try and do in whatever cities we go to, if it's offered. As usual we were extremely satisfied with the tour and learned a ton (all of which I'm sure Martina remembers, but I am currently blanking on). And thankfully, the rain held off for the whole three hours of the tour! Can't exactly say it was warm, but at least my camera was safe.

After the walking tour we walked all the way back by our hostel to go to Wagamama because I wanted ramen. We ate at one of the Wagamama restaurants in London and were highly impressed. I can't say the same of this one, but at least our waiter was super awesome! And well, I think that's all we did that day. I mean, I did preface this whole thing with the fact that we were super lazy the whole time.

In fact the only other notable thing about that night was that when we returned to our hostel there was a nearly unresponsive girl in the waiting room that the staff was trying to get rid of despite the recommendations of a Red Cross volunteer that was there trying to help her. Apparently the girl had eaten way too much space cake and was having a bad reaction. Oh, and she threw up in her room. Did I mention she was one of our roommates? So that was nice. But as annoyed as I was by all this, I was more upset by the absolutely rude staff member who was trying to force this girl who couldn't even stand to go down a very steep flight of stairs and wander the streets. I mean, yes, it sucks that she screwed up and that she's staying in your hostel. But you work in a hostel in AMSTERDAM! This is going to happen. And besides, it's not like you're running a four star hotel here. I had talked to at least one other set of guests who had been forced to give up their beds and sleep on mattresses on the floor because the hostel overbooked. And that rude staff member? He proceeded to yell at Martina and I and then CHASE US UP THE STAIRS the next day because we rang the door bell to get in twice when there was clearly a (misspelled) sign that said to only ring once. Honestly, Martina and I are the least problematic tenants you could have. And we only rang twice because after the first ring the door made a sound like someone had tried to open it but not pushed the button down long enough. So no, the hostel did not get a good review from me.

Anywho, on Saturday we once again did basically nothing. I honestly think we just walked around the city. I remember nothing of note. That's not to say we didn't have a great time. I just think we had a great time doing basically nothing.I can't say the same of Saturday night though. We had a couple of the rudest people ever in our room. They were already asleep when we came to bed at 10pm, so we were very respectful and quiet. But at 1am they decided to get up and turn on the lights so they could get ready to go out. Two guys. Two very stupid, very stoned guys. And it took them well over an hour to get ready. They were extremely loud the whole time and didn't seem to understand that everyone else in the room was sleeping and wanted the light off. One of our roommates spoke a little Italian, so she even tried telling them in their own language. They agreed and turned the light off for all of 30 seconds. I honestly have no idea how anyone can be so stupid and disrespectful. They're extremely lucky that I did not throw their shoes out on the ledge outside the window the next morning, even though I really really wanted to.

Then came Sunday, the day we were supposed to leave. Since we had all day to kill before our 9pm flight, we decided to walk the whole way to the train station. It was a long ways, but we like to walk and we were in no rush anyway. On our walk we hit up the best fry stand in town for some delicious fries with garlic sauce that are literally making my mouth water as I think about them. We also made a run by a cafe for the best apple pie in town. It was delicious, but I can't say it was the best I've ever had. Honestly, the crust, the part that I find hardest to make, was awesome. But the filling just wasn't great.

So yeah, by that time we were both soaked because it was raining so hard. And the makeshift raincoat I had made for my camera out of a plastic H&M bag was losing its efficacy. Luckily we weren't too far from the train station and even though it was still five hours until our flight took off, we decided to just head to the airport. When we got there we found that our flight was delayed by an hour, which was annoying, but not ultimately all that bad. We took over a section of the lobby and spread our stuff out everywhere to dry.

After a few hours of twiddling our thumbs, offending the rich old people with our barefooted-ness, and trying to dry my falling apart shoes in the bathroom with my hair dryer, we decided to go back out to the main terminal and try to get some cheaper food since there really wasn't anything in our terminal that we could afford to eat. There was no clear exit, so we went out through the baggage area, where I ended getting yelled at in both Dutch and English to "Please leave this area immediately!". It was both off-putting and hilarious. We found a supermarket in the airport where as I stalked around hungrily Martina managed to make friends with the employee behind the deli counter who was having a bad day and asked her to "Tell me something funny that happened to you today."

Once our bellies were satisfied we went back through security to our gate, only to find that our plane had been delayed another hour. At this point I was getting nervous as I had to work at 7am the next morning. And it turns out I was rightfully nervous. At nearly 11pm, as they were shutting down everything in our terminal, a poor stewardess got caught in the hallway and finally spilled the beans that our flight had been cancelled. That resulted in a mad dash to the EasyJet counter, where we were given a brochure outlining our rights and told we would be put up in a hotel overnight. So then there was a second mad dash to get outside, where it turned out that there were only two eight person shuttles that could take people to the hotel. It ended up taking well over an hour for us to get to the hotel because we weren't gonna risk being pushed in front of an oncoming car by all the crazy people who just couldn't be civil about waiting for the shuttles. But hey, the hotel was really nice! And it was the first legitimate hotel Martina and I had stayed in in ages! Free little soaps and everything!

So the next morning we got up early to get back to the airport for our rescheduled flight at 9am, only to find it had once again been delayed for two hours. By the time we finally got to the airport, I was starting to get sick, I hadn't slept well, I was wearing still wet, dirty clothes, and I was starving. I went to the EasyJet counter to ask for the food vouchers promised in the brochure they'd given us and was met with one of the rudest airline employees I've ever encountered. Unfortunately, because I was so wiped, it ended up in my crying and charging food to my credit card (though EasyJet did later refund that money for me when I filed a complaint).

Well anyway, eventually we did get on a plane and get home. I missed taking the kids to school, but my host family was really cool and understanding. Unfortunately, I got home at 2:00pm and had to head out to pick up the kids at 2:45pm, so I didn't exactly get any down time. But I was just glad to be home and to have some clean, dry clothes.

So yeah, that was Amsterdam. My last trip for awhile with my best friend and the greatest travel companion I've ever had. But I'm already looking forward to our next adventure, whenever that maybe be :)

Sorry that the post is a little business-y sounding, but I'm getting really tired and just needed to get it out or I would never get around to it.

Ok, now I'm gonna go pass out. Whatever this disease is, it's still kicking my butt.