Many have heard of the atrocious ordeal we have gone through with EF College Break, but I am not going to touch upon how much and why they suck. At least not in going through the trip. I'll save it all for one big moanfest at the end.
Dec 29th/20th. Day One and Two.
We had gotten our flight changed, so we were thankfully able to leave Cedar Rapids in time to actually make our connection in Chicago. That being said, we had way too much time to kill, and UNO only goes for so long...
The plane was even smaller than we imagined. I swear our international flight was being spent in a gum wrapper with wings. Movies were watched, plane food was eaten, but I knew I needed to sleep. Luckily we had the two seats on the side of the plane to ourselves, but I could not get comfortable. It was NINE MILLION degrees. So I only got in about an hour. It was a LONG 9 hours. But the sunrise was beautiful.
Once we landed, we met our "tour guide" Omar, and proceded to wait another three hours at the airport waiting for everyone else to arrive. After quite the hotel diabacle, we finally got our rooms, and Tim's roommate had ditched out, so we at least didnt have to suffer other roommates. Just smaller than twin beds.
Everyone else seemed to decide to sleep for the rest of the day, but with it technically being Day 2 of the trip, we wanted to get out there and see Amsterdam! It took us probably a good 20 minutes to figure out how to buy Metro tickets since all of the guides were in Dutch. (The entire country speaks flawless english, but their transportation, solid Dutch, go figure). But we finally popped out in the middle of Amsterdam and headed towards the first big steeple we saw.
On our way to said steeple though, we take a shortcut down an alley, other people were traveling down it, it was still daylight (as daylight as it gets in Amsterdam) and we figured no harm. Halfway down, I realize that we are heading into the Red Light District due to the 3/4 naked girls behind the glass, not 6 inches from me. What struck me most, is that they would open the door to beckon people in. Moreso, its like 20 degrees. I have on layer upon layers, and these girls barely have on pasties and a thong and they are out in the winter air! Where are their mothers?! Prostitute all you like, but PUT ON A DAMN COAT!
Five minutes in to Amsterdam and we are already among the heathens. Awesome. We made our trek down the street, and finally made it to our first church, which happened to be on my list of sites to see! OudeKirk. The Old Church. It was ridiculous. It was freezing cold, half under construction, and still beautiful. A majority of it was in wood. Wood back from when it was built. I am used to catherals of stone, and it was just amazing. So amazing in fact, that I had to get my picture taken with the High Man himself.
More walking took us past St. Nicholas's Church, never heard of it before we walked in, but it was also gorgeous.
Everything seems to be wooden here. Plus it was warm, a GIANT plus. I had gloves, scarf, hat, hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and coat, but I was still DYING of frigidness. I am pretty sure people barely know what I look like even after nine days because I was so bundled up all the time, AND I had a rudolph nose.
I think we crossed the red light district about nine times that first day, or at least it felt like it, but that might be due to the COPIOUS amounts of weed/hash/pot "coffee shops" that are EVERYWHERE. And yes, I mean EVERYWHERE. They have a museum, which we didn't go to, as well as a Cannabis Conissuer's Club. Yup. They love the Mary Jane there. You smell it, EVERYWHERE.
We came across Dam Square, where they were laboriously preparing for the New Year's Eve Celebration, and right next door was the NieueKirk. One of the top churches on our list. We headed in, and paid WAY too much money to see it. It turns out that there was an art exhibit going on inside at the time, and it pretty much covered up everything cool about it. A canvas painted solid black, NOT ARTISTIC. So that was disappointing. But still, at least we got to see it?
By this point, being up for 30+ hours was getting to us, as was the arctic weather, so we headed back to the hotel for an hour nap before going out for the night with the group. I feel this is a good point to proclaim the truth about bicycles in Amsterdam. They seem to be the ONLY means of transportation for 80% of the population. It's arctic out, and still everyone is riding their bikes everywhere. Crazy Dutch!
After our nap, we joined up with everyone and headed downtown to a bar to have "Welcome Drinks" and get to know everyone. Well, it was a bust, it was loud, we couldn't really talk to eachother, there wasn't really group seating, or enough seating at all. But we connected up with the cool kids of the trip, namely, the people that didn't have to get trashed EVERY night of their lives. Everyone pretty much took off within the first 30 seconds after they got their one free drink, so we took off with our new little European family and went to dinner at an Argentinian restuarant (something Rancho). Over the next few days, Im pretty sure I saw at least 10 of the same restaurant, but it was good. Argentinian goulash, VERY spicy.
After dinner, we decided to walk to the Red Light District, with Tim at the helm of our directions. Of course though, Tim and I had to introduce everyone to our new favorite Dutch treat, the Oliebollen (more to come on the glorious Oliebollen).
But we finally made it to the Red Light District, saw our fair share of debauchery for the evening, decided that popsicle wasn't a sexy look for us, and headed in, concluding our first 48 hours in the European City of Sin.
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