October 17th-21st
Like many study abroad programs, the semester is broke up in to two parts. The sections are separated by a week long break after midterms. Many students use this time to do more of an extended trip somewhere. For my fall break I booked "Best of the West" with Euroadventures, this was the first trip that I booked with them. The cities on the trip consisted of Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and Barcelona. Since it is so many cities, I am going to break the post in two parts.
Berlin - I had previously been to Berlin the March prior and since that was a trip for school, I had mandatory tours I had to go on to see the city. This gave me time to see a lot of the popular landmarks including Check Point Charlie, the Stasi Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Jewish Memorial, the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate.
After that we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night. We went with the rest of the group to a German Restaurant, once again I am blanking on the name. It was pretty interesting food. Personally I am not a fan of German cuisine, but the beer was great! It was really cool spending the dinner talking to other people on our trip and getting to know them because we were going to be with them for 10 days. After dinner we started a pub crawl. The pub crawl was around 15€ and lasted for around 5 or 6 hours depending how long you stayed at the last place, with a hour long power hour and then welcome shots at all of the bars we went to. I like going on pub crawls because it gives me the opportunity to see bars that I normally wouldn't go to. The bars varied from really chill to more like a club feel to them. The last spot on the pub crawl was the club Matrix. It was huge. It is about seven rooms long with all different types of genres of music in each room. The drinks were pretty expensive but it was so worth the experience. Each room had a different atmosphere in it so there was something for everyone. The amount of people at the club was insane. My friend Alex and I met some pretty interesting people. We even met a guy that said he was famous. We had no idea because German pop culture obviously isn't something we know very well but we asked some other people and they confirmed. He kinda looked like a loser but it was still cool. We also met these two girls from Russia, they were super nice. Alex is a crazy partier and I could barely keep up. We lost everyone in our group and we didn't find our way home until like 5 am. It was an interesting night to say the least.
Amsterdam - Amsterdam is another city on my list of my favorite places in the world. The whole city's atmosphere is so relaxed and laid back. The canals and the bicyclists everywhere are so tranquil for some reason. We got into Amsterdam in the early afternoon and we instantly wanted to go check out the city. Our hostel wasn't very centrally located but still easily accessible by metro tram. We didn't know that though so we decided to walk to the city center,which is about 2 miles. We ate at the Hard Rock and then we were interested in indulging in the "coffeeshops." Remember that if you are looking to smoke weed when you are in Amsterdam make sure you go to a place with coffeeshop in the title because that is the only place that sells what you are looking for. The first coffee shop that we went to while we were there was called The Bulldog Coffeeshop. We didn't really know what to do and the people that worked there were extremely helpful in helping us choose strains and such. They even rolled the joints for us. :) we spent the rest of the night in the Coffeeshop just hanging out and we ended up getting lost on our way back to the hostel. We eventually found it though and we were excited to crash.
The next morning we got up and went to figure out the metro passes so we didn't have to walk again. The first stop on our places to see list was the Anne Frank Huis. This is the actual place where the Frank family stayed when they were in hiding. I was extremely excited to see the museum. We were told to go early because there is aways a line and we clearly didn't go early enough because when we finally found it, the line to enter wrapped all the way around the building. We were really bummed and decided we would check back later. Next we decided we would stop at the carnival they had in the city to check it out. We walked around for about an hour and decided to get back on the metro to go to the hippie market in the area. Waterlooplein Flea Market is a popular tourist attraction in the area. People travel from all over Europe to sell stuff at the market. It is filled with nostalgic and eclectic items from every era. We spent about three hours there rummaging through all of the stuff. Just being there was an experience. I bought an old John Lennon album for my sister and a few other random things. My roommates bought what it seemed to be like 100 records. It was crazy and looked so heavy. After that we went to a shopping area that had a Rembrandt exhibit in it. While my art student roommate toured the exhibit, my other roommate and I went and had coffee and then explored the shops in the area. After that we went back to the Anne Frank Huis to check out the line. It wasn't to bad so we decided to wait. Going in to the house was so cool. Just knowing that it was the actual place they stayed was so interesting. I couldn't believe how small it was. It was such an eye opening experience. I have read so much about Anne Frank and her family so it was interesting to see the house.
When we were done there we headed back to the hostel to drop off all of the stuff we got and got ready for the night. The first stop was a little bar near the carnival in the city. We had a few drinks and just sat outside and people watched. After a few hours we decided to venture off and check out the Red Light District. The Red Light District is a famous spot in Amsterdam. It's something that I think is pretty inhumane but still a sight to see. Streetwalkers literally stood in plexiglass windows and waited to grab someone's attention. Sex shops, peep shows and hookers covered the streets. It's a little weird but still interesting. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at a coffeeshop named Smokey's and hung out for a bit. We missed the tram for the night so after Smokey's we had to wait for over an hour for the night bus. It was nice to sit and people watch. There are a lot of interesting people outside a coffeeshop in Amsterdam late at night.
Go figure. We finally made it home and went to sleep,
we were off to Brussels, Belgium in the morning!
Berlin - I had previously been to Berlin the March prior and since that was a trip for school, I had mandatory tours I had to go on to see the city. This gave me time to see a lot of the popular landmarks including Check Point Charlie, the Stasi Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Jewish Memorial, the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate.
Since I had just seen all of the big landmarks in Berlin, I spent my second time there doing leisurely activities. The first thing my friends and I did when we got settled was shopping. We were really excited to go to Forever 21 and Starbucks since those beauties aren't in Italy at all. After what it felt like 4 hours in Forever 21 and other stores we found this little Chinese restaurant where we spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know some new friends and just talking.
After that we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night. We went with the rest of the group to a German Restaurant, once again I am blanking on the name. It was pretty interesting food. Personally I am not a fan of German cuisine, but the beer was great! It was really cool spending the dinner talking to other people on our trip and getting to know them because we were going to be with them for 10 days. After dinner we started a pub crawl. The pub crawl was around 15€ and lasted for around 5 or 6 hours depending how long you stayed at the last place, with a hour long power hour and then welcome shots at all of the bars we went to. I like going on pub crawls because it gives me the opportunity to see bars that I normally wouldn't go to. The bars varied from really chill to more like a club feel to them. The last spot on the pub crawl was the club Matrix. It was huge. It is about seven rooms long with all different types of genres of music in each room. The drinks were pretty expensive but it was so worth the experience. Each room had a different atmosphere in it so there was something for everyone. The amount of people at the club was insane. My friend Alex and I met some pretty interesting people. We even met a guy that said he was famous. We had no idea because German pop culture obviously isn't something we know very well but we asked some other people and they confirmed. He kinda looked like a loser but it was still cool. We also met these two girls from Russia, they were super nice. Alex is a crazy partier and I could barely keep up. We lost everyone in our group and we didn't find our way home until like 5 am. It was an interesting night to say the least.
The next day we woke up early and spent the day at the Berlin Zoo. It is known throughout the world so we knew it was important to check it out. After about 4 hours, we left the zoo and did some more shopping and had lunch. Talk about a relaxing day in Berlin. A relaxing day lead to a relaxing night of coffee in the lobby of the hostel and conversation. Even though I was living such a busy fast-paced lifestyle while I was abroad, the nights that I didn't do much were still ones that I cherish because everyone needs a break from partying sometimes. We woke up and checked out from the hostel early the next day and got on the bus to our next destination.
Amsterdam - Amsterdam is another city on my list of my favorite places in the world. The whole city's atmosphere is so relaxed and laid back. The canals and the bicyclists everywhere are so tranquil for some reason. We got into Amsterdam in the early afternoon and we instantly wanted to go check out the city. Our hostel wasn't very centrally located but still easily accessible by metro tram. We didn't know that though so we decided to walk to the city center,which is about 2 miles. We ate at the Hard Rock and then we were interested in indulging in the "coffeeshops." Remember that if you are looking to smoke weed when you are in Amsterdam make sure you go to a place with coffeeshop in the title because that is the only place that sells what you are looking for. The first coffee shop that we went to while we were there was called The Bulldog Coffeeshop. We didn't really know what to do and the people that worked there were extremely helpful in helping us choose strains and such. They even rolled the joints for us. :) we spent the rest of the night in the Coffeeshop just hanging out and we ended up getting lost on our way back to the hostel. We eventually found it though and we were excited to crash.
The next morning we got up and went to figure out the metro passes so we didn't have to walk again. The first stop on our places to see list was the Anne Frank Huis. This is the actual place where the Frank family stayed when they were in hiding. I was extremely excited to see the museum. We were told to go early because there is aways a line and we clearly didn't go early enough because when we finally found it, the line to enter wrapped all the way around the building. We were really bummed and decided we would check back later. Next we decided we would stop at the carnival they had in the city to check it out. We walked around for about an hour and decided to get back on the metro to go to the hippie market in the area. Waterlooplein Flea Market is a popular tourist attraction in the area. People travel from all over Europe to sell stuff at the market. It is filled with nostalgic and eclectic items from every era. We spent about three hours there rummaging through all of the stuff. Just being there was an experience. I bought an old John Lennon album for my sister and a few other random things. My roommates bought what it seemed to be like 100 records. It was crazy and looked so heavy. After that we went to a shopping area that had a Rembrandt exhibit in it. While my art student roommate toured the exhibit, my other roommate and I went and had coffee and then explored the shops in the area. After that we went back to the Anne Frank Huis to check out the line. It wasn't to bad so we decided to wait. Going in to the house was so cool. Just knowing that it was the actual place they stayed was so interesting. I couldn't believe how small it was. It was such an eye opening experience. I have read so much about Anne Frank and her family so it was interesting to see the house. When we were done there we headed back to the hostel to drop off all of the stuff we got and got ready for the night. The first stop was a little bar near the carnival in the city. We had a few drinks and just sat outside and people watched. After a few hours we decided to venture off and check out the Red Light District. The Red Light District is a famous spot in Amsterdam. It's something that I think is pretty inhumane but still a sight to see. Streetwalkers literally stood in plexiglass windows and waited to grab someone's attention. Sex shops, peep shows and hookers covered the streets. It's a little weird but still interesting. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at a coffeeshop named Smokey's and hung out for a bit. We missed the tram for the night so after Smokey's we had to wait for over an hour for the night bus. It was nice to sit and people watch. There are a lot of interesting people outside a coffeeshop in Amsterdam late at night. Go figure. We finally made it home and went to sleep,
we were off to Brussels, Belgium in the morning!
