So I guess I'll just start with Day 1! Becca, Brock, Dan, Matt, and I all met super early at the train station to catch the train to Düsseldorf. We nearly missed the train though because we were using our German rail passes and didn't know if we had to validate them before getting on the train. Luckily made the train with no problems though, and we had an uneventful two hour journey. We got off the train, stored all our luggage in a locker at the train station (tetris masters!) and walked out to the city. Now, Düsseldorf was just kind of a whim. Since we have our German rail passes, we get five days within a one month period, and on the day you use it, you can ride the train as many times as you want, so we figured why not see Düsseldorf before our night in Köln?
I had my giant Eyewitness Germany book and we just kind of used that to get around and find some churches and stuff. There is a postcard of Düsseldorf in my kitchen with these crazy buildings on it--very modern architecture, and these buildings were what I wanted to see! Well, we never found them... but we had a nice walk along the Rhein and noticed that Germans seem to be nicer and friendlier in Düsseldorf than in Heidelberg. As it was a Friday during Lent, I am not supposed to eat meat and every Friday I realllly try to accomplish the no-meat thing, but as we walked out of the Catholic Church, I realized that I had scarfed down a GIANT meat sandwich for breakfast because I had to eat everything in my kitchen or else it would have gone bad. So...oops. Needless to say, I let myself have a delicious döner sandwich for dinner since I had already broken the rule.
After a few hours we got a little bored in Düsseldorf so we stopped at the grocery store for some necessities (chocolate and alcohol, what else?) Hopped on the train to Köln (we had to wait a bit for the next train, but the Deutsche Bahn workers came around and gave us free chocolate!!) We got to Köln and stored our luggage again in the train station, then went and climbed the bell tower of the Kölner Dom--SO HIGH! The Kölner Dom is one of the major landmarks of Germany I would say, it is just massive, and the inside is simply gorgeous. Here's a picture of the cathedral.
from atop the bell tower
interior of the cathedral
After our adventures in the cathedral, we successfully managed to find our hostel. We were in an 8-person room, but the room was split into two rooms of four, so we moved Becca's mattress into our room and she slept on the floor in our room. A veryyy small room for five people! For our night in Köln, natürlich we had some Kölsch at the bar in our hostel, then got some döner, and then met up with Brocks friend Lorenz who studies in Köln and went to his apartment along with our Brazilian hostel roommate Yuri who is studying in Torino. Afterwards we went to a dance club where Becca and I finally got to dance to some of our American "booty-bouncing" music! That was my third time to a German club and I'm still getting used to it. When we go clubbing at home, everyone dresses up in clubbing clothes, but in Germany, I literally have to dress down and wear my bright sneakers with a v-neck tshirt or something. Mollie bought me a sparkly dress for Christmas that we said would be used for Euro-clubbing, but I'm never going to be able to wear it!!
Okay, Day 2! Got up early, checked out, got to the train station super early so we grabbed some breakfast and ate and chilled on the steps of the cathedral. Then boarded the ICE International train to Amsterdam! The ride was a little over two hours, and we arrived in Amsterdam on a GORGEOUS Saturday! It was the best weather we had the whole time, nearly 70 degrees and perfectly sunny. Amsterdam is just such a beautiful city. Germany has a lot of beauty too, but so much of it was rebuilt after WWII that it is lacking in a lot of that old European beauty, and that was something that I really appreciated in Amsterdam. The city is built on the water so it's all connected by canals (a lot like Venice) and every street looks exactly the same! We got lost A LOT.
We bought a 72 hour transportation ticket--luckily EVERYONE in Amsterdam speaks English. Dutch is just the weirdest language. It's basically a mix of German and English, but it sounds like some kind of alien language. I know that's kind of disrespectful to say...but it's so true. Checked into our hostel. We had a 10-bed room there, and we were all able to get on the same side of the room. It wasn't as bad as I had expected but definitely nothing special. We did have wifi and free breakfast though which was nice. Being in a big group of five definitely made the situation better. And the location was pretty good as well.
Walked around for the rest of the day just enjoying the beautiful day, and kept passing all of these Argentinian Steakhouses, which I guess is a big thing in Amsterdam, so we ate at one and had a delicious dinner. Amsterdam is VERY expensive, but we had so much good food. Back to the hostel and we were all sooo tired, but it was a Saturday night so we knew we had to go out to the Red Light District. When else would be be 20 and 21 years old in Amsterdam on a Saturday night?!
The picture is kind of hard to see, but it's one of the main streets of the Red Light District. We walked down the street and saw all the prostitutes in the windows, and all the men on their bachelor parties--we got the sense that Amsterdam is kind of the Las Vegas for Europeans. We stopped in a bar and got our first Heinekens on tap. OH MY GOD. The most delicious beer I have ever had! I've never had Heineken in the States, but I've heard it's not that great. Well, when you get it fresh in Amsterdam, it is sooo good. I'm not even a huge beer drinker, and it was just so refreshing!
Day 3! Got up early to get breakfast then made our way over to the Anne Frank House. Had to wait about 35 minutes which wasn't too bad. The tour was pretty interesting, I learned a lot that I had no idea about. After that, Becca and I took a tour of the palace which was BEAUTIFUL! (The boys didn't come with us for that one lol) Here are some pics! (And once again, all my pictures are on Facebook, and there's a lot more of them)
The Netherlands still has a monarchy, obviously only symbolic today, but that was something I didn't know! After the palace tour we were all pretty hungry and we experienced one of those negative aspects of traveling in a large group. No one really wanted to make a decision so we walked around for like an hour just trying to figure out where to eat and we were all getting really grumpy, but finally we just settled on an outdoor cafe in Leiseplein, a big square down the street from our hostel. Of course we had more Heinekens and I had literally the best burger of my life. It was delicious. I don't really know what foods the Dutch are famous for, but they can make a great burger! We were very European and sat there for a good two hours (also because we were so exhausted from walking around so much) One food the Dutch are known for is Stroopwaffels! Two waffle cookies sealed together by a sticky honey-sugary substance. DELICIOUS. We went through a solid two packs during our stay.
Back to the hostel for some R&R before heading out for the night. The others all went to the torture museum but I didn't want to spend 7,50 euro for something I didn't really want to see, so while I waited for them, I had a lovely walk around the canals as the sun was setting. Also, because Amsterdam is built on the water, many of the buildings are crooked because they are sinking. You can see an example in the picture below.
Day 4! For our morning activity, we went on a canal cruise! It was a nice day for it, very sunny, but just a bit chilly. Our guide switched between Dutch, English, and German, so it was fun to try and figure out the German...after being out of Germany for more than a week, my German died a bit. After the canal cruise, we wanted to go to the Van Gough museum, but it was like 15 euro to get in, and I don't even like Van Gough that much so we didn't go. Instead we bought some snacks and went to Vondel Park and had a nice afternoon relaxing in the park!
After the park we did some final souvenir shopping and got the obligatory picture in the shoe:
Then we were hungry! I've got this "Let's Go Europe!" travel book which has all the big European cities, targeted for students, and it recommended this Bagel place which we found, and once again, it was DELICIOUS. I had a bagel sandwich with goat cheese and pine nuts and bacon, yummmm. Walked around a bit more that evening, but Becca and I had to get up at 4am to get to the airport so we were all in bed by midnight. Amsterdam is a very cool city, but I definitely could never live there. It's SO big! I found myself missing little quaint Heidelberg and its manageable size. The trams are very popular, but unlike in Germany, you have to buzz your card every time you get on and off, and you have to use the proper in/out doors which got annoying. Also, we really just wanted a bakery! Germany's got tons and tons of bakeries where you can just go in and grab some kind of bread/chocolate/cheese/sausage concoction, and we could not find any in Amsterdam. And of course there's the weed aspect of the city. Coffee and smart shops are as ubiquitous as Starbucks and McDonalds in America, and you're allowed to smoke inside the shops and such, but you're not allowed to smoke cigarettes anywhere inside in Amsterdam. And they don't allow public/street drinking. So it was just kind of funny because it's like the opposite of Germany!
But all in all, it was a great visit to a wonderful city! And the five of us managed not to kill each other after over four straight days together. Becca and I made it to the airport with no problems, and as I was boarding my flight to Istanbul, I got to witness a beautiful sunrise.
So I'm off all day tomorrow, so I'll do my Istanbul post tomorrow!
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