A Run Around Holland

Tags

amsterdam, cheese, CIEE, coffeeshop, den haag, food, herring, holland, i am amsterdam, nederlands, red light district, study abroad, the hague, travel, van gogh

This past weekend was my weekend in Amsterdam and it seems like as soon as we all got back to Brussels we were heading back to the Nederlands for an excursion with my program! Both trips were very fun and after this weekend I can’t wait to explore Holland even more in the future, it’s absolutely beautiful!

Amsterdam

We left for Amsterdam early Saturday morning and got in around 1:30pm. We hopped on the metro when we got to the bus stop and made our way to downtown Amsterdam. We  made moves to find our hostel which was in the perfect location, right in the center of the canal ring. The hostel was the first indication of what Amsterdam was about to be like. The lobby was blasting heavy metal, all the furniture and walls were covered in graffiti, and people were posted up casually smoking weed. Luckily all this craziness was confined to the lobby, though, and our room was perfectly normal and clean.

We walked around and grabbed some lunch before we met up with the other girls that had taken an earlier bus. We all immediately fell in love with the canals and the architecture in the city. Amsterdam is very confusing, it’s so beautiful but then at the same time there are all the coffeeshops (weed stores) and then the red light district that somewhat takes away from the beauty. But it is what it is! And it still is pretty darn beautiful.

After we walked around for a bit we met up with the rest of our group and went to the Electric Ladyland Museum, the world’s ‘only fluorescent art museum’. It was basically some old hippie couple that turned their basement neon. It would probably have been a lot more interesting after visiting a coffeeshop… But to me it was just some basement with neon everywhere. It was weird.

After the strange neon basement we were on our way back to the hostel to formulate a plan for the rest of the day and we came across the best place ever: The Cheese Museum. We didn’t actually go to the museum, just wandered into the lobby where there were free samples galore. Maybe they just didn’t notice all of us eating massive amounts of cheese, or maybe they were ok with it. I don’t know. Either way we ate lots of samples, lots of really really good samples. The truffle cheese was probably my favorite. Or the pesto cheese. Or the bacon goat cheese… We were all in heaven basically.

After that we finally made it back to our hostel and just hung out for a bit, we all had minor cheese induced food comas, we needed a little rest. Eventually we made our way back out and walked around the city a bit and checked out the royal palace and some other cool buildings and churches. We also got to see the canals at dusk which was probably my favorite part. Talk about beautiful.

When you’re in Amsterdam you of course have to check out the red light district. We hit this up on the way back to our hostel after walking around. It’s a very fascinating and slightly disturbing place. It’s weird to walk down the street and have half naked girls flaunting themselves in the window right next to you. It’s very interesting how… public it all is. Obviously prostitution is something that happens everywhere, in every city, legal or not but it’s so weird to see it so very blatantly legal. Its presence makes the city pretty seedy but it seems to be working? We didn’t check out any bars that night as we had a longgg list of things to do the next day but we did hang out at a hookah bar for a bit which was fun and low key.

The next morning we were up and out of the room by 8:30 which is extremely impressive, let me tell you. We got breakfast at the hostel (toast and a hard boiled egg, yummm) and made our way to the Van Gogh museum. The normal museum was going through some renovations so we had to go to a different museum that’s hosting part of the collection for the time being. It was 15 euro to get in but it was definitely worth it. We got to see some really famous paintings as well as some pieces I hadn’t ever seen so it was a great visit. My only complaint is that I wish I could have seen more!

After that my friends went to the Heineken tour. I decided to sit that one out because it was 18 euro. It turns out the place isn’t even the operating brewery, just a museum of sorts. It was hard for me to justify paying that much after having visited the Coors brewery countless times for free. While my friends were at Heineken I went and sat in the museum square in front of the “I am Amsterdam” sign and people watched. Luckily there was a free wifi hotspot out there so the few hours passed by pretty fast. When my friends were done we met up at the sign and obviously had to snap a few pictures. We are tourists after all!

Next we visited the Anne Frank house. It was too crazy to be in her room and the house she stayed in for two entire years. It was unreal. The pictures she put up on the wall in her room were still there. The pencil marks keeping track the family used to track how much she grew were still there. And the space they stayed in was so small. And so dark.

We decided we couldn’t head immediately out after the Anne Frank house so we decided to head back to the hostel to take a break before grabbing some dinner. On the way we stumbled upon a store that sells all American products. I grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper even though I paid the equivalent of $3. It was definitely worth it. After our rest we grabbed dinner and went to an Irish pub to celebrate St. Patty’s day. After getting so used to delicious Belgian beer, the Heineken I got was so underwhelming. It was a fun night but we were pretty tired after our busy day and so Justine and I decided to head home fairly early. When we got back I managed to set off the fire alarm after steaming up the shower too much. I had no idea how to use it and had it on the highest setting. Oops!

Half of us got up bright and early again to head back to Brussels. I originally had a later bus ticket but unfortunately I had a project that I needed to get back to work on. The bus ride back was beautiful though. It was clear and sunny and the countryside was absolutely stunning. This is what made me want to tour Holland even more. And someday I will! Here is the link to the rest of my Amsterdam photos and my spark notes for the city.

The Hague

Just as soon as I was back in Brussels it seemed like I was back to the Nederlands again with my program. We took a day trip to The Hague on Wednesday and started the day at 5am. Yep 5am wake up call to be at school to catch the bus at 6:30. We started the excursion at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. We were able to watch part of the hearing that was going on that day. It was part of a defense hearing for Radovan Karadžić who was charged with genocide among other things. It was definitely a cool experience, but we weren’t given much background information on what was going on in the trial so it was hard to keep up with what was going on.

The group in front of the ICTY

After that we went to a Dutch art museum, the Museon, and saw a lot of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings. It’s so cool to be able to see all this famous art in person and get up so close you can see the brush strokes. It’s amazing. The museum was very cool, I wish we could have had more time to poke around. We saw a couple Monet’s and apparently there were some Picasso’s but we couldn’t find them. Very good museum, I would definitely recommend it!

Then we piled back into the bus and visited Delft, another little town nearby. We ran into some traffic and unfortunately weren’t able to visit the churches in the town but we did get a nice tour of Dutch cuisine thanks to our program director who is originally from the Nederlands. First he took us to a herring stand and bought us all sorts of snacks. I tried a bite of the raw herring and it definitely will be the only bite I ever try. Everyone was saying it tasted just like sushi… No. It was super slimy and tasted way too fishy. The next thing we tried was cooked though and breaded with the most amazing seasonings, I could have eaten tons more of that!

After that most of the people went off and did their own thing but Justine, Ally, and I decided to keep hanging out with our program director, Michelangelo. And good thing we did! The next place he took us was the most magnificent cheese shop ever! Holland is turning into my new favorite place ever, cheese everywhere. Michelangelo got us all sorts of samples including farmer’s cheese that was aged for 3 months, some that was aged for 8 months, and last but not least… Truffle cheese!!! I was in heaven. Justine, Ally, and I decided to split some brie as well. It was awesome. To kill the rest of the time we stopped into a bar and got some cider. The lat thing on the agenda for the trip was a traditional Indonesian dinner. After all the herring and cheese sampling we all thought we wouldn’t be able to eat anymore. Wrong. Yet again another delicious filling meal with CIEE. Overall a long, tiring, and great day!

It was a great few days spent in the Nederlands and I definitely want to return! Preferably someday when it’s warmer and sunnier 🙂 luckily I leave for Barcelona in less than a week! I’ll be able to soak up all the sun I want while I’m there. The weather is saying consistent 60’s. Yes pleaseeee. I’m too excited! Be ready for an influx of blog posts when I’m back.

-Emily