Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The Padirty Goes to Berlin and Amsterdam


Part 2:

Wednesday we got up at 7am tried for the 9am tour of Berlin but we missed it so we went to the Holocaust memorial. I honestly have no words to describe what that experience was like. After that we got some lunch and I had a potato soup with sausage, so yummy! Finally, 3 of us ended up taking the 1pm Berlin tour. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, all of the Embassies around Paris Square, the hotel where Michael Jackson held the baby over the railing, the Berlin Wall, Royal Street, museum island, Checkpoint Charlie, TV tower, the burned books memorial, communist apartment buildings and we stood on top of Hitler’s main bunker. At Check Point Charlie you could get an authentic  East Berlin stamp in your passport for 10 Euros but our tour guide advised us not to because the US might not like it when we try to return home with a communist stamp in our passport! After a little nap and dinner at Berlin’s oldest pub we went back to our Hostel and watched The Real Madrid vs MU soccer game. Our bar area was packed; apparently it’s the place to be, even for the locals! By the time the game was over it was 12am. At 3am I was up again and headed to the airport for Amsterdam!  Brad, out Valentine’s Day birthday boy decided to stay out at the club until 4am while the rest of us were at the airport with his passport. No worries, he made it on time.
Happy Valentine’s Day! And thank you to Michael for the chocolates at the airport! We had a quick flight into Amsterdam and went straight to our hostel for a nap. Some of the people in our group decided to go to the Heineken experience that night but Kendall and I opted for a longer nap.  Around 7pm when we finally woke up we realized that all 10 out of the 12 people in our group had left the hostel to go out in Amsterdam. After much deliberation he and I decided to wander around Amsterdam in the snow and find something fun to do. We came across a really fun square filled with bars, restaurants and college kids. Luckily, Ajax had a home game that night so we decided to go to a bar, grab a Heineken and hang out with the people of Amsterdam as they cheered on their team. American football fans have nothing on European soccer fans, I don’t care who you are or what you say. Kendall is big in to soccer so he explained all of the rules to me as we went bar hopping around Amsterdam, basically we made our own bar crawl; in total I think we went to about 6 bars in the square. As the night progressed you could tell we were in a hot spot because people from the game started filling the bars to celebrate the win!

*Fun fact for the day: By this time I had already worn the majority of my clothes twice. Yay for living out of a backpack!


Friday we kind of split up a little and some of the boys decided to rent bikes while the rest of us opted for walking. Amsterdam is really big into biking and you almost have a better chance of getting a tram or car to stop for you than you do a biker. The weather was considerably warmer (enough to melt the snow) and the wind wasn't blowing so we had a pleasant day. The rest of us decided to start our day at the Van Gogh exhibit. It was really neat to see some of history’s most famous paintings hanging two feet in front of me. After lunch we then decided to go to Anne Frank’s house which was really something else. You were able to walk through the annex and at the end of the house her diary was on display in a glass case. At 5 I met up with Mary Clare, Stephanie and Kevin at the Heineken Brewery and the four of us did the Heineken experience. Best part of my day right there! It was a tour through the original brewery that gave you some history of the beer and the brand which finished at a bar. Because I wasn’t checking my bag I decided not to get a bottle with my name on the label, but I did get a fancy little bottle opener in the shape of the “smiling e.” That night, after much deliberation, we all decided to go back to the square where I was the night before and go on the “Byerly Bar Crawl” as opposed to going over to the famed red light district. As usual the square was very alive and we had a great time!

Saturday (Almost done!) Stephanie, Mary Clare, Ben and I wandered over toward the Royal Palace for a tour. It is a beautiful building that is still actively used today which is kind of cool. Diagonal to the palace is a shopping center called the “World of Brands” Emily R: you would just DIE in this place, it is every major designer all under one roof! The 4 of us lazily walked around Amsterdam for the rest of the afternoon and admired all of the canals, architecture and general hustle and bustle of the city. We settled down for some tea and a warm cookie before retiring for a nap. For our last night in Amsterdam we went everywhere. At one bar there was an open mic and 4 of our boys wanted to go out and play so a bunch of CIMBA students went out to watch them, then we found another bar that was having karaoke night and we all decided to get in on that too. Kevin and I did a lovely duet to Don’t Stop Believing. I was pretty bad.  At 1:30 10 of us headed across the street to the Ice Bar which was -10 Celsius.  You were only allowed to be in there for 45 minutes at a time and we didn't even make it 30 minutes. Some boys hardly made it 10 minutes it was so cold, even with the thermal ponchos and gloves. Never again. 

Sunday (Day 10) was our last day in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was easily my favorite city, to me it was a mix of Venice and Prague and I simply loved it. I also knew my way around pretty well so that is another contributing factor. Despite its reputation for the “Ladies in the Window” and the legalization of weed I can proudly say I did not partake in either activity in any way shape or form. Never have, never will (sigh of relief for Mom and Dad). Thank goodness we were leaving though, I was missing Paderno. We literally spent all day walking around looking for places to sit. We were so tired from traveling and our feet hurt so bad that all we wanted to do was go from café to café just to sit down and enjoy the day. Our flight home didn't leave until 7 so we had a very long and lazy day in Amsterdam. Finally at 4 we headed off to the airport where we met up with more CIMBA students taking the same flight into Venice. On our way to the airport we passed by the old Amsterdam Olympic Park which was really cool to see, I wish I had more time there to see it all. I will most defiantly be going back in the summer! When we landed in Treviso it was 9pm and at 10pm the CIMBA bus arrived, by 11pm we were in PDG and by 12am I was sound asleep.

Over all Travel Week 1 was a success! No one got taken, lost anything, had anything stolen, got seriously hurt, missed a flight, etc. As exhausted as I am, I am already looking forward to my trip to Rome this weekend! Hopefully I can see what’s going on in the Vatican with the Pope…

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