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!
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.
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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