Well, I went to The Netherlands this past weekend, a term which confused me greatly because everyone calls it the Netherlands, but it's in Holland. I may or may not have been under the impression they were two different countries...oops. Anyways I started my journey a little late and stressed myself out the entire tube ride worrying about if I was going to get through security on time so that when I finally did get through security I had to buy myself a chocolate bar to claim my nerves :) The start of the weekend of junk food...I arrived in Amsterdam to meet a very unfriendly Dutch man at the train station counter, who didn't seem to really want to sell me a ticket to Utrecht. After I finally obtained the ticket I went to the platform he named and waited. Since the signs were in Dutch(and whoever says Dutch and German are similar I would like to argue with) I had no idea what train I was getting on since it didn't actually say Utrecht Central, only the ending destination, which was not where I wanted to go. I finally asked someone as I boarded the train and he said yes it was going there, I didn't really stop stressing though until I was actually off the train and hugging Steve, thankful to be with a friendly face. Speaking of friendly faces, you have no idea how good it felt to finally be with someone who knew me from home, that I hadn't just met, and had a real history with. It was wonderful being able to talk about our friends at home and not have to explain who they were to people! The rest of the weekend was just as amazing.
We did a little pub craw the first night and I was introduced to the back of Steve's bike. It's called dinking, and my butt never really got used to it :) I sat on the back of Steve's bike while he balanced and peddled, needless to say he got the workout and I got a lesson in trust. On Friday morning Steve went to class and I walked into the main part of town where the canal flow, there was a small market and a really old church called De Dom. It was beautiful and I toured the inside and then continued to tour the town before Steve called and we met up. He decided to take me to the culture boat. Which is a coffeehouse on a boat. We got cultured and then went on a little bike ride through Utrecht that stopped at a cafe where we got coffee, and then took us back to his apartment where we got Turkish food, so good. We decided to nap, take showers, watch the Badger's game and then get ready for the night.
We also made an epic meal, for which I am proud to say I ate a ton of veggies I never thought I would touch. After the lovely dinner we drank the 50 cent energy drinks we had picked up from the grocery store, and shared a bottle of wine with some of his friends, before heading out to a club called EKKO. And it turned out to be Balkan Beats night(russian techno!) and we danced a lot. It was really fun, but we tried to leave early to get some sleep.And that was because we went to Amsterdam on Saturday! We were up and out the door by 10 and got into Amsterdam around 11:30, just in time to grab some Fritz und Fritzsause, (no idea if i'm spelling that correctly) a Dutch speciality, which is basically fries and mayo.
We explored the city and met up with some of the guys from my London program at the Heineken tour, after which we got some amazing Dutch pancakes, and decided to head towards the Van Gogh museum. Little did we know we'd get down poured on on our trek there. And I mean it poured. We were both soaked to the bone and i literally could decide if I wanted to laugh or cry about it. In the end I laughed and then went into the museum where I was a tad bit uncomfortable the whole time, thus not enjoying it as I wish I would have. Anyways, afterward we explored a little more, I actually got more Fritz und Fritzsausse for dinner and then we went in search of the Red Light district. It blew my mind. I don't know what I was expecting, as I had heard a lot about it, but it still surpassed what I had imagined. The only thing I could think of was, How does one end up in one of these windows? Where in this women's life did something go wrong? Did something go wrong, or do people grow up thinking this could be fun? It was something that put things into perspective for me and I'm glad Steve talked me into seeing it.
We went backed, skyped with some of my favorite people and then I went to bed because I had to get up early Sunday morning.
All in all it was one of the best weekends I've had in Europe, I really really loved Utrecht; it reminded me a bit of Madison and gave me time away from tourists everywhere, I also got to spend some much needed time away with a very good friend from home.
Hey love - Holland and the Netherlands are known as the same thing. The confusing thing is Holland is actually the name of a region WITHIN the Netherlands, but Napoleon complicated things and referred to the whole country as 'Holland'. People here refer to the entire country with both terms. If that helps. :)
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