The Netherlands

Hello from Vienna!

Life is good over here. This week is going to be really hectic, because we are leaving for Fall Break on Thursday. This past weekend though, we had a nice trip to the Netherlands, more specifically, Holland.

Thursday after class, we caught a train to Amsterdam. We changed trains in Munich, though. Munich's Train Station is awesome. We had Subway for dinner and then just hung out for a while. There ended up being an English Bookstore in the Station, which was awesome, because I got Brisngr (the 3rd Eragon Book), which I had been wanting. It is a beast of a book, though. After dinner we caught our night train to Amsterdam. We had these funny little seats called "Sleeperettes". They are like little Space Ship seats that lean back. On the train we ran into a kid who was with the Freed-Hardeman group. It was nice to talk to someone from home!

We woke up on Friday in Amsterdam. After stowing our luggage in the train lockers, we headed out to explore the city. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city, despite its seedy reputation. There are so many little canals and bridges in the streets that it reminded me of Venice. The trees on the streets were all changing colors too, and that reminded me of home.

Funny Antidote of the Trip: While we were taking pictures of the canals, we realized that someone was waving at us from across the street. Curious, we looked a little closer at the individual. It then suddenly dawned on Amy and I that this person was a woman...a "woman of the night". She was waving to us to come over her. We then realized that we were, in fact, in the infamous Red Light District of Amsterdam. We promptly turned around and walked back the way we came…away from harm.

After leaving the RLD, we headed to find some breakfast. We settled on this cute little place by the train station. There is where the most enjoyable part of our experience in Holland began: The Food. There we had the most amazing Pancakes covered in Whipped Cream and Strawberries. Oh my, it was amazing.

After stuffing ourselves with Pancakes, we headed to Dam Square to see what we could find. There was this sort of carnival going on in the square with lots of little rides and what not, however, we thought it was too cold to wait in line for them. We kept walking until we got to Anne Frank’s house. It was just a simple little typical house tucked in a street overlooking a canal. The museum was attached to it on the other side, and a massive line of people winded around the block. We decided, again, to not wait in the line, but instead go back to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. Amy and Kayce didn’t want to pay to get it, but Val and I did. So Val and I set off on an adventure.

When you go into the museum, you go up on this elevator and start a tour-like thing with some other people. At the beginning we got a brief history of Holland and Amsterdam. There was a life like set of a river and a boat and people in the town, all made of wax. After the history, we headed to the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit. Now, Val and I should have realized that the signs up that said “Not suitable for children under 12” included us. The exhibit was like a haunted house of Pirates…complete with a hanging man and a barracks of a ship. In the barracks a man kept jumping out of the cages and scaring us. I screamed the entire time; it was awful.

After that, we headed upstairs to the rest of the museum. We saw Political Figures, Musicians, Scientists, Athletes and Movie Stars. Here are some of the highlights:

Elvis
Bob Marley
David Bowie
JFK
Winston Churchill
Anne Frank
Gandhi
Dali Lama
Nelson Mandela
Van Gogh
Bono
Spice Girls
Michael Jackson
Brad and Angelina
Justin Timberlake
Julia Roberts
Daniel Craig
Marilyn
Pierce Broslin
Beyonce
Spiderman

It was really cool to see, because the figures really did look life-like. It was kind of weird.

After the museum we walked around to the city gates and saw the old entrance to Amsterdam. We looked in a couple of shops and street markets there too. After grabbing some awesome lunch of tomato soup and apple pie, we headed to the train station to catch our train to Tilburg, where we were staying.

We stayed with Val’s aunt’s sister, Jassy (pronounced “Jazzy”). She was a character indeed. She had lived on St. Martin for most of her life, until 8 years ago when she moved to Holland. She had 3 children, but there were constantly people in and out. She was really awesome to stay with. She was an awesome cook and very hospitable. After getting situated there, she cooked us the most amazing dinner of rice, beef and potatoes, broccoli, chicken and pasta. It was amazing. After not having home-cooked food for almost a month and half, we were all craving a good meal. Well, we got it. It was fantastic. After stuffing ourselves, we are curled up upstairs, watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (which is awesome…go watch it), and fell asleep.
After sleeping in and getting ready for the day, we caught the bus to the train station to check on our train for the next day. After making sure we were ok, we headed back to the house, where we just hung around for a bit and then went to the grocery with Jassy. We had some awesome fries in the market with this great sauce. They are like this typical Dutch food…that worked great for me. We came back from the store and made tomato soup and grilled cheese. The rest of the night we just hung around and caught up on life.

Sunday we woke up at 3 and headed to the train station to catch our train from Tilburg to Amsterdam. Once we got to Amsterdam, we had like a two-hour wait until our train home left. We got some hot chocolate and waited for the next one. We got off at the stop that the ticket said to get off at. However, when it came time to get on the next train, we realized our ticket said to get on at Frankfurt Main…which was an hour and a half away. After talking to a nice man, we realized we could catch a train home but we would get there almost two hours later now. We really didn’t have a choice, so we hoped on. We had to change trains again, but eventually made it home around 10. So that was 19 hours of travel…it was great guys.

As is typical here, the day after we return from an adventure, we begin fervently planning the next one. Thursday afternoon beings our Fall Break. Amy, Val, Allison, and I are going together. We have a very ambitious, but highly awesome trip planned. I hope we can pull it off. If everything works out here is what will happen:

Thursday: Train/Night in Venice
Friday: Venice/Night Train to Cinque Terre
Saturday: Cinque Terre/Fly to Barcelona
Sunday: Barcelona
Monday: Barcelona
Tuesday: Barcelona/Night Train to Paris
Wednesday: Paris
Thursday: Paris (Maybe Daytrip to Versailles)
Friday: Day trip to Brussels, Belgium
Saturday: Paris/Night Train to Vienna

So there you go. I will have my computer on the trip, so hopefully I will get to update everyone as the trip/plans progress.

I hope everyone is well at home. I miss you all a lot. It is getting colder here, which reminds me of fall at home. Vienna is nice, but I miss Nashville in the fall. Anyways, time to go to homework. Movie Night tonight: The Illusionist. Appropriate, considering it was set in Vienna.

Love from Vienna, Holland, and soon to be most of Europe.