The Land of the Orange
Once again, apologies for delay in positing but in between my last post and this one, there were these term papers due - yeah, those. But those are a thing of the past, and I’m here to describe to you what was my free weekend. The school gives us a weekend where no trips are planned for us, and we can galavant where we so choose. Being so close, a group of us dedicated the remains of our European budget and chose Amsterdam to spend our weekend. Not only that, we made it a road trip using the National Express, that took us on a 8 hour drive through the EuroTunnel into France and Belgium until finally arriving in Holland.
Ok so putting things into context, the day we arrived was in fact madness. Queens Day. Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets, squares and canals to enjoy the national celebration. I most likely heard at the minimum of 10 languages being spoken during my stay because the festival attracts people form all over the world. In contrast, the world can also be small enough to find someone from Nutley, New Jersey while asking for directions. Wild. As you guys can see by my pictures, it was virtually impossible to walk the streets sometimes, but when we finally sat back and relaxed, we enjoyed the beautiful weather, live music and detailed architecture that made Amsterdam one of my favorites cities by far.
After enjoying the festivities Friday night, Saturday was dedicated to fully taking the city in. That is in fact, all we did. We didn’t have to do much work though, as soon as we hit the canals, it came to us in the most subtle of ways. For one, it was clean; after almost swimming in a sea of empty beer cans the night before, the city was spotless. Secondly, it was just purely and simply tranquil. Cities like London, Edinburgh and Paris are great but can be overwhelming at times. As you walked through the Dutch capital, the most you heard was the small talk going on around you and the birds chirping from tree to tree. We’re also used to getting bombarded with advertisement everywhere we go, this weekend it was almost non-existent. Dutch tulips filled the scenery and made it peaceful enough to side beside a canal and take it all in. We finally made our way down to the Van Gogh Museum and even to Anne Frank’s house. I’ve always been fascinated with her story, so to finally walk in there, go through the movable bookcase, and the stairs to the secret annex was truly an unique experience. After that, we stumbled upon the Heineken Brewery. Anything and everything Heineken was there, and let’s just say Aram bought enough gear to actually be a Heineken man for Halloween. (His exact plan)
In the end, the trip ended up being a great success. It definitely took me by surprise and I will surely make it it so that I come back again. People may go in with the common misconception about the drug and Red Light District aspect, but it is truly that: a misconception. I urge anyone to visit the Netherlands, if not for the enormous windmills and the flat green pastures, for the beautiful city of Amsterdam and its incredible sights.
Now for my last 2 weeks here - that is right, 14 days remain. One last week of classes then finals loom on the horizon. Not the most exciting stuff but we will all be trying to make these last days count. Until then, back to the library.
