Endlich, an update!
Woooow, quite a bit's happened between my last update and now. First things first: Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is... something else, to put it simply. The whole city is built around a rather carefully planned canals-- and then as for the rest of it, it's as if all the effort in organization went into the canals, so they just kind of dumped a mishmash of roads and buildings everywhere. And many of the roads--not so much the major ones-- are places where cars, trams, bicycles, and pedestrians just kind of mingle. It's a little frustrating to get around, since a fair number of the roads curve along with the canals, so it's never quite a straight shot anywhere. And bikes, bikes everywhere. I think the statistic was 750,000 people living in Amsterdam, with 600,000 bikes. Sometimes there wasn't room to walk on the sidewalk because of all the bikes chained up.
We didn't have much time in Amsterdam, since we arrived Tuesday night and left Thursday afternoon. Wednesday we went to the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house, and spent a good deal of time wandering around the city trying to figure out where the museum was. That was an interesting day, because apparently October-November is the worst time to visit Amsterdam due to the unpredictable weather. Over the course of the day it was sun, rain, sun, rain, sun, hail, torrential downpour, sun, sleet, sun, drizzle, nighttime mist. Extremely weird. The morning before leaving the city, I went with the other girl on the trip to one of the largest open-air markets in the city, the Albert Cuypmarkt. It took up an entire street on the outskirts.
I had Friday to relax and take care of a few house-keeping things, and then Saturday was a day trip to Hamburg, where all the students in our program went (all 6 of us :P ). It was interesting-- Hamburg, as the program coordinator told us, is always more extreme than Bremen. Both are old, Hanseatic harbor cities, and also rivals in pretty much anything. Hamburg is much larger, with a grander and more ornate town hall, a bigger harbor, and is the second largest city in Germany. Bremen's town hall is smaller, but far older, has a smaller harbor, and is (I think) the tenth largest. Hamburg says it's the gate of the world, referencing how many ships from different places in the world stopped in Hamburg, and so its crest is the gate. Bremen, rather smaller, says that Hamburg may be the gate of the world, but Bremen holds the key-- and its crest is the key. Personally, I like Bremen better than Hamburg, but I am also unfairly biased. :P
Monday, classes finally started. I have 5 classes, but will only receive credit for 4, so I need to choose which one I drop. I think I'll write more about my classes when I get a better feel for them.
And this weekend I'm going to visit lady_tigerlily in Vienna! Soooo excited! :D
PS: I feel like since I'm traveling so much I should be required to do the jumpy dance in this video.
PPS: Scooter's coming to Bremen. Think I should go to his concert~?
Amsterdam is... something else, to put it simply. The whole city is built around a rather carefully planned canals-- and then as for the rest of it, it's as if all the effort in organization went into the canals, so they just kind of dumped a mishmash of roads and buildings everywhere. And many of the roads--not so much the major ones-- are places where cars, trams, bicycles, and pedestrians just kind of mingle. It's a little frustrating to get around, since a fair number of the roads curve along with the canals, so it's never quite a straight shot anywhere. And bikes, bikes everywhere. I think the statistic was 750,000 people living in Amsterdam, with 600,000 bikes. Sometimes there wasn't room to walk on the sidewalk because of all the bikes chained up.
We didn't have much time in Amsterdam, since we arrived Tuesday night and left Thursday afternoon. Wednesday we went to the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house, and spent a good deal of time wandering around the city trying to figure out where the museum was. That was an interesting day, because apparently October-November is the worst time to visit Amsterdam due to the unpredictable weather. Over the course of the day it was sun, rain, sun, rain, sun, hail, torrential downpour, sun, sleet, sun, drizzle, nighttime mist. Extremely weird. The morning before leaving the city, I went with the other girl on the trip to one of the largest open-air markets in the city, the Albert Cuypmarkt. It took up an entire street on the outskirts.
I had Friday to relax and take care of a few house-keeping things, and then Saturday was a day trip to Hamburg, where all the students in our program went (all 6 of us :P ). It was interesting-- Hamburg, as the program coordinator told us, is always more extreme than Bremen. Both are old, Hanseatic harbor cities, and also rivals in pretty much anything. Hamburg is much larger, with a grander and more ornate town hall, a bigger harbor, and is the second largest city in Germany. Bremen's town hall is smaller, but far older, has a smaller harbor, and is (I think) the tenth largest. Hamburg says it's the gate of the world, referencing how many ships from different places in the world stopped in Hamburg, and so its crest is the gate. Bremen, rather smaller, says that Hamburg may be the gate of the world, but Bremen holds the key-- and its crest is the key. Personally, I like Bremen better than Hamburg, but I am also unfairly biased. :P
Monday, classes finally started. I have 5 classes, but will only receive credit for 4, so I need to choose which one I drop. I think I'll write more about my classes when I get a better feel for them.
And this weekend I'm going to visit lady_tigerlily in Vienna! Soooo excited! :D
PS: I feel like since I'm traveling so much I should be required to do the jumpy dance in this video.
Click to viewPPS: Scooter's coming to Bremen. Think I should go to his concert~?