(no subject)
I haven't updated in awhile, so I might as well talk about what I've been up to lately.
Last weekend my roommate Jamie and I went to Amsterdam. In order to make this trip ok with the Professor for midweek, we needed to do something related to our projects over there. For Jamie's we saw jazz at this bar. For mine, we went to the Van Gogh museum, among others. I was told by people to go over and expect a really good time. Not so much. Granted, it does incite a feeling of being on your own, something that was cool, but the trip was not what I expected. Starting from the top:
We got up really early and made our way to Victoria Coach Station for a 7:30 bus to Amsterdam. The bus was an hour late, so we were waiting in that station for a good 1.5 hours, very bored. I bought a book and started reading it a short time before we left, but the book was pretty bad. At 8:30 the bus arrive, and we loaded on. Not too many people were going, so Jamie and I each got a row to ourselves which was good cause I could stretch out and sleep. I spent a fair amount of the ride out sleeping, which was good since it was a 10 hour trip. We loaded the bus on the train through the Chunnel, so that part was pretty cool. There was one tourist trap restaurant we stopped at on the way over that had the most delicious fried pork with a creamy mushroom sauce on top that I had ever had. The ride there wasn't bad.
We arrive, and wander around a little bit. Jamie had already been to Amsterdam before, so he had a pretty good idea of which direction we needed to be going in, and that required taking a train. Eventually we found the train and after a little bit of difficulty obtaining Euros for the ticket machine, we were headed into the heart of Amsterdam.
Upon arriving in the city proper, our first task was to find an internet cafe, with Jamie's secondary task to be locating a coffee shop. To make things easier, we found a coffee shop that was also an internet cafe. While Jamie did his thing with the weed, I went on to the computer and started emailing our advisor John about where we were and how we got there and when we left, just so he'd have all the info. Once Jamie was done having a bit of a smoke, we moved on to finding a place to stay for the night. It was really late by the time we finally found a hostel to stay at. I supported the concept of going to a real hotel, but Jamie explained that the hostel would be better on the wallets, and I do like to save money.
The hostel was creepy. We were in a room of 16 beds, 8 sets of bunks. We both got the top bunks next to each other, so that was alright, I guess. We each were assigned a locker, so after putting my clothes and stuff in there, we attempted to go out on the town.
There really wasn't much to the town. Jamie hit up another coffee shop, whereas while he did his thing I got a drink at the same coffee shop. It was mostly in Dutch over there, but there was a chance the drinking age was 16.
After awhile it was really creepy. The place we stayed at was right in the Red Light District, and the name actually means something. Red lights come on everywhere, and all the prostitutes come out. They stand at these windows that lead into a room with nothing more than a quick bathroom and a bed. Guys would tap on the windows and the whores would let them in. It was a little disgusting that this was legal around here. We quickly passed out of this area and headed back to the hostel.
I stayed up in bed for about an hour or two, waiting to call my Mom and Lori, since Lori wouldn't be available until really late. Staying up wasn't difficult, since this place seemed pretty creepy. At 3:00am for me, I wandered downstairs and attempted to figure out how to work the pay phone. Turns out it didn't accept my calling card, and that was due to the people at the hostel having it so it doesn't accept calling cards. Anticipating that some people might attempt to use it for this purpose, they had another phone where you had to use your credit card for ridiculous rates. Either way, I promised Lori and my Mom I would call, so I did. Those calls made me feel better about the place and I went to bed.
I started feeling worse within 10 minutes of being back in bed. The guy on the bunk below me got out of bed, and started watching Jamie and the guy on the bed below Jamie sleep. I think I even heard a zipper or maybe the sound of clothes hitting the floor. Not the point. I was sketched out. I never took my eyes off the guy while he was there. He watched for about 20 minutes then went back to bed. I don't think I fell asleep until 5:00am.
In the morning we needed to be up and about by 10 in order to get our deposit back. So, we got up in time to get the deposit, but too late for the free continental breakfast, sadly. After searching online for the location of this jazz place that Jamie wanted to go to, we headed out. We caught breakfast at this coffee shop so Jamie could do his thing. Surprisingly, breakfast there was fantastic. We headed out from there to find a new place to spend the night.
We popped into just about every hostel we could find. Only two had openings. One that charged ridiculous amounts, and the one where we spent the night before. Regretfully, we got a room at the same one as the night prior. In an attempt to get something productive done, we made our way to the Heineken Experience, which was quite a walk. It was an interesting place with a nice tour, and three free beers (I only one and a half. I don't like Heineken). Also, we got a free Heineken half-pint glass.
About this point it started raining. Hardcore. We ducked into as many places as possible so as not to get soaked. A nice meal at Sbarro, and hanging out at an Irish pub. I got a Corona at an Irish pub. Go figure. We eventually took a cab to the bar Jamie needed to go to for jazz. The cab was expensive and dropped us off a good ways away from it. We walked in the rain for a bit and finally found it. We were the first ones there, which was cool cause we got to talk to the bartenders, a young guy and girl. Turns out the guy, while Dutch, used to live in Watertown for awhile. I thought that was pretty cool. We hung out there and drank a bit and watched jazz. At 1:00am, I was just about done with jazz, so we headed back to the hostel. I went to sleep immediatly this time.
The next day we got up early so we could use the showers without waiting in line, and then got the continental breakfast. It was a piece of cheese, an unidentifiable slice of some deli meat, four slices of bread, and a hard boiled egg. This was obviously crap, so we went and got a real breakfast. After which, we rented bikes, and biked around the city a whole lot. This was the day we saw the Van Gogh museum and many other cultural things. We wasted a lot of time like this, and then finally returned the bikes and hopped a train back to the bus station. The wait was awhile, but it was ok to finally go back.
The bus was packed. We were late leaving due to a large group of middle easterns with small, loud children and horrible smells. The bus was packed, so there was no place to stretch to sleep. Jamie passed out for 80% of the ride, but I slept like 30 minutes. I just kept my blanket that I bring everywhere wrapped around me and tried to get comfortable. We took a ferry across the Channel instead of the Chunnel. The ferry was nice and had several floors with more than one restaurant, an arcade, a casino, a bar, a shop, and some other stuff. I bought a new book, a croissant, a coffee, and enjoyed being able to stretch. We loaded back on to the cramped bus and headed back.
The next entertaining thing done was this Tuesday. We went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the ruins at Bath. I have a slideshow of all the images online for people who don't have powerpoint here. It looks crappy and the sound doesn't work right, but then you should get powerpoint. For those with, I'll post the link to the show later.
Last weekend my roommate Jamie and I went to Amsterdam. In order to make this trip ok with the Professor for midweek, we needed to do something related to our projects over there. For Jamie's we saw jazz at this bar. For mine, we went to the Van Gogh museum, among others. I was told by people to go over and expect a really good time. Not so much. Granted, it does incite a feeling of being on your own, something that was cool, but the trip was not what I expected. Starting from the top:
We got up really early and made our way to Victoria Coach Station for a 7:30 bus to Amsterdam. The bus was an hour late, so we were waiting in that station for a good 1.5 hours, very bored. I bought a book and started reading it a short time before we left, but the book was pretty bad. At 8:30 the bus arrive, and we loaded on. Not too many people were going, so Jamie and I each got a row to ourselves which was good cause I could stretch out and sleep. I spent a fair amount of the ride out sleeping, which was good since it was a 10 hour trip. We loaded the bus on the train through the Chunnel, so that part was pretty cool. There was one tourist trap restaurant we stopped at on the way over that had the most delicious fried pork with a creamy mushroom sauce on top that I had ever had. The ride there wasn't bad.
We arrive, and wander around a little bit. Jamie had already been to Amsterdam before, so he had a pretty good idea of which direction we needed to be going in, and that required taking a train. Eventually we found the train and after a little bit of difficulty obtaining Euros for the ticket machine, we were headed into the heart of Amsterdam.
Upon arriving in the city proper, our first task was to find an internet cafe, with Jamie's secondary task to be locating a coffee shop. To make things easier, we found a coffee shop that was also an internet cafe. While Jamie did his thing with the weed, I went on to the computer and started emailing our advisor John about where we were and how we got there and when we left, just so he'd have all the info. Once Jamie was done having a bit of a smoke, we moved on to finding a place to stay for the night. It was really late by the time we finally found a hostel to stay at. I supported the concept of going to a real hotel, but Jamie explained that the hostel would be better on the wallets, and I do like to save money.
The hostel was creepy. We were in a room of 16 beds, 8 sets of bunks. We both got the top bunks next to each other, so that was alright, I guess. We each were assigned a locker, so after putting my clothes and stuff in there, we attempted to go out on the town.
There really wasn't much to the town. Jamie hit up another coffee shop, whereas while he did his thing I got a drink at the same coffee shop. It was mostly in Dutch over there, but there was a chance the drinking age was 16.
After awhile it was really creepy. The place we stayed at was right in the Red Light District, and the name actually means something. Red lights come on everywhere, and all the prostitutes come out. They stand at these windows that lead into a room with nothing more than a quick bathroom and a bed. Guys would tap on the windows and the whores would let them in. It was a little disgusting that this was legal around here. We quickly passed out of this area and headed back to the hostel.
I stayed up in bed for about an hour or two, waiting to call my Mom and Lori, since Lori wouldn't be available until really late. Staying up wasn't difficult, since this place seemed pretty creepy. At 3:00am for me, I wandered downstairs and attempted to figure out how to work the pay phone. Turns out it didn't accept my calling card, and that was due to the people at the hostel having it so it doesn't accept calling cards. Anticipating that some people might attempt to use it for this purpose, they had another phone where you had to use your credit card for ridiculous rates. Either way, I promised Lori and my Mom I would call, so I did. Those calls made me feel better about the place and I went to bed.
I started feeling worse within 10 minutes of being back in bed. The guy on the bunk below me got out of bed, and started watching Jamie and the guy on the bed below Jamie sleep. I think I even heard a zipper or maybe the sound of clothes hitting the floor. Not the point. I was sketched out. I never took my eyes off the guy while he was there. He watched for about 20 minutes then went back to bed. I don't think I fell asleep until 5:00am.
In the morning we needed to be up and about by 10 in order to get our deposit back. So, we got up in time to get the deposit, but too late for the free continental breakfast, sadly. After searching online for the location of this jazz place that Jamie wanted to go to, we headed out. We caught breakfast at this coffee shop so Jamie could do his thing. Surprisingly, breakfast there was fantastic. We headed out from there to find a new place to spend the night.
We popped into just about every hostel we could find. Only two had openings. One that charged ridiculous amounts, and the one where we spent the night before. Regretfully, we got a room at the same one as the night prior. In an attempt to get something productive done, we made our way to the Heineken Experience, which was quite a walk. It was an interesting place with a nice tour, and three free beers (I only one and a half. I don't like Heineken). Also, we got a free Heineken half-pint glass.
About this point it started raining. Hardcore. We ducked into as many places as possible so as not to get soaked. A nice meal at Sbarro, and hanging out at an Irish pub. I got a Corona at an Irish pub. Go figure. We eventually took a cab to the bar Jamie needed to go to for jazz. The cab was expensive and dropped us off a good ways away from it. We walked in the rain for a bit and finally found it. We were the first ones there, which was cool cause we got to talk to the bartenders, a young guy and girl. Turns out the guy, while Dutch, used to live in Watertown for awhile. I thought that was pretty cool. We hung out there and drank a bit and watched jazz. At 1:00am, I was just about done with jazz, so we headed back to the hostel. I went to sleep immediatly this time.
The next day we got up early so we could use the showers without waiting in line, and then got the continental breakfast. It was a piece of cheese, an unidentifiable slice of some deli meat, four slices of bread, and a hard boiled egg. This was obviously crap, so we went and got a real breakfast. After which, we rented bikes, and biked around the city a whole lot. This was the day we saw the Van Gogh museum and many other cultural things. We wasted a lot of time like this, and then finally returned the bikes and hopped a train back to the bus station. The wait was awhile, but it was ok to finally go back.
The bus was packed. We were late leaving due to a large group of middle easterns with small, loud children and horrible smells. The bus was packed, so there was no place to stretch to sleep. Jamie passed out for 80% of the ride, but I slept like 30 minutes. I just kept my blanket that I bring everywhere wrapped around me and tried to get comfortable. We took a ferry across the Channel instead of the Chunnel. The ferry was nice and had several floors with more than one restaurant, an arcade, a casino, a bar, a shop, and some other stuff. I bought a new book, a croissant, a coffee, and enjoyed being able to stretch. We loaded back on to the cramped bus and headed back.
The next entertaining thing done was this Tuesday. We went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the ruins at Bath. I have a slideshow of all the images online for people who don't have powerpoint here. It looks crappy and the sound doesn't work right, but then you should get powerpoint. For those with, I'll post the link to the show later.