The Rome weekend and back to Amsterdam!
Hopefully this comes in a cut, since it's kinda long...
So I used this as a way to keep people up to date with my European adventure. That lasted all of a week. So I'll do some catch up, possibly in pieces. When I last left off, I was about to head off to Rome for the weekend. Turned out to be a lot of fun, and a ton of money. My flight plus 2 nights in a hotel was 500 dollars. Coulda saved about 150 in the deal with a lesser hotel, but I wanted to be near "Padre John", my long lost college roommate who is now becoming a priest. Anyway, I got to Rome around 9 on that Friday, and got raped for 55 euros to get from the airport to the hotel. Everything was more expensive because it was the weekend of the new Pope's first public mass. I get to the hotel, and just missed the last free bus to the center of the city, so I went to the room to relax. I learned that I needed to keep my room key in the slot in the wall for the lights to stay on. Then, I decided I wanted to go explore, since I was only in Rome for about 40 hours. So I spent another 30 euros on a taxi to get "somewhere". By now it was 1130, so I wandered the city for a few hours, then made it back to the hotel.
Oh yeah, my cell phone didn't get coverage in Rome, so that made catching up with John a lot harder. Anyway, I finally got in touch with him around 10AM on Saturday. We met up and went into the city. Apparently, although he's been there almost a year, he's never wandered around the city before. We walked the city for about 9 hours, seeing most of the major sites. Rome is pretty awesome to see in person. We went through the Vatican, St Peters Square (which was packed), found the Forums, the Pantheon, some big fountains, and the Colosseum. There were a bunch of other monuments that were pretty impressive too. Finally, we ended the day back at St Peters, and wandered through the Basilica. It was amazing. I have pics to prove it. Anyway, got back to the hotel around 8 or so, and pretty much passed out. That was my Rome weekend. In the end, it cost me nearly 1000 dollars, but of course I want to go back soon.
I made it back to Amsterdam, and since then everything is just a blur. Some of the highlights... We went out for one of the guys birthdays. Had a good time, but I've learned that you've never really played Jenga til you've played with Europeans who take it very seriously (outside at a bar no less). The Kerri made it here last Tuesday, and stayed for a week. I saved some of the museums for her to see. We ran into the Torture Museum, which had torture devices from years past. Pretty cool museum. We checked out the Sex Museum, which may be the best value in the city. 2 euros to see it, and it's pretty funny. Just lots of pictures and exhibits and stuff going way back, kinda interesting to see. I had to show her around the Red Light District. I think she was impressed.
Last weekend was Queens Day here, a huge street party that started Friday and ends Saturday night. Almost half a million people dressed in orange roam around the city. On Friday, I got out of work early and we wandered around a bit, nothing special. Friday night we went out for dinner, and there's a stage setup in front of our hotel (level with the 2nd floor). Had to be about 5000 people jammed into this little area. Definitely a sight to see. It was also fun to see the guy juggled a ball set on fire around his body. Good times for all the kids.
Saturday was pretty cool too. We slept in, then went off to the main square in the city. I have pictures of all the people in orange. Anyway, we ended up in the Voldelpark, a huge park, probably along the lines of Boston Common. They had a bunch of people doing yard sales in the park, plus others doing shows. The best was a little kid, probably 2 years old, drawing portraits. He'd just draw circles for the heads, and then make a generic face, but it was hilarious. Unfortunately, he wanted ice cream and stopped... Somehow in the crowd we ran into 2 people I work with, so we followed them around. I bought a couple things of stamps, from all of the Olympic games dating back to the 60s. Anyway, after the park we went back to their place for a while, and met "Mr. Bunny". Then we had dinner at this place outside the city, with the most amazing food ever! Huge steaks that had a ton of flavor. I may have to go back before I leave here Saturday.
Sunday we were planning to head to Keukenhof, this huge flower garden (Kerri wanted to go, I figured why not). After lunch, I got a call from a guy I work with, so he picked us up and took us there, saving a ton of money in train fares. It was pretty cool, we took pics, and left after about an hour. He paid for me and Kerri to get in, which saved me another 30 euros. Then we went to Volendam, a little town northwest of Amsterdam, right on the Atlantic. We took pictures dressed in native Dutch clothing, looks kinda fun. Then we wandered to some of the shops, it was pretty nice to get away from the city.
Monday Kerri and I went to the Anne Frank house. It was pretty impressive, after having read all about it in school. It's amazing how small everything was. I'm glad we got a chance to check it out. And that takes us to today pretty much, since Tuesday was a team dinner and yesterday I was sick. Anywho, this is plenty of info to keep some of you happy.
So I used this as a way to keep people up to date with my European adventure. That lasted all of a week. So I'll do some catch up, possibly in pieces. When I last left off, I was about to head off to Rome for the weekend. Turned out to be a lot of fun, and a ton of money. My flight plus 2 nights in a hotel was 500 dollars. Coulda saved about 150 in the deal with a lesser hotel, but I wanted to be near "Padre John", my long lost college roommate who is now becoming a priest. Anyway, I got to Rome around 9 on that Friday, and got raped for 55 euros to get from the airport to the hotel. Everything was more expensive because it was the weekend of the new Pope's first public mass. I get to the hotel, and just missed the last free bus to the center of the city, so I went to the room to relax. I learned that I needed to keep my room key in the slot in the wall for the lights to stay on. Then, I decided I wanted to go explore, since I was only in Rome for about 40 hours. So I spent another 30 euros on a taxi to get "somewhere". By now it was 1130, so I wandered the city for a few hours, then made it back to the hotel.
Oh yeah, my cell phone didn't get coverage in Rome, so that made catching up with John a lot harder. Anyway, I finally got in touch with him around 10AM on Saturday. We met up and went into the city. Apparently, although he's been there almost a year, he's never wandered around the city before. We walked the city for about 9 hours, seeing most of the major sites. Rome is pretty awesome to see in person. We went through the Vatican, St Peters Square (which was packed), found the Forums, the Pantheon, some big fountains, and the Colosseum. There were a bunch of other monuments that were pretty impressive too. Finally, we ended the day back at St Peters, and wandered through the Basilica. It was amazing. I have pics to prove it. Anyway, got back to the hotel around 8 or so, and pretty much passed out. That was my Rome weekend. In the end, it cost me nearly 1000 dollars, but of course I want to go back soon.
I made it back to Amsterdam, and since then everything is just a blur. Some of the highlights... We went out for one of the guys birthdays. Had a good time, but I've learned that you've never really played Jenga til you've played with Europeans who take it very seriously (outside at a bar no less). The Kerri made it here last Tuesday, and stayed for a week. I saved some of the museums for her to see. We ran into the Torture Museum, which had torture devices from years past. Pretty cool museum. We checked out the Sex Museum, which may be the best value in the city. 2 euros to see it, and it's pretty funny. Just lots of pictures and exhibits and stuff going way back, kinda interesting to see. I had to show her around the Red Light District. I think she was impressed.
Last weekend was Queens Day here, a huge street party that started Friday and ends Saturday night. Almost half a million people dressed in orange roam around the city. On Friday, I got out of work early and we wandered around a bit, nothing special. Friday night we went out for dinner, and there's a stage setup in front of our hotel (level with the 2nd floor). Had to be about 5000 people jammed into this little area. Definitely a sight to see. It was also fun to see the guy juggled a ball set on fire around his body. Good times for all the kids.
Saturday was pretty cool too. We slept in, then went off to the main square in the city. I have pictures of all the people in orange. Anyway, we ended up in the Voldelpark, a huge park, probably along the lines of Boston Common. They had a bunch of people doing yard sales in the park, plus others doing shows. The best was a little kid, probably 2 years old, drawing portraits. He'd just draw circles for the heads, and then make a generic face, but it was hilarious. Unfortunately, he wanted ice cream and stopped... Somehow in the crowd we ran into 2 people I work with, so we followed them around. I bought a couple things of stamps, from all of the Olympic games dating back to the 60s. Anyway, after the park we went back to their place for a while, and met "Mr. Bunny". Then we had dinner at this place outside the city, with the most amazing food ever! Huge steaks that had a ton of flavor. I may have to go back before I leave here Saturday.
Sunday we were planning to head to Keukenhof, this huge flower garden (Kerri wanted to go, I figured why not). After lunch, I got a call from a guy I work with, so he picked us up and took us there, saving a ton of money in train fares. It was pretty cool, we took pics, and left after about an hour. He paid for me and Kerri to get in, which saved me another 30 euros. Then we went to Volendam, a little town northwest of Amsterdam, right on the Atlantic. We took pictures dressed in native Dutch clothing, looks kinda fun. Then we wandered to some of the shops, it was pretty nice to get away from the city.
Monday Kerri and I went to the Anne Frank house. It was pretty impressive, after having read all about it in school. It's amazing how small everything was. I'm glad we got a chance to check it out. And that takes us to today pretty much, since Tuesday was a team dinner and yesterday I was sick. Anywho, this is plenty of info to keep some of you happy.