Our Final stop.... Amsterdam!
As I mentioned in my last blog, my camera died while we were in Barcelona, so because of that I had to pull these pictures from the web. Expect the Heineken tour, I brought my iPhone and took those there.
We arrive at our hostel a lot earlier that we had expect. We planned on not getting to Amsterdam until around three or four o'clock, instead we arrived around nine o'clock PM. Our hostel was kind enough to let us check in early, and granted us a late check-out on Sunday as well. To explain this hostel is simple, HELL! We were on the top floor (only room that had 6 beds in the building) but Mike and I both are over 6 feet tall and this roof caved over, meaning that we were walking on a slant the whole time, the beds springs were coming through the top of my bed, and thats enough complaining about the rooms.
We all took a quick nap to catch up and then headed into town. Our hostel was only about a five minuet walk from the red light district, a three minuet walk from all the shopping, and a twenty minuet walk to the Van Gogh museum. The first thing we did though was walked a little bit past the Red Light District and arrived at the Heineken beer factory. From there we all did an awesome tour of the Heineken brewery.
The entrance to the factory
we got to see some of the old barrels they use to brew the beer in.
after the tour we wind up in a little room where they pass out free glasses of their beer and tell you a little bit more about their beer.
then you walk by a massive room where you get to see the bottles actually being filled up, and surprisingly they aren't filled from the top to bottom, they are filled from the bottom up! Think about that. Also you can do a costume label if you wanted to, which i gladly did!
after the whole tour, beer bottling, etc is finished, you come to a massive room at the bottom of the factory. Earlier they gave us these green wrist bands that had little tokens on them, when you get to this bar you give the bar tenders the tokens and they give you two free beers again. After this tour I really do have a new outlook on Heineken.
That night we were all tired and after awhile of walking around and enjoying the night life we headed back to our hostel. The next morning we all wake up around the same the time to Spencer and I laughing because it was 4 PM. We all had slept in so late, but it was much needed amount of sleep to say the least.
On Saturday we walked around the huge square and people watched for a bit, the sun was out, I could feel the warm from the sun beading down on my neck. Not as warm as Lisbon was but it was enjoyable.
Aaron, Erik, and Spencer had been to Amsterdam earlier in the semester so they knew a few key places to eat. We all kept saying that we wanted to try new places instead of eat the same thing over and over.... That is until we went to Shormaa. This place is a kebab style food, but also has the best chicken schnitzel you've ever dreamed about. ALSO! They had this garlic mayo sauce that was the best thing I've ever had in my life! To go along with that, they had this catchup that was great on anything, I've tried to make it here in Rome but no such luck. When I get back to the states though I will be making it. It's chopped up onions, garlic, a tad of BBQ sauce and a few of their own secret recipes. But I see right through them! We ate there three times in one day it was that good! That afternoon Ron and I wanted to go to the Ann Frank house before it closed and we were were afraid we wouldn't have time to fit in Van Gogh and Ann Frank in the same day. Just saying this now, going to something like this (Ann Frank house) with someone who is Jewish and a very good friend of mine was really hard. I couldn't and still can't imagine what was going through their minds, especially when I was so sick to my stomach that I wanted to through up that Hitler and the Germans were that cruel.
Here's the outside of Ann's house
this is the "secret" door that lead Ann's family to a extra section of the house they were staying/hiding in.
After we all left the Ann Frank house it was around 10 PM? And we were starving, so head headed to Shormaa. From there we got our food to go and headed back to our hostel. Arizona was playing UCONN and my roommates wanted to get back in time to watch that. Unfortunately Arizona lost that game and was eliminated from the tournament. And at that time it was also close to 2 AM so we headed back to the down and strolled around for a bit.
Then Sunday afternoon, the day that we left, Ron and I made our way to the Van Gogh museum. Here are some of my favorite paintings done by Van Gogh
here the entrance to the building
the famous sun flower painting
and my personal favorite Van Gogh's favorite drink, Absinthe
As we left Amsterdam we all shared short stories about our Spring break, and I know for a fact that this was hands down one of the best spring breaks ever!
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