I visited Amsterdam during the last weekend in November with Adrienn, Shane, Lindsey and Travis. We took the night train there, which is a 12 hour ride...wow, I'm finally guarenteed a long sleep!
The most exciting part of this trip was that I got to see my good friend Jeff Kadler. He's a friend from high school back in Calgary, and is currently living with his girlfriend Dorien in a small town an hour outside of Amsterdam. Jeff's been gone since last March (travelling in Thailand, Austrailia, etc, then over to Holland) so it was really cool to see him again.
Jeff and me at the Heineken Factory!
We arrived saturday morning, and found our hostel pretty easily. It was a nice place, very chillaxed. The one sketchy part was the "luggage room" which looked more like the garbage pit from Star Wars (ep 4). I couldn't see the bottom of it, there was just a layer of old bags and clothes, lol.
After a failed attempt to meet up with Jeff (they missed the train they were planning on), he met up with us at the hostel, and we had a joyous reunion, hooray!!
The group of us headed over to the Nemo, a science museum that looks like a boat out on the water. I had heard good things about it, and I was sure not dissapointed, the place was filled with lote of cool hands-on exhibits. One sweet one was a machine that showed you how you would look older, younger, as a guy, etc. There was also this complex ball sorting machine that I never did figure out...there was always a big line at that one so I never got a chance to try it, boo. Other cool things: water generator station, logic puzzles, chem area, etc. There was also a big demo of chain reactions that was like something Wile E. Coyote would use to catch roadrunner....it was awesome.
Dorine, Traivs, Adrienn, and Lindsey walking on the streets through Amsterdam
Travis, Jeff, me, Dorien, Lindsey and Shane in front of the main train station
Funky building....no idea what it is, don't really care
A Botel! Everybody thought this was funny, I just flashed back to being a kid, and having my dad tell me that the motel we were staying at was called a botel because it was near the water. He was just making it up, but I thought it was so cool that they actually had a special word for it. Ah memories...
Adreinn and Dorien walking to the Nemo...bit of a height difference, lol
Who's ready for some science?!?!?!?
Alright, this is probably the creepiest thing I have ever seen, and no relavence to any display
Shane being a scientist
After the science museum we were all hungry, so we went for some food/drinks at a coffeeshop. It was a pretty cool place, and we decided to try sampling some of the local specialty, which was fun.
Afterwards we went back to the hostel and played some cards while we pre-drank for the night. We met up with a friend of Jeff and Dorien's who was from Ireland, and hung out with him for the rest of the night.
We all headed over to the red light district, where were actually were surrounded by red lights (I just thought that was the name). We wanted to check out one of the infamous sex shows, but they were all so expensive that we decided it wasn't worth it, just for the novelty. Instead we settled for walking around getting the vibe of the atmosphere. It amused me to see the strippers in the windows...they were either over-the-top desperate for attention, or looked ridiculously bored.
We ended up hanging out at the hostel bar where Jeff's friend was staying (I just can't remember his name for the life of me, I should have written this sooner...), which was pretty cool. The night was wrapped up by a game of chess against Shane back at the hostel (late night chess, hardcore), which I won (woo-hoo!).
Shane trying to tear into a package of crackers
Deep in thought planning strategy for asshole
Where else could you find a Porno Supermarket?
Awesome discovery: crushed up waffle cone bits covered in syrup ...mmmmm
Me kicking Shane's ass at late night chess
The next morning we were presented with a good yet non-standard hostel breakfast: hard boiled eggs, toast and jam. After being nourished, we headed over to the Heineken factory...they don't actually make beer there anymore, but you can take a tour of the factory. Jeff and Dorien opted out (due to cost/lazyness) so we met up with them after.
Adrienn being scary. The sign is for some sort of torture sex show... sketchy...
Nice pic walking to the Heineken factory
Alright, so the "factory" is totally just a museum-type thing designed to entertain those with short attention spans, and who are really only there for the beer. They had activities, shows, semi-rides (in one you pretended you were a beer bottle going through production!), places where you could e-mail pics and videos to your friends (we sent a bunch to all the suckers stuck at work the next day), old commercials, quizes, etc. And a few displays on the actual beer-making/botteling process.
There is a bar halfway through the museum, where we got the first of our 3 free beers (was also got a free gift: a Heineken glass, pretty good value for 10 euro). It was cool how the place was set up actually, how there is a beer break partway through and then you are ready for more mind-taxing displays (lol).
There is another bar at the very end where you can cash in your last 2 beer tickets . Except, the girl pouring the beer wasn't taking our tickets, nor keeping track of who had gotten drinks already. The result: we all had lots of beenrand got drunkish. Another bonus was that Jeff and Dorien were able to come through the exit and get free beer too.
Us and one of the Heineken tour guides who wanted to be in the pic too, hehe
Having our first beer at the Heineken factory.
Shane and Adrienn playing foosball (dunno what this had to do with Heineken exactly). I stopped playing to take a picture, leaving my bars open and Lindsey and I still almost beered them
Some strante Heineken dj/vj booth (Travis got really excited with he saw this)....we never really did figure out how it was supposed to work.
Shane playing the Heineken drums (Evan is probably jelouse)
Working our way through lots of glasses of Heineken
Drink, drink drink....Shane looks giant compared to us, haha.
After the tour,we walked around a bit and it was time to say bye to Jeff and Dorien because they were catching a train back home. The rest of us hit up a grocery store for dinner (supplies for dinner that is) and went back to the hostel to eat. Mmm for sandwiches...and giant containers of yogurt, lol. By then it was time for Lindsey and Travis to head off to the train (they didn't take monday as a holiday) so we said bye to them.
Shane, Adrienn and I didn't know what to do with our evening, so we decided to go over to Vondel park and see what was around there. We had a pretty nice time walking around, and checked out a couple fun places. We got a bit lost though (I blame the lake), so coming home was an adventure...it seemed like we had somehow ended up in a different dimension or something. It was funny because we ended up just magically realizing we were right near our hostel, I love it when that happens. We spent some time chilling in the hostel common area and playing cards, then headed off to bed.
Nice sandwich lunch in the common room.
Vondel park...what a pretty place.
The next day we checked out of our hostel (it was cool becasue they didn't care that we were late) and walked around looking in all the tourist shops. I bought a bunch of things including gifts and a new toque (mine was too boring)! I refrained from buying wooden clogs, haha, they looked pretty uncomfortable. Next we went to the Van Gogh museum which was really cool. His art is awesome because there is just so much going on, you can look at it forever.
After the museum we had time to send a few quick postcards and then go to the train station. The ride back home was awesome, I slept almost the whole was and felt so well rested. I got off the train in Zurich (I was going straight to work) to discover that Adrienn and Shane were still on the train...they had missed getting off in Baden somehow, oops. At least it wasn't too far to go back.
I'm so glad that I got a chance to see Jeff, since we were both in Europe. Can't wait until Christmas so I can see everyone else back home!
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