Amsterdam

              It has been a crazy couple of days and I have a lot to tell. Friday night I left for Amsterdam. In order to get to my hostel I had to take every form of transportation possible. I took a tube, a bus, a plane, a train, and a tram just to get there. We arrived at the hostel around 10:30 pm (Amsterdam is 6 hours ahead of the US), pretty exhausted but ready to explore. First I would like to give you all a visual representation of our hostel. We were on the fourth floor, and the stairs that brought us there (no elevator) were as steep as a ladder. So lets just say it was a real struggle getting to our room. The beds were bunked, and smelled so that was fun too, but all worth it. Friday night we just hung out but Saturday morning we woke up really early. Our first stop of the day was the Anne Frank Museum, which is the actual house where she stayed and kept hidden for two years. We managed to get to the museum without getting lost but it is confusing because the sidewalks look exactly as same as the roads, both made of brick. So we found ourselves frequently in the middle of the road by, just standing there, confused. Also everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam, there are actually more bikes then people and that is a fact! Anyways, the Anne Frank Museum was extremely powerful and emotional. We actually walked into the apartment she stayed in, behind the bookcase (they still have the original), and all around. They also have the actual diary there as long as other pages that Anne wrote stories on. After the Anne Frank Museum we went to the Van Gogh Museum. There were a ton of his original paintings as well as paintings of those who inspired him. Now, this is the part in my blog that jumps from PG to PG13. At night my friends and I (30 something of us) decided to go on a Red Light District pub crawl. We went to 6 different pubs, all near and around the Red Light District. That was some experience. All of the prostitutes were standing behind clear windows in rooms with beds. Those with red lights meant they were women prostitutes, but those with blue lights meant they were transexual. It was sad and so incredibly strange. They had to warn people on our trip not to take pictures because their pimps might beat them up. Definitely out of the ordinary and something I will never want to see again. Anyways the pub crawl itself was actually really really fun because it was all people I knew and we were able to just relax and have a good time. On Sunday we went on a canal tour. Amsterdam is known as the Venice of the North. It is filled with so many canals that contain boat houses, and other boats people use to get around. After the canal tour we went to the Cheese Museum. I would like to compare this place to Heaven but that may be a little far fetched. You literally get to try a ton of different cheeses and learn how the cheese is made, and dress up in old cheese making clothes. Another cool thing about the cheese museum is it held the most expensive cheese slicer in the world. It had diamonds. At night we hung out and we left Monday morning very early. The plane ride was amazing, we were ascending and as soon as we got to the highest altitude, we descended. It only took about 40 minutes.

          Today was a long day. I had class from 9:30 to 5. I got to see an exhibit in Tate Britain about 18th century England, super fun. At night my entire trip was treated to a Shakespearean play called Henry the Fifth. Just before we got into the theater, this very cute English boy came up to me and asked me for the time, after I told him he asked me if I liked his scarf. I said yes and asked him who he was trying to impress, he answered back his boyfriend, because thats who bought the scarf and he didn't want to look too gay (my luck). Just thought I'd throw that little story in there. Anyways, Jude Law was Henry and I think I spent most of the time staring at his beautiful face, and unfortunately his receding hairline, then actually watching the play. The play lasted for about 3 hours and I was just able to make out most of the plot. In the end, I have had a very busy weekend so I apologize for not writing sooner and hopefully I will be writing another blog sometime later this week.
(P.S. everyone should go to Amsterdam at least once in their life.)
Also if you want to see the pictures better you should be able to click on them and they will appear larger!