Here I am sitting at my computer, bags packed, struggling for words to describe the time I spent in Amsterdam. What was supposed to be 15 of our friends spending the weekend there turned into Rebecca and I, alone, stranded for nearly a week.
Before detailing the hilarity of this adventure, I would first like to defend Amsterdam. There is so much more to the city than the red-light district. The city somehow strikes a balance between being innappropriate yet charming. Never before have I been somewhere that accomplishes that. Sitting outside a cafe drinking a beer along the canals, you easily forget what kind of scandal is waiting around the corner. Plus, they have bagels there and of course, MariJuana is legal. Just kidding, Mom. Though that's obviously a really interesting part of the culture, too.
The first night we stayed in the Flying Pig hostel downtown, just a five minute walk from the middle of red-light. The people staying there were a quirky crew and we quickly assembled a gang of misfits - British furniture designer, U.S. student, 30 year old Asian, kid named Antonio, etc. In the first three nights, we stayed in three different hostels: The Flying Pig Downtown, StayOkay Vondelpark, and The Flying Pig Uptown, ultimately spending our days stranded at the Flying Pig Downtown where their moto is "Home is in your head." I was intent on ripping down that sign by the end of our stay.
I guess I should touch on the weed culture since I made that awful joke earlier. As a girl who despises anything that has to do with inhaling smoke (Thanks, Dad!), I didn't really enjoy smelling like Marijauna when I went to bed, but it was completely unavoidable. In Amsterdam, "Coffee Shops" don't in fact specialize in coffee, but sell Marijuana over the counter. While someone walking down the street in Barcelona is smoking a cigarette, someone walking down the street in Amsterdam is smoking a joint.
Personally, I preferred riding the bikes we rented down the canal streets and up through the countryside stopping to take a break to look at windmills. Holy heck, Amsterdam people know how to bike!! Their bike lanes and traffic signals are more extensive than the ones for cars. You can imagine me trying to ride a bike AND look at a map at the same time. Let's just say, I'm lucky to be alive... But that could be said for the whole trip haha.
We waited until Sunday morning when our flight was officially cancelled to be pro-active about finding an alternate way back to Barcelona. At the train station, we waited four hours to have the women tell us, "I can't help you. I can get you as far as Paris but then you're on your own." We tried asking if we could go through a city other than Paris, at which point she pulled out a map of Europe and laughed at us. Woa, lady, I know what Europe looks like. Utterly defeated by her rudeness, we set our sights on the bus station hoping for better results. Success!! We jumped at the opportunity for two bus tickets at 80 Euro each. Much cheaper than the train and we were guaranteed to get to Barcelona.
The only downside was having to stay in Amsterdam for another three days, but being the lovely ladies that we are, we took this as a sign that we were meant to have extra days of vacation, which we fully enjoyed. Early wednesday morning we boarded our bus and started the 24 hour ride. Finally, this part of the trip went completely smoothly! Except for that my seat was the only one that didn't recline and we stopped every hour to let the old folks go to the bathroom. Oh, and someone on our bus got arressted for terrorist suscipicions. But, yeah, other than that, totally perfect.
All in all, I am extremely proud of us. It was chaos and we did what we had to do to make it home. Now we can say that when the volcanic ash of 2010 grounded all European flights for four days, we were stranded in Amsterdam. Hey, that's a pretty cool story :)
Besos y Abrazos!
P.S. Towards the end of the trip, we started to look pretty "rugged" so be kind on your judgment of the pictures.
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