Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Sunflowers & A Bleeding Head. Day 32

July 23rd

Today we went to the Van Gogh museum!! I was so so excited to see my favorite painting/painting of his....

The way that the museum was set up was really cool because each painting had a description of why Van Gogh painted each painting..like some of them were painted for his nephew, some were painted simply to brighten a room...It would also talk about his life in chronological order so you kinda got an overview of his life while looking at his paintings change and evolve.

So it was kinda ridiculous, but as we were leaning in and looking at the detail in the painting, we got yelled at that we were standing too close to the painting. I just thought they were lucky that I hadn't been tempted to touch one. The texture made that urge so hard to resist!!

Also, I feel slightly guilty for this...except for the fact that I wasn't the one to do it...but Allison was able to snap a photo of my favorite painting(!!!!!!) without anyone noticing.. here it is! In the flesh! Van Gogh's Sunflowers!

<3  

After the museum, we went to a cafe and got some lunch.  This lunch was extremely unsatisfying for me. I ordered tomato basil soup, and got this strange tomato-y thing that had meat and noodles in it. I took it back to the bar and claimed that it wasn't tomato basil soup, but they informed me I was wrong. Apparently that's just how they did that kind of soup there. Then I was unmotivated to eat because nothing else looked good and I had had my heart set on tomato-basil soup..lol.

Next we went back to the hostel because the friends were sleepy and wanted to take a nap before we got ready to go on the Amsterdam pup crawl!

The pub crawl ended up being quite a lot of fun!


 Plus! Our hostel-mates joined us there, so it was fun getting to hang out with them :)

It was similar to the Spain pub-crawl..filled with lots of free drinks/shots...but some of the shots at the bars we went to were super interesting! There was one called Chemistry, and it would light on fire before you drank it! I remember hearing about a Harry Potter one too...
So remember when I explained that I did not eat too much before the pub-crawl? This ended up not being the very best idea because I ended up getting way-drunk way-fast..

Now, the following information I gathered from my friends the following morning:

It had become apparent that I had had enough to drink so Marcus took me back to the hostel.  Apparently, I was not happy with this decision and once we got back to the hostel I continuously tried to escape. Instead of using the door handle, I attempted throwing all my body weight into the door. That was not successful. I kept telling Marcus and the hostel-mates that were there things like "I've got places to go and people to see!" After some time, I gave up and decided to "superman-jump" into my bed. My aim was a bit off, and I ended up hitting my head on the corner of the cabinet next to my bed. At first, we all just laughed at my clumsiness, but then we realized that my head was bleeding. A lot. The sheets on my bed were white, so it pretty much looked like a bloody crime-scene had occurred. Since the bleeding wasn't really stopping, one of my hostel-mates called the paramedics and they came to check out my head. This entire time I was sobbing. It was really scary to see that much blood coming out of my head. But, apparently I was okay and the paramedics just told me to go to sleep, so I did.

Overall, the night was really fun..minus the head injury.  Just another lesson learned..be sure to eat a good-sized meal if you're ever planning on drinking. Otherwise, it could lead to bloody and dangerous events.


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Goals Achieved. Day 31.


July 22nd
 
Today we had a few major goals [small major goals] to accomplish.  First, we set out to find the Heiniken Brewery to partake in the Heiniken Experience.
The Heiniken Experience was fun, and we learned a lot as well! It took us through the history of the beer and told us about the….creators? Founder? Beer…makers?



Anyway, that was pretty interesting.  It also taught us about beer and the correct way to drink it. We also had the opportunity to send Heiniken-themed pictures and videos to our loved ones at home….



 We got many free samples of beer and then were led into the gift shop.  I think they really thought this one through… I can just imagine what went on in their minds….
            “Yeah, we’ll give them just enough beer to get them a little buzzed and then they’ll just happen to find themselves in the gift shop! It’s brilliant! They’ll never know what hit their wallets!”


 After our “mini” shopping trip at the gift shop, we walked to our next destination: A canal cruise.


Honestly, the canal cruise was not my very favorite thing. It was an enclosed boat, so it wasn’t quite how I was hoping it would be.  I like being on boats where you can feel the breeze. I felt too contained in this boat…lol. I’m sooo picky when it comes to my canal cruises in Amsterdam ;)

Anyway, after the canal cruise, we found our way to Anne Frank’s Hiding Spot. 

This place was incredible.  There was so much history.. I am so happy I got to see it all.  It was kind of in a museum-format. There was some history on WWII and some on Anne Frank as well.  Then it gradually took you up to the actual hiding spot.  They still had some of the original wallpaper that had writing on it documenting how tall the children were getting. It was amazing.  They even had the actual diary there, along with some of Anne Frank’s other writings.  Apparently she had planed on her diary being published and had multiple drafts with edits and such.  It was so interesting.  The whole place was beautiful and haunting. I’m so glad I got to experience it..
 After the museum, we went back to the hostel and found a little grocery store to pre-game a bit before we went out. On our way to the grocery store, we pondered on how many ways there were for us to get ran over in Amsterdam. Not only were there cars, there were trams, bikes, and so much more. It's surprising we never got hit, all of these modes of transportation always seemed to come from all over the place..
Once we were out an about, we met a couple guys and asked them if they knew how we could get to the Red-Light District. We wanted to see what it was like there at night. They showed us the way...

It was so surreal to see it in person..I had an idea of what to expect, but it was strange to see it actually happening. We would walk by windows and there's just be almost-naked ladies standing in there beckoning anyone who would enter. It was crazy. As we walked, Jill and I found a lingerie store and ran in to browse. Jill found something she liked, but didn't have the money for...one of the guys bought it for her!! LOL. It was too funny because he had a uni-brow among other things..but apparently he had all kinds of money to spare. Funny memory..

After awhile, we made our way back to the hostel and slept.