Last weekend I journeyed to Amsterdam with a friend from Norman. He came from Berlin and I was arriving from Paris on the Thallys, the highspeed train in France. The top speed of the train is 190 mph! I loved being on a train! the country was so beautiful from Paris through Belgium to Holland.

When I arrived in Amsterdam I had about 4 hours to myself until Kenneth arrived. He suggested I go see the Van Gogh museum so I bought a map and headed that way. But while sitting on the tram, by myself far far far away from home I started to get a little stressed out, to the point of becoming nauseous.

I got of the train and stopped in a small shop (reminded me of a Forward Foods) and got the biggest bottle of water. I walked past a library and started to walk inside to rest when kenneth called me. I was SO releived to actually talk to him! I immeditaly felt better. I kept walking until I found a park.  I had given up on the idea of going to the Van Gogh museum. I sat in the park and enjoyed the sunshine. (Paris had been rainy and cold almost the entire time I had been there).

After a while I got up and headed back to the Central Station to meet kenneth. The area of Amsterdam I was in was really nice, not what I expected at all. My intial impression was if Crested Butte was 50 times larger and a major city in a European country. Everyone rides bikes, everyone is SO helpful and cheerful (i would exclude CB on that one). Everything was clean and nice.

When I met kenneth we started to walk around Amsterdam. He wanted to go the park next to the Van Gogh museum. WE picked up some grapes and bananas and some water and started walking in that direction. It turns out the park we went to was the exact same park I was in earlier that day. It was RIGHT next to the Van Gogh musuem! It was right behind me and I had no idea! ha

Amsterdam is not what I expected. I thought it would be a big dirty hippie town. But it isn’t. I thought marijuana would be everywhere but it isn’t. In the touristy areas it is but there isn’t an overabundence of coffeeshops like I imagined. I liked the discretness of this aspect of the city, the entire country, to be more specific

That night, Friday,  we took the train to Utrecht. My FAVORITE city so far. Its a college town comparable to the size of Norman. We wandered around trying to find out hostel for a while until we finally asked a concierege at a hotel. I was little nervous that we would be rude and not helpful. But he was so kind. He looked up our hotel, wrote down the name, directions and number to our hostel.

In the cab to our hostel we got to see a little bit of Utrecht. The city was quiet but lively all at the same time. Every few streets there would be small restraunts bustling with people and music. There were three or four stages set up around town with local bands playing music. When we got to our hostel, which was a Thai restaurant (see end note) on the bottom and rooms above, we freshened up and walked to the closest concert we could find. We showed up at the end but it was still lively.

Utrecht is a city built on several canals so we walked down one of the canals and then headed back home.

The next morning we took our bags to the train station and rented bikes. We rode all over that city for probably 3 hours. We rode around the country for a little bit and bought some cherries from a cherrie farm. They were DELICIOUS! I am not a huge cherrie fan but they hit the spot!

After we couldn’t ride out bikes any longer, due to our sore tooshies, we stopped and walked around Utrecht for a few more hours. We got lost so many times but we didn’t care. We had dinner at a Cuban restaurant and then took a train to Rotterdam.

The flowers in Utrecht were so pretty! They made me think of mom! She would have loved the flowers there. Apparently, April is the time to be in Holland to see all of the Tulips. Street vendors selling peonies lined the streets. Because of all the flowers and the impecaple job keeping the city clean, Utrecht smelled so pretty!

I think Mom and Dad would really like Utrecht if they were to come to Europe some day. Holland is beautiful and clean. Its a small city with cheerful unique charm.

We went into one of the oldest church in Holland. Utrecht was originally a Roman fortification under Claudius.

Because of Holland’s successful economy everything is very clean and nice. Not gaudy, flamboyant, showy, or necessarly expensive, just nice. 

I was shocked at how incredibly friendly everyone was there. In Paris everyone is very reserved and private which comes across as snotty and rude.

Rotterdam is the economic capital of Holland, Kenneth would say its comparable to a Chicago type city in the US.

Rotterdam is a shipping city so we walked down the river and saw all of the boats.

We went to a museum, I can’t remember the name of it right now, But i have its information in my room. 

In the museum I saw Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrant, and Dali.

After the musuem we went walking through a park. it was sunday afternoon and it felt like EVERYONE in the city came out to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather.

The kids in Rotterdam were….. interesting. Their style was a mix between goth, super punk, and emo. They were rowdy and a little intimidating but when I approached one about my missing camera they were extremely respectful and helpful, a nice suprise.

After rotterdam I took the train to Brussels and had a lay over for an hour (I honestly have no idea why I did this, it turned out to be  HORRIBLE idea). I walked around the central station for about 15 minutes before I promptly returned to the station. Apparently the area I was in was a pretty bad part of Brussels. I think It is a lot like D.C. if anyone knows what I am talking about. But I have been told I need to go back to Brussels when I have more than one hour to see it.

So while in Holland I saw three very different sides of the country. Amsterdam is a huge city but very touristy. Maybe a little like San Antonio. Utrecht I would compare to Norman or Austin. and Rotterdam to Houston or Dallas. Just to give you all a little bit of reference.

I am sorry about the choppy writing. I just don’t have much time on this computer and have a lot to talk about so I am just writing things as they come to my head.

I am more than happy to keep rambling on about Holland but my friends are trying to go to dinner!

Hope all is well with everyone! I really like your comments!

Remind me to tell you all about my idea of our Hostel in Utrecht and Hotel ZaZa in Dallas. But now I  have to go!

BISSOUS!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Adventures, Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.