Antwerp and AMSTERDAM!

Well, it's been a little while since I posted a blog and there is SO much to say. The BEST neas however: I FINALLY FOUND BIRKENSTOCKS! And I bought 2 pairs (fairly cheap). My feet can finally take a break from the torture :)

Antwerpen / Antwerp / Anvers:

Last Thursday we had our first day-excursion to Anvers (which is Antwerp in English, but Antwerpen in Flemmish, which is what they speak there). It was pretty fun taking the bus all together and I got to have a great chat with some students from Latvia and Lithuania. When we arrived though, it was POURING rain! Our tour got rushed along as we sought refuge in an Art Museum, whch was alright (not really the type of art I like). The city was nice though, besides the rain, and we found some really great places for shopping. There was an international market that was VERY cool where we all bought a few beautiful scarves for VERY cheap - highlight of our day for sure. We stopped at a park on the way home with many statues / sculptures which was pretty neat. It wasn't my favorite European City (relly it was a lot like Brussels but smaller) but it was nice - and very fun trying to communicate with mixtures of engish, french, spanish and even some italian! On the way home I decided what I will do on my free day this Thursday - GERMANY! There's a small city thats supposedly very nice about 2 hours from here.

Thursday night I went to a Cuban bar near by with 4 other Canadians, which was my first attempt at drinking / dancing / socialiwing in French. It wasn't too hard. What WAS hard was getting up at 7am for class the next morning, but it was totally worth it :)

Amsterdam:

Class went by VERY slowly on Friday, but eventually 6:30 came and I boarded the train the Amsterdam with 8 other Canadians and a guy from Ireland. I was sooooo excited!!!! I didnt sleep one bit of the 2 and a half hour train ride, and as soon as we arrived i just started snapping pictures everywhere. Throughout the weekend I exclaimed randomly many MANY time " IM IN AMSTERDAM!" - Very surreal!

Our hostel was very VERY impressive for a last minute find. It was right on one of the main streets, very close to the train station. The first night we we lucky to have a room wtih 5 beds, a bathroom and shower all to ourselves (we had split into 2 groups of 5). We planned to meet up with the other 5 but because of some confusion we couldn't find them. We stopped at a pub for our a meal and all had a Dutch Beer (Heinekin and Amstel) and some food. After wandering around the streets for a bit we bought another beer from a convenience store and continied walking - you can drink on the streets here! We ended up finding a cute little Brittish Pub and spent a few hours there. Then we moved on - to a salsa club! The bouncer got the DJ to chnage to lusic from Reggaeton to Salsa jyust got us and I taught to other 4 to salsa. One of the guys I was with already knew a litle bit so we danced - very fun! After that we continued on walking around until about 4am! Its hard to pay attention to the time in Amsterdam.

Saturday we got up fairly early and had to move to another room (this time not private - boo!) We were sharing with 3 guys from Spain so I acted as translater, which was pretty fun. We met up with the others, ate breakfast and did some shopping. In the afternoon, in the sunshine, we went of a boat tour of Amsterdam, which was VERY nice! I had no idea Amsterdam had so many canals everywhere! (Fun fact: an average one one car per week drives into a canal in Amsterdam). After that we walked an hour to the Van Gogh museum to find out it cost 12.50€ each and that most people didnt want to pay that much. I went in with 3 other but got seperated from them somewhere inside. I didn't panic since I had planned to meet everyone else outsdie in the park. I LOVED the museum, although i dont usually like art all that much, and figured Id find the group eventually. Well, I left the museum at 5:30 thnking I was the last one out since the other girls were ahead of me. I searched the park for 45 minutes and couldnt find anyone. Hungry, tired, thursty and determined NOT to miss out on the Anne Frank Luseum I left on my own, presuming they were already there. I kind of had fun exploring on my own (and taking a tram since i hadnt sat down ALL day - although I didnt get a seat anyway). I foudn the museum, but not my friends. After I had been through the museum and was meaving I ran into the group just heading in the door - almost 3 hours later! What luck :) I znrt through again. As for the Anne Frank Museum - it was beyond words. I started reading the Diary of Ann Frank a couple weeks ago to prepare and Im so glad I did. I was so overwhelmed that I almost cried, more than once! If you EVER have a chance to go to Amsterdam, this is a MUST SEE! Otherwise; I still highly recommend the book. EXTREMELY inspirational!

By the time we left the Anne Frank House it was getting late. We grabbed a sandwich, dropped off our days purchases and headed back out on the town. We returned to the same pub because one of the girls in our group had a crush ont he bartender. We stayed there for a few hours, then headed out dancing at a bar called "The Outback". It was packed and VERY fun! There was a Salsa club that we had tried to find all weekend but it was too far away. We were out until 4am again, walking, eating fries and just having fun. Again; time FLIES in Amsterdam. For the 3rd ngiht in a row I got about 4 hours of sleep.

On Sunday morning I got up first to go to mass. I had found a Catholic Chruch the day before that was close engouh to walk to. To my surprise (and pleasure) it was run by Jesuits and was a Latin Mass (except the readings etc, of course). So i understood SOME of it. It was very long, mostly all chanting, which an all-male choir doing Gregorian Chant. It was just lovely! The building itself was astounding as well. I walked away from that mass floating :)

Sunday only got better as, after breakfast, I finally found my long sought-after Birkenstocks!!!! MY FEET ARE PAIN-FREE AT LAST! They had many styles and colors to choose from, and we like half the price they are in NB, so I bought two ;) The rest of the day we pretty much just walked around and took some nice pics. We also ate some dutch food, finally! The herring stand we found was closed to we went for pancakes instead - very yummy.

When we left I was still SO excited about Amsterdam that I didnt sleep on the train; or evern ladt ngiht until 11! Today i think I fell asleep sitting up in class. I LITERALLY couldnt keep my eyes open! But it was all WELL worth it :) Amsterdam is a BEAUTIFUL city - full of canals, trees, bikes (like millions of them), dozens of museums and smiling people. If you stay out of one particularly bad neighborhood, and the coffee shops, it's a very very good city to see - I highly recommend it!

Today Anne-Marie and I are trying to plan next weekeneds trip - PARIS! Also, Im going to Germany on Thursday for the day, to a small tozn called "Aixle-Chapelle" in Frnech (Eupen I German maybe??) Im psyched! Especialy now that my feet FINALLY dont hurt. The one thing bullung me out right now, however, - I left my FAVORITE (and only) Jeans in the hosel in Amsterdam. I guess I'm going shopping again! :)