20 Hours in Amsterdam
It is Monday and I am exhausted from a long weekend in Amsterdam. The one thing that has kept me going is the fact that, today, I am finally 21! After attending several 21st birthday parties, it will be wonderful to finally have my 21st celebration. Tonight, my friends from the French program are taking me to dinner in the Grand Place and then it’s off to bed for me because it is a school night. At least, that is where I am leaving it...for the blog ; )
It is quite difficult to succinctly describe Amsterdam because it is so many different things: beautiful, liberating, interesting, unusual, historic, controversial, and so on. Although my trip lasted less than 24 hours (I arrived at 11:00 am and left at 6:30 am the next morning), I feel as though I experienced the city as if I stayed for three days. I toured the Anne Frank House and the Van Gough Museum, strolled through the various famous neighborhoods, shopped, and enjoyed the night life. The part of my quick excursion that I enjoyed the most was walking along the canals and taking pictures of the beautiful homes.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I did not book a room for the night, which left me awake all night on the streets of Amsterdam, waiting for the morning train back to Belgium. It was actually quite fun. My two other friends (in the same predicament as I) and I found a bench in a small city square close to the train station to lounge. Around 3 am, I found my second wind and started acting silly, but my friends had not found theirs. They were not amused. I eventually calmed down.
I said 'au revoir' to my friends to catch my 4:30 am train, but when I arrived to the train station, I discovered that the first train home was not until 6:30. My cell was dead, which meant that I could not contact my friends, so I randomly chose a direction and started to walk… by myself… in Amsterdam… at 5 am. Before you label me crazy, the sun had started to rise; it was not completely dark.
My plan was to hit the sack as soon as I got home, but when I arrived, the weather in Mons was perfect. I could not let this beautiful day pass me by while I was sleeping, so I grabbed a towel and headed to my favorite park to lay out. Although I was tired, I enjoyed the few hours I spent there.
Next post, I promise to finally write about my French program - you know, the whole reason I am here.
A bientot.
