Stories from my Euro Road Trip: Amsterdam

I know, I know. These are a long time coming but if you know me, you also know that I'm incredibly lazy so you'll have to forgive me. So we'll start with the first leg of the trip, Amsterdam.

Because I was taking my new Jeep outside of the European Union, I had to pick it up in the German free port of Bremerhaven, which is on Germany's Northwest coast. My airport options were Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Berlin. From each of those, I would have a 3 or 4 hour train ride to Bremerhaven, so I made the decision any good young traveller would and flew to Amsterdam.

A friend I know through Matt and Jess Stubbs lives there and just finished a Master's program so I thought it would be cool to see him again, but he decided to flake out on me and visit his family in the States. Luckily, my friend Ann Marie from Texas State was going to be there for a day at the end of a VIP cruise for her auction house (she's an art auctioneer), so I was excited about getting to see a friend from home.

So I flew into Amsterdam, made my way from the airport to the city center and found my hostel, the Flying Pig, which is where Matt and I stayed on our great backpacking trip after we returned from Iraq. If you are young and headed to Amsterdam, that's the place to stay. The crowd is mostly college-aged with a mix of parent-supported backpackers in their mid- and late-20s. It also has a bar and sometimes live music so there's always a lively crowd, unlike some other hostels I've experienced across Europe. Since I got into town relatively late, I stayed in and hung out at the bar, playing pool, drinking beer after beer and finally crashing around 4:30 or 5. Of course I woke up cheerfully as always at 11:15.

Only problem was that I was supposed to meet Ann Marie at the train station at 11:00. So I got up, showered as quickly as I could with my booze-induced headache, and headed to the train station, arriving there at about 11:45. If you've never been there, Amsterdam Centraal is a pretty big place and their currently doing renovations which funnel passengers out through two exits. I had not known this before I got there so for the next 45 minutes I ran back and forth from one exit to the other, hoping to see Ann Marie, but assuming she had given up on her late-arriving friend and gone on to explore the city. Luckily, she was late too and I found her at about 12:30.

We were both starving so we wandered around the city until we found a place that looked promising. Now, I wasn't expecting much since most places in the touristy parts of Amsterdam aren't known for their high quality food, but we had an excellent lunch, with some excellent beer, even if the service was typically European. I have no idea what the place was called. I would make a horrible travel guide author. But lunch was good and afterwards we wandered around the city, stopping for beer every 30 minutes or so, and saw all the main attractions of central Amsterdam, which mostly amount to canals, old buildings, and the red light district. We finished the afternoon drinking at a place called The Old Sailor, which was partly in honor of Jason Henderson, who has just entered Navy Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. After that, it was time to take Annie back to her boat, which was quite impressive to me, who, even as well-travelled as I am, had never before seen a cruise ship up close. For that I blame Mom and Dad.

After the ship sailed, I headed back to the hostel to take a much-needed nap and to get ready for the evening's adventures. I ran into a guy from Oregon whom I had met the night before and he and his buddy were heading out to a jazz cafe to see some live music. The nap felt great and so did another shower.

After I woke up, I set out for the jazz cafe and when I got there, the place was packed. The guy playing that night was Hans Dulfer, who is apparently kind of a big deal, at least in the jazz world. It was a great show though and I now have a little more appreciation for jazz, so much so that I would find another jazz cafe later on in Prague. But back to Dulfer. The guys from the hostel had met two German girls, one of whose mother lives in La Marque and who was planning on visiting there for Christmas. I, of course, told her how exciting La Marque was but that there would probably not be much left after the then-impending Hurricane Ike came through. While I was talking to her, and unnoticed by me, Hans Dulfer had become upset that I was holding a side conversation, had completely stopped playing music, and announced to the crowd that he would wait until we were finished. Oops.

At the end of the show, the girls wanted to go dance somewhere, but since I was literally the fifth wheel and had to get up at 6 the next morning, I headed back to the hostel to hit the sack.