Sunday, March 21, 2010

March 20th, 2010 - Saturday-Amsterdam Excursion

Our journey to Amsterdam, Netherlands, began on Thursday March 18th with a 12 hour train ride on the good old Euro Rail. Once we arrived in Amsterdam we began exploring all through out the city and got lost on several occasions. Getting lost is inevitable, but it helped us see the city, until we finally found our hostel after being given wrong directions from many different people. Our hostel was called "The Heart of Amsterdam" and was right in the middle of the Red Light District.

The location was great because you could step out of the door to find everything you need in sight. We got a much needed night of sleep Thursday and woke up Friday morning refreshed and ready to venture out once again in the city. On this day we got to see the Heineken Factory Tour, which is also known as the "Heineken Experience". We all had a blast at this brewery tour; they even had a virtual ride where you are a beer bottle going through the filling process and packaging. It was a very creative ride; it would even spray water at you when the bottles were being cleaned. Finally Saturday, my blog date, was actually Cristina Tyris's 21st birthday. Bob, Matt, Kunj, and I met up with the girls and went out to help them celebrate Cristina's birthday. Their hostel was about a 15 minute walk from ours, but it was in a very good location. After finding the girls at their hostel we all grabbed a bite to eat and explored the area by their hostel by going to different spots. Overall, it was a very enjoyable night, and we all had a great time hanging out with each other. The weather during the whole trip was overcast with rain, so that was one downside.

We left Sunday morning to find out that our train had left 45 minutes early. We ended up catching another train at 12:15 to Frankfurt, Germany, where we had a 3.5 hour wait for our next train to Munich. That train ended up being a half hour late and packed to the point where we had to sit on the floor for a few stops. After that we caught a night train that was not comfortable to sleep in. We eventually made it home at 6am, with Statistics class at 8am! Amsterdam is a place that should be on your list to see if you ever want to travel through Europe!

by Michael Niesen

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