Brussels, Amsterdam: Fourth Weekend

Hey everyone! We're back from our longest weekend trip yet! We got back from Interlauken Sunday, had our BLS midterm Monday night...then left on a bus at 11am after classes Tuesday! Seriously, i had no time to even sleep!
We had a 5 hour bus ride to Brussels on Tuesday, we watched Wedding Crashers and slept. We arrived at yet another Etap hotel--Miami's favorite to make us stay at. Its basically just a very clean hostel...three random people to a tiny room with a double bed and a bunk on top. They took us KPMG's Brussels headquarters to listen to a lecture on international accounting...we managed to keep our eyes open for most of it, however one of our guest teachers fell asleep. They took us to a nice dinner in downtown Brussels, after dinner they gave us about an hour to wander around. Allie and I got a Belgian waffle (shown in the picture above). It was actually better than i expected, but very difficult to eat...or at least it was at the time, because when i woke up my dress was covered in chocolate. We had to be ready to go at 8 am the next morning, so we all went back to the Etap. Wednesday morning was when things began to get a little disorganized. We had breakfast around 7:45, then were instructed to get on the bus that took us to lunch. We arrived at lunch at 9:30am and were to be served a large meal of chicken, fries, and salad. All we were really in the mood for was momosas, so we taught the Belgian bartender how to make them. We reboarded the bus at 11:15, accidentally leaving Monique and Alison in Brussels. They got really pissed at us. They took us to the Coca Cola visitors center, which presumably was intended for 5th graders. We sat through a couple interactive media presentations--slide shows of cocacola with techno music playing in the background...then were dragged on a miserable tour... however, we did get to wear these really sweet outfits, so clearly we were content. -->
After this experience...our anticipation mounted, seeing how the day was going thus far--we were staying at the "Hotel Florida" in Antwerp for the night (complete with a flamingo on the sign). Actually the rooms ended up being very nice, but the place was a maze with little staircases everywhere. I took an elevator and climbed 3 skinny staircases to get to room 222. (more relevant later) We boarded a bus around 4:30 to take us to downtown Antwerp so we could walk around a shop a little before dinner. We ended up buying some Belgium chocolate (which did not make it home, sorry fam) and a bottle of wine and went to the dock to drink it. I guess the rest of the trip had the same idea we did because we ended up having a mini rave on the dock before dinner at 7. Dinner was nice, they served us pasta, several bottles of wine, and dessert. After dinner we went back to the dock and watched the sun set and hung out until around 11. Back at hotel florida I hung out with Jess, Pat, and Erik for a couple hours. We went outside to try to find a bar to go to...a strange alarm went off, people dispersed, and i ended up getting lost in Hotel Florida for a short while. I found my way back to my room and went to bed for the night.
Thursday morning was more chaos, we boarded the bus at 8:30, then somehow got lost on the way to the International Court of Justice. We found the place around 12, sat through a 45 minute presentation about what they do there, then boarded the bus again to go to lunch...only to find out that our reservations were for the wrong location. We ended up being 70 km (maybe 50 miles) south of the restaurant. So...i guess we got lost again, because we didn't arrive at the Indonesian Rice Kitchen until 3. The food was interesting, it was buffet style with lots of different meats and weird sauces, i ate mostly rice. Finally they took us to the trainstation...and things began to look up.

We got into Amsterdam around 5. I was really nervous the whole time because i booked the place we were staying. Everywhere online was already booked and really expensive (all over60 euro a night) when i was looking online. I actually ended up calling some random place and asked for a reccommendation. I sent an email to Nemo Cribs, explained that it was me and my friend's birthdays that weekend and sent a picture of our group. They called me back and we proceeded to have a rather awkward conversation about the photo i sent, but i ended up negotiating the place for 1,200 euros total for 10 people for 3 nights. So I called the place when we were on the train to get directions, Sonja told us that she would meet us outside...ok, thats an interesting thing for a hostel to do? I'm nervous, like really nervous. So i called her back when we were outside and she was like "ok turn around, im right here" so I turn around and meet Sonja...a 5'4' 80 lb herion addict with a female eurohawk/mullet holding a red rose. I thought maybe i had just entered requim for a dream, or worse... amsterdam, staying in a sketchy drug house with Sonja. My friends were obviously mildly skeptical, as was i. We followed her for a 5-7 minute walk that seemed like an hour. When she openned the door to the place, everything was pristine white, clean, and new looking...sigh of relief. She first openned the boy's room, which ended up being a really nice apartment with 2 bedrooms, a living room, nice bathroom, and a full kitchen. Our room was upstairs and was extremely nice. They even had a vase of fresh flowers and 2 birthday cakes in the refridgerators. haha...well i guess we judged Sonja a little quickly. or maybe not, considering we saw her later that weekend stumbling down the street with a random man at 10 am.
Anyways....everyone went to explore the town a little bit! I was so excited about having a kitchen that i went to the supermarket with allie!! I made italian style chicken, mini marinated potatos, pasta salad, bread and cheese, and a balsamic vinegarette salad for 11 people, it was pretty much a success, esp. since i had to improvise a little with the ingredients and cookware. That night we walked the red light district at 10:30, hoping not to see any crazys just yet. We went to a little bar and had a beer. We happened to be walking back past a church when the bells rang for 12:00 midnight, it was my birthday!! It was so nice...and a great start to a wild, random, wonderful birthday in Amsterdam!!!
Friday the 8th we woke up and had brunch at Barneys a local coffee shop with amazing pancakes. My friends let me pick what i wanted to do, so the first stop was the Van Gogh Museum! It was better than i ever could have imagined. One of my favorite is Wheatfield, in the picture...but its just so much better in person! There was one painting that I could not take my eyes off of, and I literally stared at it for 15 minutes...and oddly enough, its not online and i can't seem to recall the name. The colors and the brush strokes are unreal. It is even more incredible when you look at the sheer number of paintings that he did during his lifetime. I think Allie and I probably enjoyed the Saint Remy collection most of all. I also loved the Auvers work from around the 1890's. The collection also had pieces from Paul Gauguin, Manet, Monet, and Seurat...basically every painter that I loved from Art History Renaissance to Modern. i'm seriously so bummed i can't remember the name of the painting, i might call the museum and find out. I bought some coasters, gifts for my friends back home, and a magnet with the painting absenth in a glass that said "we are not here for ourselves alone" it is pretty much sweet.
So after the museum, we set out to find a place to have birthday cake! (in the picture above) we each got a different kind of cake, and shared, it was so nice! Then we went to the Heineken Experience, which was quite the experience! This place blew Coca cola out of the water. They packed us into a room where the floor moved and shook and the video showed the route of a bottle of Heineken being made. One of the rooms let you make a 15 second video and send it via internet. I think Shari and Em should be receiving something interesting...Another room you could make a song using a mixing station and drum set, another room you could stur the beer before it was fermented and try it warm. Oh...and throughout all of this were bars where you could cash in your token for an ice cold Heineken. 3 beers, a gift, and the museum for 11 euro, best euros ever spent. The last bar of the museum was basically a mini discotheque, so we hung out for a little while and took tokens from old people who didn't want their free beers. Cody and Dylan found the manger of the place and told him it was me and allie's birthday. They played the birthday song and everyone in the place sang....me=embarrassed, allie=loved it. Then the manager helped us pour our own beers from the tap. I needed a little help-->
We emerged a few hours later, around 6, from Heineken. Before we made it down the street it started raining, then before long it was a full out hurricane. Which in my weird little way, i loved. I played in the rain by myself while everyone waited under the overhang of the building. Eventually everyone realized we were all going to get soaked anyway, and we re-entered 4th grade and dared each other to run out into the rain...it was quite possibly my favorite part of the whole day! I wish i had pictures...i'm sure someone does! So we got back to the apartments and everyone was starving. I threw in a couple frozen pizzas to hold us over until our Dominos came. After about an hour or so the pizza came, europeans tend not to rush meals, i like that concept...except when it applies to pizza delivery. All 10 of us sat on the beds of the boys apartment an inhaled 5 gigantic pizzas, Cody goes "so is this what you expected for your birthday, to be sitting in an apartment eating Dominos." But honestly, i couldn't have asked for anything more, it made me so happy. After dinner, we all decided to take a nap so we would be ready for Amsterdam late night...annnnnd to celebrate Allie's birthday at midnight! We woke up around 11:30, and managed to make it to an entertainment show about 12:15. Allie got in for free since it was her birthday, I was like "my birthday was 15 minutes ago!" the manager was like "my birthday was 4 months ago, congratulations"...ouch. I'll spare the rest of the details.
The next day, Allie's Birthday, we only had one thing left on the agenda--Anne Frank Huis. I loved the way the museum was set up. You walked through the renovated house and along the walls were passages from Anne's diary. There were artifacts, pictures, and video clips in each of the different rooms as well, but the rooms were mostly bare because that was Otto Frank's wish. It was a very somber museum, but at the same time, we all were amazed by the insight that such a young girl placed in such an awful situation had to offer the world. It's been years since i have read Anne Frank, but it is definitely one of those stories that stick with you. After the museum, Allie, Jess and I went the the shopping complex to look at gifts for professor campbell's retirement. (Allie, Alison, Jess, and I were picked to organized dr. campbells retirement celebration, which is tommorow). We didn't find anything at the shopping complex, but i did find a really sweet dress that reminds me of amsterdam :) We returned back to the apartment, and got cleaned up for Allie's dinner of choice--the Amsterdam Hard Rock Cafe. Somehow we ended up with an amazing group of 17 people...so we had two huge tables. Jess and I ended up at the all guys table and split the all-american burger and fries combo, complete with drinks on the house and an ice cream sundae serenade. We were finished and paid before Allie's table even got their appetizers, so we visited a coffee shop, while the other table enjoyed some more free beverages.
ok, well i gotta go to the accounting review session, hopefully this will keep you occupied for a couple days! xox jessica

currently listening to: tiny cities made of ashes-modest mouse
float on-modest mouse
the movers and the shakers- tandemoro
warning-incubus