Sunday, April 18, 2010

and so it goes...

The saga continues...

We're still stranded in Amsterdam. Today's the first day the airline's decided to not host us at the hotel - this just driving the incentive to get outta here even more! We decided to head to the airport this afternoon to see what kind of train we could catch. After waiting in line for an hour and expecting at least an hour more, we saw a man with a sign that read: "Barcelona 16:00". Dad's response was, "Wanna go?" Oh, I can't emphasize how my heart was pumping! Those are the moments I live for! He went and inquired about the possibility to find out they were leaving this evening and it would be 250 Euros a head. Well, Dad's already out a bunch of money for the hotels we are SUPPOSED to be staying at right now in Norway and Ireland. Not to mention the fact that we'd already checked into the room we're in right now. Had we not booked this room and if we had our things with us at the airport, shoot, what an adventure that would've been?!

We decided to stop wasting our time in line at the train station and we attempted to go into Amsterdam and do some fun things like the Heineken Brewery/Museum. As if the volcanic ash cloud wasn't enough to create craziness around here, they decided to start some construction on the railroad between the airport and central station. We did our best to get on the right train, but missed a stop... we went WAY out into the middle of no-man's-land-Nederlands. We did eventually make it back into the city center and had some Belgian fries and mayonnaise at the Manneken Pis stand - recommended by Renee! It was such a success! Dad was RAVING about them, he even ended up asking to go back before we left town. Haha. We did make it to the Heineken Museum (might I add it's really hard to find THE Heineken Museum in Amsterdam where EVERYTHING's advertising Heineken?) but couldn't get in as they close at 5:30 and we made it at approx. 5:32. Argh.

Have no fear! We did make up for it! We wandered around, saw the house where they filmed much of Oceans 12 and got something for dinner at a tapas restraunt. Afterwards we went into a CoffeeShop with Jim Morrison painted on the window (might I add I often neglect to look at the fine print?) We got inside and I looked at the menu - what do you think I found? - that's right: POT. Lots and lots of pot. I think there were only two things on the menu that didn't get rolled up. A small beer and a big beer. We got smalls. It was an educational experience for me. Dad informed me of Jim Morrison's mysterious death while I inconspicuously watched everyone smoke their stuff. It was an experience unlike most others. As we left, we walked down an alley behind a man who was nearly 8 feet tall - not even exaggerating. Now, I was going to mention how I've noticed Dutch men are generally tall and healthy and handsome, but this was like a Dutch man on steroids - except for the handsome part, I couldn't see his face. 

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