Weekend Three: London and Amsterdam

Sorry for the delay in posting about my weekend excursion to London and Amsterdam! It has been difficult finding the time to write here. I started this post last Wednesday morning when I returned but was pulled away and haven't gotten back to it until now. But here is what I started plus the rest added on now:

Journey from Metz (blue star) to London to Amsterdam and back!

"Home" again! My home away from home at least. Every weekend away feels like a month-long journey, and each first shower back in my own room feels like the best shower of my life. I have never felt so dirty as I do when I ride the overnight trains. It is also crazy to think that I arrived back to Lafayette at 9:30am this morning, yet in 48 hours I will be packing to leave AGAIN! No complaints, I love this! But, it is kinda crazy.

I thoroughly enjoyed our 4-day break. And really it was longer- I had half of Friday, all of Saturday through Tuesday, and part of Wednesday off. So much happened this weekend. I just like writing down everything I can remember so that I can try and live through it again in the future. Sorry if the length of this one bores you!

For starters, there is that little part of GTL called...hmmm....oh yeah, school! It really has been a struggle to keep up with all of my work and studying while also walking everywhere, planning everything, and traveling over any moment I don't have class. Friday I had my first test of the semester in statistics, my hardest class. It took two hours and I had to bolt to the bus stop to catch the bus to the train station as soon as I was finished. Hard to focus like that, but it went alright I suppose. And instead of writing it all down, how 'bout I just give a break down of what it took to get to London this weekend:

• bus to Metz Ville train station
• train from Metz Ville to Luxembourg
• bus from Luxembourg to Frankfurt Hahn Airport
• taxi from Luxembourg to Frankfurt Hahn Airport
• plane from Frankfurt Hahn Airport to London Stansted Airport
• bus from London Stansted Airport to Liverpool Street Station
• walk from Liverpool Street Station to St. Christopher's Inn Hostel

Yep!

And the scratch-through was only a minor tragedy in my wallet. Our TGV train (the fast kind, remember), which we paid for and reserved ended up arriving to Luxembourg over 15 minutes late. This is rare in Europe and was totally unexpected, causing us to miss the connecting bus we payed for. As a result we had to catch a taxi all the way from Luxembourg to the Frankfurt Hahn Airport. We were lucky to get the driver we did though. He was self-employed, and therefore was able to offer us a rate much lower than any of the other drivers. Peter was his name, and truly God must have sent him to help us. He saw our situation and from a driver's perspective, offered us a ride at a very reduced price. The drive took almost an hour and a half, and you know he had to drive all the way back. Three hours out of his day plus gas, over dinner hours, and while it was expensive to us, he really did give us the cheapest ride possible. Also, I enjoyed his gospel music that he invited us to jam out to the whole way there. "Je suis Christian." "Je suis Christian aussi!" is all it took to connect with the man. Also, I don't even want to talk about it, but more fees ensued with Ryanair once we arrived at the airport due to failed group communication. And with Ryanair, there is no room for slip-ups. That's how they make their money.

Long story somewhat shorter, we made it to London!!! The English part of my blood was loving those Fish n' chips and British accents. Our group of 4 met up with another group of 5, and the 9 of us (math!) enjoyed Saturday and Sunday exploring London. We had a special surprise Saturday morning, which was getting to see a practice-round parade in preparation for the Queen's birthday coming up. We listened to the band practice different marches and then watched as the horses and band and artillery all marched down the street towards Buckingham Palace.

Me on the white horse statue

After that, I don't know why, but we were all pretty amused with this white statue of a horse so we climbed on it for a good 15 minutes. Then we headed to the National Gallery where we proceeded to climb on lion statues. The gallery was awesome for two reasons: it was free, and it had great art. Unfortunately, we barely got to spend any time inside- and it was huge! But what I did get to see, I enjoyed. When we came out, we were surprised to find a Turkish protest forming. Full fledged red flags waving and chanting. Really not the sort of thing you want to get pulled in to whilst in another country, even if it is peaceful. We steered away and looked for lunch where we got some pretty decent fish and chips for cheap. After lunch we headed to the Thames River.

River Thames and Big Ben in the background

On the way we passed Big Ben! More Turkish protesting was going on down there though, so we took pictures from the other side of the street. Continuing onward we walked along London bridge and got some praline peanuts from some street vendors.  Down by the river was a lot going on! Street performers were doing magic shows and playing music, there was a comedy show and a beer garden, as well as all of the other tourist attractions. Our group decided to take a boat tour down the Thames where we passed under London and Tower Bridge. I personally prefer any sort of tours we can take because you get a lot of history along with them. After the tour down the river, Harry, Jay, and I kept walking along the River Thames and exploring while the rest of our friends took a ride in the London Eye. For dinner we ended up at some Asian restaurant...not really food specific to London, but hey, I like me some Pad Thai.

In the evening we all hung out in the bar at the bottom of our hostel which ended up being a really cool place. We were staying at St. Christopher's Inn and Hostel and I liked it. They had a neat break-out room/lounge and good lockers you could rent during the day even after you've checked out. I would recommend it to anyone traveling to London in the near future. The thing about hostels though, is that most of the time your experience is more dependent on the people you are rooming with than the hostel itself. For example, the hostel we stayed in was alright (for a hostel). The other people in our room....were interesting. There were 6 British guys in their mid-30s on a week-long bachelor party rooming with us. One of the guys I met, Sebastian, was pretty nice. However, I have to say no, I did not appreciate coming back to the room and finding a mostly naked drunk man passed out in the middle of the floor covered in his own vomit. But hey, give me a bed and free coffee in the morning and I'll stay almost anywhere.

Sunday we walked along Tower Bridge and visited Shakespeare's Globe and London Tower. Fun fact about London Bridge: it's ugly. London Bridge is actually a small grey, nothing-special-to-it bridge across the Thames. When you look it up on google images, the fancy bridge that pops up is actually Tower Bridge! Just a little ways further down the river from London Bridge is the impressive Tower Bridge, and we walked along it toward Shakespeare's Globe. The Globe was pretty neat, but unfortunately we did not have the time or money to watch a play. If I understood correctly though, it has been renovated using the same materials that it would have originally been made with. After that, we spent the rest of our time in London at London Tower. I could have spent an entire day there! We were taken on a tour by this awesome guide who told us all of the old history about the buildings we were seeing. I got to look at the Bloody Tower where many medieval murderous events took place. We saw Traitor's Gate where prisoners were taken in to the Tower of London before they were executed. We even saw the crown jewels! The coronation crown that they use for the coronation of every new queen was in there! Not to mention other cool artifacts like armor and swords.

Tower Bridge

So in a very large nutshell, that was London. On to Amsterdam!

Swedish meatballs and mousse on the cruise!

What better way to get to Amsterdam than by ferry across the English Channel? "No better way at all, Holly!" That's what we thought, but turns out the answer is: by cruise!! From London we took a bus to Harwich. Then we booked a 'ferry' to take us from Harwich to Hook of Holland, Netherlands overnight. Travelling by night kills two birds with one stone: transportation and a place to sleep, all while allowing for more daytime in the cities you visit. Technically, we did take a ferry, because it had a car port under the deck. But it was actually a cruise for the rest of the passengers who were already on board. Deck 9 was where it was at: casino tables, restaurants, gift shops, video game room, and basketball court. Oh yeah, and a cinema on board that was playing Iron Man 3. No big deal! It was a great surprise, but also made us not want to sleep at all. The sleep we did get was good too since we had our own room for the 4 of us with a nice shower. Totally worth it.

Monday morning rolls around and bright and early we pull in to the harbor. It was a short train ride then bus in to Amsterdam. We checked in to our hostel, the Flying Pig, and then went out exploring. Bikes were everywhere! Crossing the road was incredibly confusing because there is a pedestrian lane, bike lane, car lane, and tram lane. Also, I didn't realize that Amsterdam has a lot of cool waterways and bridges running through the city. We saw the Van Gough museum, which was interesting. I liked his art and got to see the famous sunflowers. However, I think there were 4 levels, and for paintings it was a little much for me to focus on. After that we got sandwiches for lunch. Mine had some sort of olives in it that were really good! From there we decided to take a sneak peak of the red light district. All I can say is....no I really don't have much to say about that. In case you didn't know how it works there (I didn't know), you literally window shop for hookers. Like, rows of glass cubicles with girls in each one all along the street. Dinner we just ate burgers at a cafe.

Surprisingly, Amsterdam really doesn't have much going for it if you aren't there for the "coffee shops" or hookers. Tuesday we had a lot of time to kill, so we were able to visit the Heineken museum. That was probably my favorite part of my trip to Amsterdam. The tour of the museum explained how Heineken got started, the brewing process, and of course, included beer samples.

There was also this funny motion simulated ride inside where you pretend to go through the process of being brewed. Educational! (...joke) One section of the museum that I found cool was showing old and new Heineken commercials from different countries. After the museum, we headed to the big park that was next to our hostel, grabbed some baguettes, meats, and cheeses from a supermarket along the way, and had a picnic in the grass by the lake. It was so wonderfully sunny and warm that we fell asleep there for hours. After being on the move so much, I really enjoyed taking a moment to relax. And with that, we woke up and headed to our couchette which brought us back, with beds thank goodness, to Metz by Monday morning. Just in time for a shower and class again! Gotta get used to that. The one thing I wish we had been able to see in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank House. It was a ways out from where we were staying though, and we heard the line gets hours long.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my 4-day weekend trip to London and Amsterdam! It was a lot to fit in, but well worth it.


...Now time for me to go join the girls in the red light district....cause I'm broke. :P