It’s true, the city really is layed out like the levels of hell. And that is a very fitting description of Amsterdam. We got back Monday night, and it’s taken me at least this long to recover and process the weekend to the point where I’m ready to talk about it. Let’s just say it was intense. This is going to be the extremely abreviated, PG-13 version of the weekend. 
Saturday was a pretty crappy day, weather wise and we had to hike around in the rain when we arrived in the afternoon and find a hotel/youth hostel that could accomodate the 6 of us. Though we didn’t really know what we were doing at the time we lucked out and ended up on the outskirts of the red light district. After seeing the area at night that was a far better location than the first hotel we stopped at. After a strange chicken lunch next door to a bunch of hookers on the afternoon shift we went to yes, the Sex Museum. (Most of this trip was dictated by the 4 guys with us, as you can tell.) That was definately the most bizzare museum I’ve ever been to. But hey, how many cities have a sex museum? You should note, however, that we missed our opportunity that afternoon to make it to the prostitution information center before it closed. What a shame. The late afternoon and evening were spent checking out many of Amsterdam’s “coffee shops” and bars.
We went into an Irish pub with some big dude who claimed to be the bouncer and sat next to a table full of very drunk British men who ended up hitting on and harrassing this deaf woman trying to sell little trinkets. Apparently they had made a stop at the sex museum’s gift shop, or the equivalent, and they proceded to demonstrate some of their purchases.
Walking back and forth to different coffee shops we spent quite a bit of time in the heart of the Red Light district on a Saturday night which is really the definition of insanity. 
Even on a rainy night with biting cold the streets were packed with thousands of loaded people walking up and down, or just standing and gawking at the girls in the windows. The streets along the canals actually almost glow red in the dark from so many lighted windows.
The next morning we started the day off with a visit to the Torture Museum. This was the most wasted 5 euros I’ve ever spent, though Justin would disagree. It’s not really a museum at all, but some hole in the wall that some man calls a museum because it is filled with lousy pictures and a few medieval torture devices and it takes about 10 minutes to walk through the entire thing. Then began my weekend’s diet of fast food and pizza. I’m usually not at all a fan of fast food, but after an extremely disturbing meal at a sketchy Chinese restaurant the night before that I just stared at in disgust I didn’t trust anything else and Burger King and KFC never sounded so good. 
The afternoon continued with a visit to the Heineken Experience, a well designed self-guided tour through the former Heineken brewery. The tour includes 3 beers at bars stationed along the way and they send you on your way with your very own Heineken glass. We continued on to the Anne Frank House where part of the group took the tour, but I opted to head back because I was getting fed up with walking and concentrating. I’m already regretting the decision, but I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it all that much. Sunday night started off harmlessly enough but due to more intense recreational activities on most of our parts, ended in a downward spiral that no one intended to reach. It was definately the low point of the weekend for me, but I’ve got to say that a couple of people in our group added entertainment and comic relief to an otherwise somewhat negative evening.
Monday morning we spent some time at the impressive Van Gogh Museum. Then it was a late lunch and one last stop at a coffee shop before heading to the train station. I don’t remember the name of that place, but I wish we had found it much earlier. Monday afternoon was probably not the best representation of the atmosphere on a normal night, but the guy working there was awesome and had all sorts of advice for us. Luckily he happened to be correct in his advice and he didn’t land us in a world of trouble.
I definately crashed not long after getting home that night. It’ll be a while before I’m ready to brave Amsterdam again, and there are things I would do differently if I’m ever back there. It’s impossible to describe that city in a way that does it justice. I recommend that everyone visit and judge it for yourself. Really though, it’s just insane…
Category Archives: General
i’m waiting
I’m starting to think that the weather is just trying to spite me. There were big snow storms everywhere else in Germany this week, but somehow not in Frankfurt. Twice this week I woke up and the internet would say it was snowing but when I looked outside there was nothing at all falling from the sky. And waiting for a bus to get to class one day we saw a car drive by that had a few inches of snow on the convertible top. It’s a tease. We’ll get snow eventually, and until then I’m waiting (almost) patiently.
Somehow I’ve managed not to get sick this week while everyone around me looks like they’re dying. But I’m sure my turn is next. I had to skip class this morning because after several days of minimal sleep, I couldn’t sleep last night at all and I ended up with a really bad headache. But I feel much better now.
We were all supposed to go to dinner at Mr Lin last night. But Kyle says he’s sick of the one dish he’s willing to eat because it doesn’t have vegetables, and he doesn’t want to go anymore. And when it was time to go last night, Justin was nowhere to be found. So Dave and I went anyhow, had a great meal. And then walked around near the main campus in search of a new bar. We ended up in this little place on a corner in the middle of a neighborhood. We got funny looks when we walked in because we were the only people under 50 and probably the only people who don’t spend every night there. The people sitting around the bar were talking to eachother in Italian, and at one point an old man started getting really upset and yelling at this woman in Italian. It was quite a sight to watch. The bartender/waitress was just sitting there smoking and drinking all night, and taking her time about serving us. Then she left and some guy who looked like he had just woken up, but somehow managed to have downed 5 or 6 drinks already, started serving us. We tried to pay and leave but he got really confused about what we had had to drink and we probably could have gotten out for a dollar. It was entertaining, anyhow.
I must get some sleep tonight; we leave for Amsterdam in the morning. Pictures and stories when I get back next week, I’m sure.
snow
German forecasters are notoriously bad at predicting the weather, but in this case I really hope they’re correct. They’ve predicted snow for Wednesday, and maybe Thursday also. If they’re wrong it’ll be rain, and we definately don’t need any more of that.
musings from the last week
So Kyle didn’t say anything in class on Friday. Boring. But the teacher did say something about the Soviets giving North Vietnam AK-49s. Check the history books, but I’m pretty sure that should be AK-47s. Whatever…
I’ve had many good times since I got here, but last Tuesday night is definitely way up near the top of the list. It might even win the number one spot. Through the German-American clubs I was invited to a somewhat exclusive party put on by the American consulate in Frankfurt for the election. (A slightly amusing aside: Kyle went to the place and tried to register for the party and the security guard told him he wasn’t allowed to come because he didn’t have an invitation. Rejected.) It seemed like such a bad idea: getting together lots of opinionated people for an event that’s going to leave some of them extremely disappointed. Not to mention that because of the time difference it started at 10:30 pm and went until 8 am. But I was expected to show up, so I went and Dave came along to keep me company. When we got there, there was a line around the corner of people waiting to get in, which was slowed by metal detectors and checking of IDs. Inside there were 1200 people, press everywhere, CNN showing on screens in 5 different rooms, and lots of free food and alcohol. They had an astonishingly endless supply of Samuel Adams beer, which is all but impossible to find here. After saying the obligatory hellos Dave and I escaped to the courtyard where there were Pringles and of course, CNN. There was some man out there who looked exactly like Michael Moore. Could have been his twin brother.
As sleep deprivation and alcohol set in and we were having more fun than really made sense. Dave confused a crowd of reporters and people watching a board on which they were posting results as they came in by adding the “Donat” party (hard to explain the significance of the name), with a higher percentage of seats in Congress than Republicans or Democrats. When a woman set up her camera and asked what it was he said it came right off of CNN and then he walked away. People stared at it for a few minutes talking among themselves until a woman finally erased it. We caused other mischief until about 5 when we decided it was time to call it a night. Dave was more or less out of control at that point and yelled at some poor woman we passed on the street to vote immediately and waved a little plastic flag in her face. The flag was in pretty bad shape by the time we got back- it was run over by the subway at one point; but it’s still around as a reminder of a fun-filled night. Maybe you just had to be there…
I’m definately a middle of the night kind of person, and not a morning person. And my sleeping habits for the last few years reflect that. But I’m finding it harder and harder to survive here just by sleeping when I want to. I stay up until 2 or 3 most nights, sometimes 5 or 6. And most days there’s no reason to get up so I sleep until whenever I want to. But three days a week I have early classes and to get to the campus on time I have to get up at 7. The result of all this switching is that I’m always tired and the fact that I haven’t had more than 6 hours of sleep a night in 5 days is not unusual. Maybe I’m getting old; I don’t think my body can handle this anymore.
Yesterday we found a much faster way to get to the mall, by bus rather than going way out of the way to take the subway. That makes Ritter Sport and Flagman just that much more accessible.
Next weekend I’m heading to Amsterdam with the crew. Particularly with these guys that promises to be an interesting weekend. I just hope everyone makes it back alive.
texas
Yes, I’m proud to be a Texan!
yum yum
It’s nice to see that someone is finally changing the face of school lunch. Not that I don’t miss cheesy fish Fridays.
back to school
Vacation is almost over; the semester starts Monday here and I need to get a little more serious about learning German and life in general. I’m still not sure what classes I’m taking and how this whole thing called university works in Germany, but I’m sure it’ll all work out somehow. Most classes here only meet one day a week, so it’s looking like I will have Fridays, and probably Mondays off- four day weekend every week. That’s the life!
The last couple weeks have been relaxing and fun, and sometimes a little boring. The only people who were around were 3 of the American guys who live at FDH, my dorm, but we tried to make the best of it. As kind of a quick overview, a large group of us went to Heidelberg the weekend before class eneded for Herbstfest. It is a beautiful city with an old castle overlooking it. One of the attractions at the castle is the grosses Fass, or large barrel. Words cannot do justice to this thing, nor can the pictures I took because you can’t get far enough away from it to get the entire barrel in the picture. But, take my word for it, it is a huge barrel, once filled probably with a year’s supply of wine or beer for everyone at the castle. The festival was great; truly a German experience.
The next weekend I went to an orientation seminar for the German-American Clubs program that is sponsoring me here in Kaiserslautern. There were lots of formal activities because this coincided with German-American appreciation day (check out the picture, slightly ironic) 
but we unwound one afternoon by going to a soccer match against Berlin, and that was quite an experience. German soccer fans are insane! To top off the weekend, I learned a German drinking game, and spent most of Saturday night laughing at some of the very drunk American students.
We spent one afternoon last week in Wiesbaden, but though it is a nice, old city, there isn’t much to do there and after a few hours of walking around we were ready to head back home. Last Saturday I went to the 30th anniversary celebration dinner of the German-American club here in the Frankfurt area. The food was very good, a nice change from cooking for myself all the time. The highlight of the evening, and maybe the most painful part also, was the country-western line dancing group that performed. That’s all well and good in Texas, but I really don’t want to watch Germans line dancing. Nevertheless, it was hilarious for a little while.
Yesterday my dad came through Frankfurt for the day on his way home from a business trip in the middle east. It was nice to see him and we spent the day walking around the city, much of it in the rain. But we caught the only 20 minutes of sunshine all day long while we were at the observation deck on top of the MainTower. It has a great view of the entire city from the 2nd tallest office building in Frankfurt and I can’t believe that I haven’t been up there yet. We went to a typical German restaurant with good food, though huge portions, and the local applewine. I was sad to see him leave, but it sounds like these trips may become more regular so he might come through more often. The agenda now is a trip to the grocery store, and a visit to Mainz tomorrow if it’s not pouring rain.
pictures
I know that I promised pictures were coming soon, but it’s no suprise at this point that there are no pictures. My computer still has problems of some sort and I can’t transfer photos from my camera to the laptop. It’s frusterating that there are still all these little problems, but I’m sure they’ll be resolved eventually.
weekend plans
I’ve gotten over the frusteration of computer problems and all the other things that seem to go wrong here. I don’t really care anymore, and for the moment I’m content to enjoy life as it is. Everything else will work itself out.
This morning there was some problem with the subway on the way to class. We got on one train and stood there for 5 minutes listening to a recording saying that we would have to get off at the next stop and walk to the campus because there was something wrong in the tunnel for a couple stops. Finally they told everyone to get off that train and we tried to find a bus that would take us there, with no luck. We thought we’d have to walk all the way, and at this point we were going to be late anyhow. But another train came, we got on it, and it took us to the right stop. When we got off the entire station smelled horrible and it was kind of hazy. There must have been some kind of electrical fire or something. All very strange, but we ended up being just a few minutes late and the teacher hadn’t started yet, so it was all good.
I registered to vote by absentee ballot today for the election. Seems way too easy, they don’t even require ID. But that’s nice because my passport is off somewhere supposedly to apply for a student visa but I have this fear that I may never see it again.
We’re going to Heidelberg tomorrow for the Herbstfest. Don’t know what that is, but as my German teacher said, “a fest is a fest.” The tickets are ridiculously cheap: €28 for 5 people, to anywhere in Germany on a Saturday or Sunday. Why not at $6 a person? I will take pictures and share them eventually, when that is possible again.
Grrr
That’s my word of the week. I seriously think I have a curse when it comes to computers. I left my room for 5 or 6 hours on Sunday to go to a picnic, left my laptop on. And when I got back it had one of those lovely blue “you’ve managed to screw something up without doing anything” screens. That’s happened before, though it’s certainly not a regular occurance. So I shut down the computer and went to dinner at Mr. Lin’s (I think we’re addicted). When I got back I had our resident comp sci nerd look at it, and it wouldn’t start normally or in safe mode. His semi-expert opinion is that one of the drivers failed, or maybe the hard drive is just dead dead dead. So whatever, I’m back to no computer in my room until Justin figures out what’s wrong. And of course I left my recovery disks at home so I had my parents Fed-Ex them. Wonderful. Well, on a happier note, it was a good weekend otherwise. Went for a long, relaxing walk yesterday in the park near where we live and then may have given us food poisoning at dinner. I feel better, but Dave didn’t show up to class today. Ok, well I’m heading into town to take care of some stuff. No class tomorrow! I love having Wednesdays free; it’s like a weekend in the middle of the week. A group of us talked about trying to go to Stuttgart this weekend for Oktoberfest and that could be lots of fun.