"Do you know what we've been through?" (Amsterdam)

Hey everyone!
So I'm back, safe and sound (miraculously) from Amsterdam. This trip definitely rivals the Dominica 2005 trip where my best friend Laura is seperated from the group and the house we are staying in is broken in to.
So sit back and get ready for a very amusing, "can this get any worse," kind of stories.
Well, we left Thursday evening and took an overnight coach bus to Amsterdam. Arrived around 8 local time. We decided to find our hostel and leave some of our stuff there. So we buy tram tickets and find our way around Amsterdam. Unlike Scotland, this was a breeze. Around 9 we are standing in the lobby and unloading our backpacks into lockers. We then began our sightseeing. First we go to Anne Frank's House which was so wonderful. It was sad to think about what this family and many others like it had to go through during the Holocaust, but again so amazing to be in such a historical site. We then travelled onwards to the Rijksmuseum, which is basically the big museum for Amsterdam. I was able to see many Rembrandts, Vermers, and a couple very detailed and beautiful doll houses. One Rembrandt had just previously been restored so an entire room was dedicated to how it was done and the finished product. Very cool. Next we went and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Our waiter was great--he was from Greece so we got some pointers on which islands to visit. We then walked around, picked up some souveniers, and made our way back to the hostel.
This is where the trouble begins...
So we get to our hostel and give them our confirmation/reservation information and they preceed to tell us how they are overbooked. So basically, there are no rooms for us. Hmm...okay. So what are you going to do about that? Well, they reply, we have a couple other hotels around town so we'll transfer you to another one, which is actually more expensive per night, and you can stay there for the same price. GREAT! No worries there. We can go with the flow...
So then (I apologize for my weak recalling and telling of the story. In person it is quite hilarious because it is accompanied by many gestures and faces to really give you the full affect.) we are off to the new hostel and arrive there only to hear that we will be split up and not given a private 6 person room like we had purchased. Problem! Major problem! This is Amsterdam! The drug capital of Europe! There is no way we are going to be split up and possibly stuck in a room with four large guys who come back having lived the crazy party and night life Amsterdam offers. This is just not safe! So our party is comprised of 5 ladies and 1 gentlemen so the guy and one of the girls decides that they feel safe enough splitting into that pair so they take a room. Okay, great. 2 down, 4 to go. So, how about a room for 4 ? Uh, no. How about moving some other people around? Uh no. How about a closet next to the mops? Uh no.
So now we are at the point where we are calling around trying to find another place for us 4 to stay. Problem--there is a conference in town and all hostels and hotels are booked solid. So we call our Program Assistant, the lovely Thomasina, who we hope can help us maybe find something online. Well, she didn't take it that way. She took it as get this hotel to suit our needs. This was the comical relief we had been needing all night. It got to the point where she was saying it was against our religion to be in a co-ed room (which really wasn't the issue, just another factor to consider). Poor receptionist guy. He suffered the wrath of Thomasina.
Okay, so now we are basically thinking of going to a train station to sleep if need be, but then we are like, this hostel has a eating area, maybe we could just stay up in there all night. We all would feel more comfortable being in a group and together even if that means no where to comfortable rest. And finally, we have found our solution. So, we are each refunded our money and start to settle in the eating area. We play a game of Phase 10 and settle in and one of the workers comes in and tells us we can still have the free breakfast in the morning. "We'll be here" was the response. How could we miss breakfast when our beds are on the tables we'll eat it on!
So we hang out for a couple of hours and around 2 another man comes in to tells us they have found a private room we can stay in. WAIT! There are no rooms in the hostel we thought...Oh well, we won't argue any more. So we get up to our room, with its own bathroom, mind you, and push a couple of beds together and have one on the floor and we are happy.
So then we are woken up to the sound of someone knocking on our door. Its Brian, the guy from our group. Breakfast is over in 10 minutes. Hurry! Ironic isn't it that after this entire fiasco we are going to miss breakfast! Ah, this is the cause of many laughs throughout the day. "We'll be here." Haha. So we rush down to breakfast and then check out of the hostel. Oh man, never again. (Again, reading back over this, the story isn't nearly as funny and accurate as it would be if I was talking to you. So sorry)
So now we are off for another exciting day of sightseeing. We took a two hour city bus tour where we saw a windmill, all the canals, and toured a diamond factory! This was so cool. So things are starting to look up. We then go into a department stores so one of the girls can buy the 1st Harry Potter book in Dutch (she's a little obsessed with HP, which is an understatement...) and have lunch in their cafe. We then decide to split up because two of the six spend forever in museums (lets just say they were in one for two hours and only got through one floor!). So they started off to the Van Gogh museum while the other 4 of us shopped around a little before heading over. Of course, we got lost on the way and ended up only having a hour in the Van Gogh museum. It was marvelous though! I could spend so much time in there because Van Gogh was just amazing!
We then moved on to have a canal cruise and see Amsterdam from that point of view. It was very nice but by that time we were all just so tired and the boat ride was so relaxing, a couple of us may have nodded off multiple times. Then we ate at McDonalds (yummm) and headed off to the bus station for another overnight trip home.
So we are on the bus thanking the Lord to be going back to beautiful, clean London thinking how hilarious the whole weekend was, and yes, you guessed, something else went wrong! (Isn't getting just pathetic now) So we are at the passport check station write on the border of France and we only have a couple of minutes to go through the line so we can make that Eurotunnel in the next couple of minutes. So we all make it through with not much hassel and we are just sitting on the bus. Waiting...waiting...and eventually one of those on the bus with us is coming out of the building followed by a government worker and this poor man is being denied entrance into the UK. So they take his luggage off and out of the bus and he goes back inside. So we pull around to the entrance to the Eurotunnel to get back to the lovely island of Britain but the bus driver stops the bus and says, "We have missed the 6:30 Eurotunnel and will now have to wait until 8." AH! All we want is to be home in our beds, but instead an additional hour and a half is given to be spent on the coach.
But finally we get back to London and to our house. Unfortunately, all of us are greeted by our computers who need to be used to write a Science paper! All in all a wonderful weekend, don't you think?
In all honesty, this weekend was so great just because of the museums and places we were able to see. Truly, art and history are my passions now since they are on my doorstep here in Europe and it is so amazing to see the real things and really be able to tell what an artist is conveying. With all the things that went wrong it was a great weekend! It just may all be worth it for the story! Again, it's so much better in person...I'll make sure each and everyone of you get that chance to hear me tell! No worries! ;-)
Love and miss you all! ♥♥♥


A typical street in Amsterdam:

Sarah and me on the bus for our city tour: The ring I want from the diamond factory:
One of the canals of Amsterdam:
Where we thought we were going to sleep:

Where we actually got to sleep (and our excited faces): The wonderful hostel we will never go to again:


The largest windmill in Amsterdam:
The Rijksmuseum we went to on Friday (Rembrandt):

The other side of the Rijksmuseum:
YAY!!

Everyone rides bicycles in Amsterdam, so much so that they always have the right of way on streets, over both pedestrians and vehicles: