We spent half the day on the train, which I know Sarah didn't like esp since we had to stop someplace for what seemed like a million hours (I think it was only 10 minutes, but anyway...). It was still drizzly in Germany when we woke up which made me feel a little less guilty about not having seen ANY of Heidelberg except the woods! So not much happened on the train... except this girl sat down near us for most of the ride and for some reason, she really bugged us. So, Sarah and I talked about how much she was annoying us until she stopped one of the train people and asked them a question-- in English! We were horrified, to say the least but thankfully, we soon arrived in Amsterdam.
One of the first observations we made about this city is "look at all the BIKES!" There had to be about about a thousand of them at this little parking garage place right outside of the train station (not even exaggerating!!). It was INSANE!! Amsterdam is also arranged around a bunch of canals that are in a ring pattern, which I guess is a little helpful because you can pretty much figure out where you are and where to go if you know which canal you are at.We passed on the €1 map at the info desk and used my printed out directions to get to the hostel, which took such a long time! Once we arrived (it was a Christen hostel which didn't allow drinking, smoking, alcohol, drugs or being drunk or under the influence of anything) we dropped our stuff and decided to head straight to the Anne Frank museum.
It was pretty much across the canal at the end of the street. Very sobering place, but good to see after reading her diary. There were little videos or things to look at in each room, and no furniture. There was one room at the very end that focused on the impact of Anne's diary and it had a display of the book in about 60 different languages as well as three screens showing different version of her diary in movies and on stage. I noted in my daily journal that I didn't really focus on the actual rooms I went thru, I think because there was so much other stuff to look at besides the small, empty rooms.After the museum, we headed out to find some grub. We walked down a few streets and across some canals looking for cheap food and finally decided on an Italian place. After finishing our delicious dindin, we decided to just walk and let Amsterdam show us something exciting. Amsterdam is filled with graffiti (which I thought was pretty cool!) and we passed a tiny picture of a gnome... then another... and then another! I call this the Gnome Series:
We found the single open grocery store and got some cookies and water. I also had to get deodorant having just run out- which I thought was annoying because I only had about 5 days left in Europe! So I got some crazy liquid stuff that rolls on... very interesting stuff.... Also in the grocery store, the lady in front of us asked Sarah about the candy she was buying. Then once outside, the same lady came up to us as and asked if we were American. We had a long chat (with her doing most of the talking!) and found out that she was from Chili and that she was a feminist. Eventually, we parted ways and then it began sprinkling.
Sarah and I walked quickly, but no use! The rain came anyway so we stopped a few times under awnings to try to stay dry as well as get our bearings. We ended up stopping right by the Anne Frank house with an old Irish couple who were also waiting for the rain to let up. They were very friendly and nice and we talked for a little while until the rain calmed down. Once back in our room (which we were sharing with 18 other girls) we hung up our wet stuff all over the place which was hard because it was so cramped!
