Amsterdam...Again?

So Thursday, November 13th, I head to Amsterdam...again. That's right, but this was my original trip. The first week long trip was during midterm week, and I had no midterms and had nothing to do. Charlie was staying with Marge already, he had arrived a day earlier because flights were cheaper since he booked so late.

CK was supposed to meet me at the Malpensa airport in Milan....but he had booked is flight from Rome to Linate (also in Milan but about 90 minutes away from Malpensa), and didn't realize that his next flight was Malpensa to Amsterdam. Sucked. He spent a lot of money on a taxi, and didn't even make it on time. He had to spend the night at the Malpensa airport, and pay for another flight Friday morning.

So I arrive in Amsterdam, and take the bus by myself to Marge's. I know the area so well, that I stop at the supermarket to pick up some Stroopwafels (best deal in Amsterdam. 65cents for 10 waffle snacks with syrup in them), shampoo, and beer. I get to Marge's, and they cooked dinner for me! Or Marge did, Charlie doesn't cook. So sweet of her, then Charlie and I shotgunned a beer immediately, and I surprisingly held it down. We drank quite a bit more before leaving Marge's, and I was pretty drunk when we left. We went to a bar to meet up with some of Marge's friends. Charlie dinked me on the back of his bike, and we met up wit SLOPS! It felt so great to see a fellow FLIX in Europe. I was so happy!

Then to get home, Charlie had to dink Slops, and Kevin had to dink me cuz of his weak chicken legs. We were all supposed to meet up for fries...we were all biking together...but somehow we got lost from the group... and no one showed up so Kevin and I got fries. AMAZING. Falafels and fries are the best things in Amsterdam. I don't know how the Dutch do it...munchies galore.

Charlie proceeded to snore like a train that night, and Marge woke up all night to pinch his nose. I wanted to hit him.

Saturday CK arrived in the morning. He was kinda lost...and Marge went out in search of him. I believe it also might have been drizzling. We did some touristy pictures, like Slops and the sex museum...enough said. We went out for falafels while Marge was in class, and got really really lazy at the Damkring. It was pretty awesome, but we couldn't get ourselves to move. It took us about 90 minutes before we could bike. We then got lost trying to find the Anne Frank house, but it was well worth it. It was really sad, and you couldn't help but think about how tragic WWII was and the Holocaust.

We end up getting dinner at an Indian restaurant, it was delicious! But then we're really late getting back to Marge's.

Marge and CK had a lil fun before we enter into the Okkervil River concert. CK had the infamous spacecake that I had, and wasn't affected the entire concert. That's two hours! But the concert was amazing. Marge and I had seen them in Boston a year ago, and they one of my favorite bands. They came out with a new album, so they were promoting that, but it was still really good. We were right in the front, and we were able to get set lists! We couldn't figure out if the bassist was the same Patrick that had invited us (in Boston) to party with the band at their next gig in North Hampton...we decided he wasn't the same, so we were disappointed (picture on right). We wanted to go to a coffee shop with them! Then CK got his world ROCKED by the spacecake. We were walking along and found a bar to jump into. He wasn't feeling great, so we sent him home in a taxi...but then we couldn't find our bikes! We were so scared. Things all worked out in the end though. :)

Saturday morning, Marge brought us to a brunch place....with PANCAKES. After reading the menu, CK and I were torn between burgers and pancakes...so I suggested that we each get burgers with fries...and would split a pancake (which was pretty big...). Great idea I'd like to say, we got the chocolate pancake...but this is where we came up with the idea "Eat-for-eat." I decided that I would go eat-for-eat with CK for the day...he's twice my weight, and at least 6'4''.

We headed to the Van Gogh Museum, where I purchased an audioguide and was pretty deep in thought and site. Most people are disappointed by it, but I think I was pretty content under the circumstances. I felt like I was in a dream world...pretty cool! Then we hit up another coffeeshop, and then falafels again. Still going eat-for-eat.

We head back to Marge's, and drink some more before going to the Sugar Factory. So pretty tipsy again, and we decide to go to the bathroom at McDonalds. Worst idea EVER. After going to the bathroom, I find CK in line to buy a chicken sandwich meal. I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't, and so I dished about about 7euro for a meal. I was so ridiculously full, it was terrible. But I refused to lose.

The music at the Sugar Factory was really really REALLY good music that night. It was awesome. Too bad Alex and his friends didn't come in, I literally got to see him for 30 seconds. Rather sad, but still a great time. We dance because we really love the music, and it showed. The creepy host guy kept looking at us though...he was definitely on something. We left the next morning, and I was sad to go, but it was necessary. I cannot live that lifestyle, it would be too much of a toll on my little body.

But I sure do love Amsterdam, and Margaret.

Southern Italy

Friday night, November 7th (last weekend of our mid-term break) Charlie, Josh, and I took a night train to Naples. It took about 10 hours, and it was so hard to sleep. We each had one seat in a six-seat compartment, and all the seats were full, so sleeping was highly uncomfortable. Charlie and I watched the Prince of Egypt on his Nintendo DS, and we ended up getting into Naples around 8am.

We took the Circumvisuviana to Pompei, which was where we started off our day. We rented audio guides and spent about three to four hours looking through the ruins. Pompei is a ruined/preserved city that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. It was really cool to walk through the streets and see the houses that people lived in. Some walls had artwork that was preserved, and there were even cast molds of some people that had been buried alive! There was also a Colosseum. It was so exhilarating to stand in the center rink, knowing that many others had been there before, and fought and died. (Too bad I didn't get to go into the Roman Colosseum). We could see Mt. Vesuvius from everywhere, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompei. Around 1pm, we decided to head to Hostel 7 in Sorrento. BEST HOSTEL that I've ever stayed at. It was pretty much a hotel. We dropped our things off, and went into Sorrento to have dinner at Pizzeria da Franco. We then bought a bottle of limoncello, which Sorrento is very well-known for. It's 30% alcohol, so a bit less than vodka, and it obviously tastes kind of like lemon. I didn't really like it, but it did its job. We sat by the coast and finished the bottle off before heading back to the hostel where we drank more wine. Charlie fell asleep as we were watching The Office, but Josh and I had a great time.

Sunday morning, we took a ferry to Capri to see the Blue Grotto. It's this cave where the sun reflects off of the rocks in a certain manner, and where the light enters in a certain manner, that the water in it is blue. Not the blue of ocean water, but a beautifully bright blue that I've never seen before. The oarmen also sang while we were in there. We had to pay 11E to take a motor boat to the Grotto, and than anoter 10E to go into row boats that brought us into the cave. The cave opening was so small, I thought that we were going to hit the top. On rough water days the Grotto's actuallly closed because of this fear. Trying to get out of the cave, our rowboat was pushed out four times.

We didn't see any more of Capri because we were under the impression that we had to rush back for the Amalfi Coast. Our plan was to do Amalfi and then take the 9pm night train back to Milan. Turns out that there was a 24-hour strike, and we wouldn't be able to leave Naples until Monday. So we decided to save the Amalfi for Monday since all scooter places were closed anyway (Our plan was to scooter down the Amalfi Coast.), and took a walking tour of Naples instead. We had pizza for lunch at a really busy place, Trianon. It was delcious! We walked around and saw two castles and a lot of piazzas.

To head back to Sorrento, we took a crowded bus to get back to the main station. It was ridiculously packed, and there was a lot of commotion. Josh was by the backdoor since we got separated, and there was this one guy trying to cause a lot of problems. At one of the bus stops, four guys throw him off the bus, and one guy starts beating the crap out of him: throwing him against the wall, kicking his face, throwing punches. It was so scary! The guy that got beat up jumped back onto the bus, but continued to cause problems! He shattered a beer bottle on the pole and glass went flying everywhere in the bus. Apparently he was threatening someone....

And then Charlie got pickpocketed! He noticed someone was trying to take his wallet, so he shook that guy off, but then he went to check his other pocket and found out his camera was gone! He looked around him, and the thief was standing right next to him holding it....the bus door was open as well, but I guess he wanted to steal from more people. Charlie just points at the camera, and the guy says sorry and gives it back.... so messed up! And then I saw a guy unzipping Josh's backpack, and I just rip the zipper away from him and say "Scusa!" That guy immediately got off the bus...I think he probably got something from someone else and wanted to get out of there as fast as he could....what a day right?

We end up eating at this really quaint place in Sorrento for dinner, and then head back to Hostel 7 for the night.

Monday morning, we woke up thinking we would be able to visit the Amalfi Coast. Turns out the strikes kept the buses from running there, and all the scooter rental places were either out of scooters, or were closed. We decided we would rent a car, but then that place closed for 3 hours for lunch break! We literally walked all around Sorrento for +2 hours. Needless to say, it was very disappointing. We have lunch where we had dinner the night before, then we did a little shopping. We headed back to Naples for dinner at Da Michele, supposedly the best pizza in Italy. They only serve two types of pizza, so it's very simple, but it was really good. We took the night train back to Milan, getting in around 7am Tuesday morning.

All in all...we didn't quite get to see what we wanted to see. I would really love to go back to see the Amalfi Coast next time I come to Italy. It was a series of unfortunate events that kind of threw our itinerary off.

Roma!

So Marge and I took the early flight out of Amsterdam to Milan Saturday morning, 11/01. Of course we got back and crashed for a while. Marge slept for a good amount of time, and then we went to Siddhartha, an Indian apperativo. We met up with Aneri, and ate about 4 plates. Marge couldn't even drink her White Russian, she said that there was too much alcohol in it. Aneri and I tried it and told her it tasted nothing like alcohol....maybe we're too used to the strong Italian drinks.

Sunday we visited the Castle and the Duomo, both of which are really pretty. We paid to go to the top of the Duomo, where I hadn't even been either. We wrapped up the day with gelato, and prepped for our trip to Rome.

We left for Rome Monday afternoon. Our flight was half an hour late, so we weren't able to enter the Colosseum. It was absolutely gorgeous from the outside, I can only imagine how it would've looked from the inside. My lonely planet guide said that there was "Gladiator School" which I was all about. Marge didn't seem as enthusiastic....they were going to let us keep our tunics!

We then found our way into the Roman Forum, which was a series of ruins. They were pretty cool, but it was getting dark fast, so it was difficult to see. We sat down to figure out our next destination when this English guy pops in to take a picture behind us. His name was Dan, and we ended up hanging out with him all night. He's a Chelsea soccer fan in Rome for the game, and decided to do some touristy things unlike all his friends that stayed back at the hotel. We led him to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. Between those two monuments, we had dinner together, which was rather cute.

The Trevi Fountain was beautiful. Quite frankly, I would've been satisfied staying there all night. There were so many people there sitting on the steps. Dan had convinced Marge and I to buy beers on our way over to the Fountain...so we were the only three people drinking alcohol in front of it.

Right when we had left the ruins, we met "Spanish Rob," that's seriously how he introduced himself. He told us about a pub crawl that was happening that night, and Marge says to me, "Karen....when in Rome." That sealed the deal, and we met at the Spanish Steps. When Marge wants to drink, you drink.

So Dan met us there and we were led to the first pub. Turns out we were about 40 minutes late, and we were allotted 3 vodka redbulls there and as much beer as we wanted. We had our drinks in 20 minutes, with Marge participating in a chugging contest. She was sooo funny. (Obviously she lost....) She only drank it so she could get more beer for Dan, she's too sweet.

From there things got hazy...we just went to like, three pubs and a club. Being a tourist and all, I had my backpack on the pub crawl. We didn't have time to go back to the hostel, so I guarded my bag while Marge danced her little booty off. We met so many people that night, and I don't remember any of them. Everyone was so friendly, it was pretty awesome.

We end up splitting a taxi with two other kids, and on our way back to our hostel, Marge and I decided that it would be a great idea to try to puke in the street. I can't pull the trigger, so basically I was trying to get myself to feel nauseous. Then some guy came up to us, and tried talking to us. It was super creepy, but it was awesome cuz he could understand my Italian! We scampered back into our hostel, and Marge and I basically took turns throwing up in the bathroom.

Now...you have to understand that we were in a coed dorm, with five other guys, and just us two. The walls were really thin, so they could hear us...or me mainly, throwing up and drive heaving. Marge only threw up about 3 times and was fine, but I think I threw up at least 10 times. It was terrible. I knew I had to get it out of my system before the morning because we were planning to visit the Vatican. How great would that be, "hey Pope, how ya doin?" and then throw up at his feet.

We planned to wake up at 7am, but we didn't leave til 8:15 cuz I was still a mess. We moved super slow because of me, and somehow found St. Peter's Basilica at our feet. It was ENORMOUS! It felt so unreal to be there. We joined a tour (our tour guide was named Angelo!) to enter into the Vatican Museum, so we checked out the Sistine Chapel. It was really inspiring to be there. How could Michelangelo have painted that! Then we went to St. Peter's Basilica, and it's even bigger from the inside than the outside.

We had lunch, and then took the flight home Tuesday night...which was actually an hour late. Rome is definitely my favorite city in Italy, I really wish I could have studied abroad there, or at least spent some more time. It's too bad, but I'll definitely go back some day, or within the year.

The End of Amsterdam

So on the last night of Amstedam (Halloween), Marge and I dressed up as pandas. (Yes, we're both Asian, and there aren't many in the Netherlands.) People thought that we were cats...and sexy devils. Neither of which we were going for. We went to some party in Marge's dorm, where we basically killed three bags of chips.

We ended up biking out to the Sugar Factory, thinking we would want to party...but by then it was 2am, and just not worth 10E to get in. We pretty much biked out for no reason, but we did eat fries! Fries with ketchup and mayonnaise, soooo delicious. We slept around 4am, and got up around 7am for our flight. It was a really tiring and relaxing week at the same time, and it was really nice to be able to see Marge. Funny thing is...I'm going to Amsterdam again in two weeks for my original trip with CK, Charlie, and apparently SLOPS! Yes, needless to say, I'm really excited to hang out with a fellow Flick in Europe.


Compiled stats of an unforgetable (but hazy) week with Margaret:
day 1: 7; 9h
day 2: 2; ice, yi
day 3: 3
day 4: 6, northern lights, k
day 5: 2, space cake
day 6: 4, trash
day 7: 5, k