I Amsterdam

En fin de compte, nos plans grandioses pour un voyage en Suisse en voiture ont tombé à l'eau. Pas de problème, nous sommes en Belgique! L'Europe entière est à notre disposition. Et il y a t'il une meilleure façon de celébrer l'arrivée de l'automne qu'un voyage à Amsterdam?

We (the 8 of us!) left early Friday morning and a little over two hours later, we were in search of our hostel. Hostel. How very backpacking-through-Europe of us. Personally, I had never stayed in a ten-bed room before. I kind of liked it, it was like I was back at camp, but without a curfew.

It took a day or two for Europe's City of Sin to grow on me. We explored the city by foot (a coy euphemism for me getting us lost, despite my Bible of a Lonely Planet), found the cafés and the cheap Heineken. After night number one, we were exhausted but managed to find the sight that made Nick From Venezuela exclaim "That's it! I've seen what I needed to see, I can go home now!"

Can we just pretend that it's an "O"?

We accidentally stumbled on the I Amsterdam sign by finding the Van Gogh museum (which, for 14 euros, is pretty much overrated). Apparently Commerce is getting to me - my first instinct upon seeing the sign flocked with tourists was: That's an amazing marketing idea. Think of the return on investment!

On night two, to our delight, we met Hugh From Australia, 19-year old high school graduate on the second leg of a five month solo trip through Europe and South-East Asia. Quand j'ai réalisé qu'il est du même âge que ma soeur, j'était d'autant plus impréssionnée par son attitude positive, son indépendance et sa détermination. Here I'm thinking that I'm rockstar on exchange and I meet someone who just blows me out of the water!




Best of luck on the rest of your travels, Hugh!

 By Sunday I had relinquished my tour guide crown (or rather, it was unceremoniously taken away from me). We found the Anne Frank House, but having not read the book, half of us decided to try something different.

In Canada, pedestrians rule the road. Hitting one is bad. Amsterdam works a little differently, which we found out as soon as we stepped off the curb. Bikes rule here. And in a city where there are trams, busses, cars, over a million bicycles (more than one per citizen) and thousands of tourists, that's saying quite a bit. When we finally figured out that we couldn't beat them, we had to join them. 




Look ma, no helmet!

The cliché is true, there's no better way to see Amsterdam. The paths are wide and plentiful. Where there are no paths, motorists yield to the bikes. As if I needed further proof of this mode of transportation's dominance, I saw girls arriving at the opening of a club on two-weelers - wearing stilettos. A tour of Amsterdam's park (which puts Central Park to shame) made me fall in love with the city. And there's something about peddling that made the Red Light Destrict seem positively picturesque.

Soon enough, we only had hours remaining in the Netherlands, which we filled with a walking tour of the city (free - unless you tip). Despite the rain, I thought it was great value... informative and funny (if not, a little cheesy). I recommend to anyone that they try one of these out in most of Europe's major cities.

A few hiccups later, we were back in Louvain-la-neuve exhausted and happy to be back home. Home... it's only been two weeks. How quickly time flies!