We had to be at Lankenheath base at 4:30 a.m. Six of us (Katie, Emily, Teresa, Emily, Lisa, and myself) stayed at a teachers house that lives on Lankenheath's base. She is seriously great. She picked us up, fed us, let us use her wifi, and we got to sleep in nice comfortable beds! She took us to the bus that morning. It was so windy. The wind here is so strong. You'd think we'd be used to it because back home the wind comes sweepings down the plains, but its a different type of wind here, or so it seems. We then got on the bus and traveled about an hour to the Ferry.
The doors to the hotel are those big glass revolving doors and you have to step in and walk with the door as it moves. Just like the doors in the picture. As we are sprinting to get to the bus, we don't really slow down once we get inside these doors. I am in front of Ellen. I look up and see the bus driver looking at us and get in a hurry. I "think" that the door has finally made a full circle and it is time to sprint out, BUT...... I was just a few seconds too early. Yes, I ran right into the clearest pane of glass I have ever came across. It hurt so bad but we were in such a panic neither one of us said anything about it.....until we got on a quiet bus full of people that had been waiting on us. We couldn't stop laughing. We would get silent for a couple seconds and then start laughing again. It was hilarious. I literally just ran smack dab into the door that I was waiting on to open! Don't worry I was fine, but my forehead was a little bruised the next day.
After the moving door incident, we finally made our way to downtown Amsterdam. The first stop on the itinerary was a walking tour through the Red Light District. We paid 10 Euros thinking that we were going to get a tour guide and feel a bit safer than we would if we went by ourselves. What we ended up paying for was our (old) bus driver walking us down one side of the district and up the other, all while making what he thought was " funny" jokes. Total waste of 10 Euros but you live and you learn. NEVER pay for the excursions on an ITT trip.
The Red Light District--Wow. What a different way of life than I am used to. Last night we had an in depth conversation about how naive to the world we Oklahoma girls are. Legal prostitution blows our mind. It's really a sad site, but I was expecting it to be worse. The sidewalks were clean and the girls were....clothed...well they had pieces of clothing on. Ha! It was a site to see but I probably won't be making my way back there anytime soon.
After that a group of us, including Tom (our new friend we met on the way over) went to a pizzeria for pizza and wine. We were there for a couple minutes and the lights went out. Of course! We must have some sort of electric charge that follows us because that same week the electricity went out on base for almost 3 hours. We used someones charged computer and did insanity in the dark. It was a good time. After pizza we gave the night life of Amsterdam a try. We met a couple British guys and they were as nice as could be. At the train station, someone (I think it was Kassidy) told them to hold up their pistols for a picture. We always have to rep where we come from! Go Pokes!
Sunday was amazing. We roamed the streets of Amsterdam, went on a boat ride through the city, and ate at the famous Pankcakes restaurant. The city is full of history. We also went to the Anne Frank Museum. That was a powerful experience. It is such a good museum. You can actually picture the family in the house living the quietest lives. It's so sad that they were in hiding for 2 years and then one person ratted them out and just like that, they were taken away.
Sunday night was interesting. We had this brilliant plan to go to the ice bar in Holland. We really wanted to go to the ice bar in London but we had already have booked our Paris trip, so we made reservations. We were all pretty excited about it. Little did we know it was going to be a total bust. We paid 15 Euros to put on a damp heavy raincoat, walk into a freezing cold bar (literally), get handed half a beer in an ice mug, sit down on a slab of ice to watch the weirdest 4D cartoon for 10 minutes and then get shuffled out like a waddle of penguins. And on top of all that we couldn't take pictures in the bar! Now the upside to this...is that we literally were laughing hysterically the whole time because it was completely different than what we are expecting. This bar focused more on the "experience" and not just a stand around ice bar. It was so funny. At one point I was laughing so hard I was crying. No cameras were allowed, but of course, I was able to get a little footage of it. I plan on making a video of the whole trip so you will be able to see the ice bar "experience" one way or another. I am so glad we ended up going because now we have a hilarious story about Amsterdam on a Sunday night.
All in all Amsterdam was a success. Such an intriguing town. So many different walks of life. The buildings are beautiful and the canals are full of house boats. WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME.