Another trip is in the books. This weekend we made our way to the Netherlands. We went on an ITT (Institute of Travel & Tourism) trip. It was an interesting way of going on a trip. To go on an ITT trip is very easy. You basically decide which trip you want to go on, pay for it, and then just show up and they take you to your destination. No planning at all. They book your hotel and you usually get breakfast and they take care of transportation while you are there.
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.
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 ferry is like a mini cruise ship minus the elaborate decorations and the overwhelming amount of free food. Once we got on the ferry, Jessica had the brilliant idea to watch the movie "Frozen." I thought it was brilliant at the time also. We paid 7 Euros (which is essentially $14) to sit in a pitch dark room with a Disney movie playing, while the ship rocked back and forth. It would only make sense to fall asleep 10 minutes into the movie. It was the best $14 nap I have ever taken. On the Ferry, we napped, and napped, walked outside, and napped some more. The ferry was a 6 hour trip over to the Hook of Holland.
It took us pretty much all day to get to Amsterdam. Once we got to Holland the bus took us to our hotel (which was right outside of Amsterdam). The bus driver informed us that we would be leaving at 7:30 a.m. and to make sure our clocks were right because we were an hour ahead of UK time. Well....needless to say I just KNEW my clock was right. Ellen had put some coffee on, I was sucking up the wifi when all the sudden my clock on my phone changed! It was 7:30 exactly and the bus was suppose to be pulling off to go to Grand Central Station at 7:30. We went into a straight panic mode. No one could have called us?? Really? O wait--they couldn't have because our "international phones" don't work in other countries but the UK, and no one knew what room we were in. I still don't quite understand why the phone package I bought over here doesn't work in all of Europe but that's another story. Anyway, Ellen and I are in a panic. We throw on some clothes, make sure the old school coffee pot is turned off and make a mad dash downstairs. We could see everyone on the bus waiting from the lobby.
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!
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!
What would Amsterdam be without getting lost in the train station? Everything is in Dutch and we had lost Tom and Evan. We were having a hard time finding where we needed to go. We missed our first train by 2 minutes and then had to wait another hour for the next train AND it was at a different location. It was an adventure that's for sure.
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.
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.
We didn't get home until late Sunday. We had all planned on doing hw/lesson plans on the ferry but the wifi was terrible. So we stopped at the exchange on base on the way back to get some coffee but we ended up finding something better. Dr. Pepper! They don't sell Dr. Pepper over here and you can only find it on base if you are lucky. We were happy teachers finding caffeine in bulk.