Amsterdam Round Two

Hey guys,

I've been in Netherlands for around three weeks and things are still fun and exciting. Seeing as we only touched the surface of Amsterdam, we owed it to ourselves to go back. And this time we managed to see a lot more sites and really enjoy what Amsterdam has to offer.

We arrived at our cramped jailcell hostel in the afternoon. This didn't matter much because we didn't plan on staying there long anyways. So the first night we decided to go on a pub crawl. This comprised of 6 free drinks and in 6 different bars & cafes. We met some cool American girls at the beginning of the pub crawl. They are all on exchange in Barcelona. So we will definately take advantage of their local knowledge when we head over to Barcelona in a couple weeks. These girls knew how to party and it made for a fun pub crawl ;).

By 4AM we decided to head over to the infamous Red Light District. This place was something else. They were prostitutes in their own rooms with glass windows all along the alleys. It was crazy they would wave at you and try to get you in there. There were also many drug dealers walking around. They would walk by you whispering "cocaine, cocaine" or "ecstacy, ecstacy". It was like the Red Light District was something out of a movie. Like nothing I've ever seen.

The next day we made our way to the Van Gogh Museum. They had some pretty amazing exhibits. Going into this museum I didn't know much about Van Gogh. Very interesting place, and there were some amazing sculptures and paintings there. It was really cool to learn his story as well.

After our hour and a half period of pretending to be classy individuals we preceded to the Heineken Brewery Tour. It was a lot more commercial than I thought it was. I still don't really know the whole process of making beer. But I got to check out the DJ sim place and see a bunch of cool commercials. Not to mention I got three free beers and a free bottle opener!

Later that night we really wanted to check out the clubbing in Amsterdam. So we went to one of Amsterdam's most famous clubs, Escape. This place was huge! Defintaely the biggest club I went to by a lot. They were pumping the hard techno and the Dutch people were loving it. It was definately intense in there but by 5AM you are drained. But with that said, the Dutch definately know how to party!

The next morning we had to wake up at 9AM to check out at 10AM. As you can imagine, we were feeling like gold that morning. But once we hit the train for Maastricht I passed out instantly.

Overall, a great trip and I got to see things I never thought even existed. We will definately go back to Amsterdam but it probably won't be till end of October or November. We still have to hit all the other European destinations though. Only a week and a half till Oktoberfest! I hope you guys are doing well back in Canada and abroad...

Kean

Maastricht

Hello hello,

It's been almost two weeks in Maastricht, Netherlands and so far so good. I arrived on the 31st of August and there was a huge pub crawl that night. But really, it's pretty tough to have a pub crawl in a town with 365 pubs. Not much to choose from really :). That night I met a rediculous amount of people and probably remember about half. I'd say that's a pretty good ratio. We went to around 5 different bars and I got to try out some of my Dutch pick-up lines some of you might of heard of. Haha, they were eating it up...

The next few days after that has been going out and checking out Maastricht's night life. So many bars to choose from, but most of them are chill pubs/restaurants. I managed to grab a ticket for the Intro weeks: Sports Day. I finally got to try out rowing for once. Ironically, away from Victoria but hey, it was about time. It's definately fun givin er' on the boat, trying to go as fast as you can. I just wish the other guys knew what they were doing, haha.

The end of the intro week had the final day party. It was a spring break party so I naturally brought my lei that I got in the last pub crawl (Thanks Akemi). Most of the int'l students didn't even know what a lei was! The party was in an old historical fort of all places! They squeezed in 900 people in that bad boy. I'd have to say it was really cool and an incredible time. There's nothing like partying to some trance beats in an old school fort. The party was amazing and I managed to stay up till 6AM. Thank you Euro night life!

April from Commerce stayed with Alex and I for a couple days. We finally checked out the infamous coffee shops of Netherlands. Definately weird buying weed over the counter. To add to this, the coffee shop was on a boat called the Mississippi. You know your in Netherlands when... The next night we all went out and checked out some new bars. We found this new spot called Allah. As you can tell the Dutch don't hold back even when it comes to names of bars. This place opens at two (Not closes) adn goes till 5AM. Awesome music and great atmosphere but a little corwded, but I'm getting used to that.

Lately we have been making plans for trips in the next month. It's looking like:

Next Weekend: Amsterdam
Weekend 2: Manheim
Weekend 3: Oktoberfest!
Weekend 4: Barcelona (5 days)

That's what we have so far. There are many trips to be made though. This will only be the beginning! I better get back to some minimal reading that I have been doing of late. Tonight is the int'l student night (Every Tuesday). Definately one of my favourite nights... I hope all you are doing well in Canada and abroad!

Kean

Amsterdam

Hey guys,

After many-a-months waiting I finally was ready to leave to Europe. I flew from Calgary to London Heathrow. That is a giant airport. I haven't seen so many people and cultures in one place. It looked like the whole world was in one airport. After a five hour layover I flew to Amsterdam's Schipol airport. A much nicer airport, by-the-by. I had my first preview of Netherlands and Dutch people. I have seen more tall Dutch people that night then the rest of my life. The stereotype is true, go figure.

I managed to lug all my giant luggage through the Amsterdam train and tram. Note to future travelers: Do bring giant suitcases, especially if you don't need it. I had to ask a few Dutch residents for directions and advice on the way to my hostel. They are incredibly willing and helpful. I finally arrived to the Vondelpark Hostel which is right beside Vondelpark. This is one of several parks around Amsterdam. The hostel looked quite nice (In hostel terms) and had good amount of amenities.

I met up with my roomate Alex and we unpacked and got ready to check out the town (We have no concept of jet lag). We went to a few cafe's which are really small pubs that play dance music. They were really cool and had a lot of character to them. We met a really cool bartender in one of the cafe's who gave us the lowdown on Amsterdam night life. Turns out Paul Van Dyke is playin gon October 28th. You can count us on being there! At teh end of the night we had the infamous Dutch croquet. Which is like a fried corndog without the hot dog.....it's hard to explain. It had potatoey stuff in it...it was good regardless.

The next day Alex and I did some shopping at the popular Dutch grocery store Alberheid. We got a 24 pack for 7 euros ($10 CDN) and a forty of Jagermeister for 17 euros ($25 CDN)! Some incredible deals in Netherlands. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to catch the last tour of the Heineken brewery tour. We'll hit that up next time.

We met these really cool German guys. They invited us to this party they were going to at Westelpark. We weren't able to find it since we were all new to Amsterdam. So we came back and caught happy hour at the hostel. We then checked out the town and met some other cool int'l kids.

The next morning we managed to catch Dutch breakfast which is pretty good. Filled me up and thats a hard task in its self. Then we headed for the train and off to Maastricht. Maastricht has been a great time so far. What a city. But that will be another day. I need to have lunch and go play some tennis in the tennis courts right by the guesthouse. Going to be doing a lot of that. Watch out Andy Roddick!

Kean