European extravaganza part one: The Netherlands

I've finally made it home after a loooong three weeks. I've realized that time really is objective; these past three weeks have been packed with so many sights, sounds, and people that it feels like it was enough to fill a lifetime...Well maybe I'm exaggerating just a little bit, but you get the idea.

Things didn't quite go exactly as planned -I ended up spending way too much time in Paris, and not nearly enough time in Barcelona, not to mention not even making it to Florence or Rome. I knew things were going to go wrong, but not like this, but when you're traveling in this fashion you just have to deal with everything that life throws at you in the best way that you can. Consequently, I never want to go back to Paris again -not only because the french are just kind of assholes in general, but also because after Jenna left, everything that could go wrong did...but more on that later. I want now to go back to Barcelona for more than the few hours we had between trains, and seeing that I didn't even get to see Rome, I have to go back -but I think I wouldn't have had enough time there anyways, so maybe it was a good thing.

Seeing that I've taken over 600 pictures, and a few videos, there is no possible way that I'm going to be able to fit everything in one post, so I've decided to split it up into each country I was in, proceeding in chronological order: The Netherlands, Spain, France, and Italy.

Part I: The Netherlands

Gronnigen

So we began the journey on a ~7 hour bus and ferry ride from Copenhagen to Gronnigen, NL (located in the northern part of the Netherlands). We stayed here for the next two days in the Martini hotel -named after the famous, and well-known to the inhabitants of Gronnigen, Martini Tower. It was a cozy hotel, and much to my luck, I was in the coolest room out of anybody from our group in that it had more space than just barely enough for the beds, like most of the people (suckers) got. Just to our luck, the following morning after we arrived, there was a leak in a water main somewhere in the northern Netherlands so we didn't have water...what a great way to start out the trip!

I don't exactly remember the order of events that took place, given that it was three weeks ago, so I'm just going to put down events that happened in whatever order they come to my mind. The first, and probably my most favorite part of the visit to Gronnigen, was the bike tour that we were taken on. The tour leaders were two Dutch guys who would have probably made a great comedic duo. It seems to me that the Dutch people are generally just more goofy than the any of the other sorts of people I met on my trip (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) Of course this could be a complete over-generalization but I'm willing to say it. The bike tour took us through the entire city of Gronnigen -and it didn't really take that long given the face that Gronnigen is not that big of a city. Another unique Dutch thing was the prevalence of bikes, both in Gronnigen and in Amsterdam. The picture on the left (the bike parking outside of central station in Gronnigen) brilliantly illustrates this observation -probably the most bikes I've ever seen at once -with the possible exception of the critical mass rides that I frequent back in mpls.

The bike tour ended where it began -at the Martini Tower. What followed was the scaling of the nearly 200ft tall tower by way of a narrow, dark, stone, and spiraled-staircase. We were supposed to count all the steps, but I lost track along the way and just focused on making it to the top -which was more physically exhausting than I thought it would be. Once we were there, however, all of the work was worth it for a beautiful view of the quaint little town of Gronnigen (see panoramic below). On the way down, we stopped at the bell-floor, upon which we were able to actually ring one of the bells. There was a long rope dangling from whatever contraption is used to ring bells, and an open space next a brick wall around the rope. If you got the bell ringing hard and loud enough, you could hold on to the rope at just the right moment, and it would propel you up to 15 ft in the air! I'm proud to unofficially claim myself as the champion of air out of all of my classmates.

view from the Martini Tower

Some other highlights from Gronnigen included a really cool Indonesian restaurant that our study tour leader took us to -I'm not 100% sure, but there must be some kind of connection between the Indonesian islands and the Netherlands because there was just way too many Indonesian restaurants and shops for there not to be. Also, I went to a modern art museum that had such an impressive, and distinct style of architecture that I had to go in and see what it had to offer. Unfortunately, it wasn't all that the outside seemed to crack it up to be -although maybe half of the museum was just being inside this wacky building. Don't get me wrong, there were some really cool art pieces, just nothing that really surprised or attracted me. The picture on the right really doesn't do it justice, but it's the only one I managed to take -the museum was situated on the banks of one of the many canals that run through Gronnigen. The textured blue and white tiles/paintings on the outside of the building seemed to act as mirror reflecting the water upon which the museum was seated.

We left Gronnigen for Amsterdam as planned on the morning of March 12th, so I'll leave the Gronnigen topic for one last, suitable photo of this small town in the north of the land of the Dutch.

(the boats pictured here are peoples' houses!)

Amsterdam

Well, I'm not really sure how to even begin to describe the experiences I had in Amsterdam. This city was like nothing I've ever seen before -but come to think of it, neither was any of the cities I visited...I definitely started to get a feel for the Dutch design in Amsterdam, not only in terms of architecture and buildings, but also the way the city was designed, and the way you maneuvered through it. It was like constantly being in an urban obstacle course. At every moment you needed to be on the lookout for the hoards of bicycles, fast-moving and dangerous above-ground trams, and the steady flow of cars and buses. Also, the way to navigate this city was completely unique from any of the other cities I visited. The city is constructed with the central station at the north, surrounded by a series of circular canals -so instead of using street names to navigate, it was much more convenient to think in terms of how many canals you have to walk past, or walk-along in order to get in the general area of wherever it was that you were trying to find.

By far the most memorable experience in Amsterdam came at the finale of the academic study tour -Cirque du Soleil. This performance of Varekai was located in a giant tent (see picture) about half an hour away from the city by train -the 'Arena' stop to be precise. The stop is called this because of the giant Olympic-style arena of sorts that was located near the train stop. If you've never seen a Cirque du Soleil show, I highly suggest that sometime in the future to check one out. There's no way that words can do justice to the lights, sounds, acrobatics, dance, and circus-esque theatrics that was Varekai -and if you have seen any Cirque du Soleil performance, you will understand why I can't describe the beauty and majesty in words.

Among the many famous people in history who called Amsterdam home was the well-known earless painter Van Gogh. During our stay we had the opportunity to check out the local Van Gogh museum which claimed to have the most extensive collection of works in the world -and I don't doubt it since it was his hometown. I didn't spend too much time here because we were a little crunched for time -I can't even remember what for anymore, but it was the case nonetheless. I read about his entire life and briefly looked at the paintings that reflected each time period of his life -he was truly a revolutionary and gifted artist whose boundaries were unknown to me before this point. His paintings of trees and flowers were really what struck me as his most beautiful -so intricate and colorful, and all in a sort of impressionistic style that can only be described as Van Gogh. Sometime later that night I snapped a picture of a couple trees somewhere in Amsterdam with a specific setting on my camera resulting in the,
what I believe to be, very Van Gogh-esque style photograph you see on the right...

The other most famous person to reside in Amsterdam was Anne Frank. A trip to Amsterdam is not complete without at least a stop by her place of residence (located on the outskirts of the Jordan neighborhood). I didn't have a chance to go into the actual house because I think it costed money, and there was a long line -but I did see her statue and the doors to where she lived. It was at least some form of consolation. Following this brief viewing of the historic site we were led on a walking tour of the Jordan neighborhood. If i remember correctly it was a traditional working class neighborhood now turned into student housing area. The streets of this section of the city, along with most of the rest, are so narrow that you can barely fit one car down the street, which is why most people living in Amsterdam get around by bike (not to mention the fact that owning a car and paying for parking costs a fortune).

Another one of the 'must-see' sites of Amsterdam is the flower market. The below sea-level altitude of the Netherlands, and the overall climate make it one of the most premiere places to grow flowers. The flower market is exactly what it sounds like, a street of flower vendors offering tulips, daffodils, cacti, and many more flowers that I can't recall (if you can't tell I'm not much of a botanist). I'd really like to come back here in the summer to really see the bounty that this spring still has yet to offer.


Of course I can't really go without mentioning the absolute decadence that really made Amsterdam feel like a different world. The red light district is a pedestrian filled section of town marked off by small red stoplight-looking posts. It is filled with the infamous coffee-shops of Amsterdam, girls in bikinis displayed in windows, and countless strangers whispering the names of different street drugs in your ear as you walk by. Certainly it is something worth seeing, but definitely not somewhere I would want to be hanging out for an extended period of time -especially at night when the darkness seems to bring out the madness in everyone...

The following day after Cirque du Soleil my school group left, and I had planned on meeting up with a couple of friends who, coincidentally, were in Amsterdam at the time. They had a hotel not too far away from where I was, so with a little sneakery I was able to spend an extra night for free only to wake up the next morning and hop a train destined for Madrid.

I could go on and on telling you more about the Netherlands, but it seems that this post has become sufficiently long enough for my liking -besides I have three more countries to talk about in the upcoming posts. For now I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from Amsterdam that, for me, describe the whole trip pretty accurately. Be on the lookout for upcoming posts in the next few weeks -although I'm not exactly sure when I'll find the time to do them with school starting up in full gear tomorrow.

the essence of Amsterdam

I had been Amsterdamned indeed.

PS: I don't know why the text gets smaller sometimes, but it's really starting to bug me -maybe i'm just too much of a perfectionist. Oh well, enjoy anyways!