On the road

Greetings from Berlin! I am in my hostel using the internets so I thought I would try to make a dent in starting to blog. I arrived in Amsterdam Monday afternoon. I caught a train to Central Station, where I decided to buy my train ticket to Germany for Tuesday night. It took a maddeningly long time.

From the train station I walked to my hostel...which was in the Red Light District. I decided to stay in Shelter City, a Christian youth hostel with a no drinking/drugs policy. I thought that would be a good balance since it would be well-located but without any shenanigans so I could sleep. Not sure that was the best choice, as you'll see later. After unsuccessfully messing around with my locker for a while, I decided it didn't matter since I lock my suitcase anyway and marched to the Van Gogh Museum, making it there about 5. They close at 6. The hour was about enough time to see the permanent collection, although I definitely was the one the guards had to push out of the museum come closing time.

I wouldn't have been able to see everything in an hour if I had been in Amsterdam a day earlier. That was the final day of the big exhibition titled something along the lines of "Van Gogh and the Night". It was pretty epic, with works such as The Potato Eaters and Starry Night (which I missed when at MoMA). I knew I was missing it, but the exhibit title was on my bag in the shop, which made me sad. One thing about Van Gogh that is interesting that is easy to forget is that he really only was productive for about ten years. Few other artists have the same cultural prominence without having a much larger body of work.

From the museum, I made my way to the Anne Frank House, which is usually open until 10 pm, but obviously since I was there they decided to close early that day at 5. I was hungry so I got some fries: not as good as in Belgium, fyi. I pretty much just started walking back towards my hostel. I opted for a meal on the streets. I was enjoying a piece of pizza and people watching. I had just about finished when a creeper started bothering me. I said "no" and walked away. I went into a shop for a while, but either he was following me and waited outside or I just had really bad timing because he saw me again and started bothering me again. I jaywalked away and decided I needed a chocolate-covered waffle for my trouble. I made my way back to the hostel. I wanted to leave again after dark, to see the Red Light District all aglow, but I just didn't feel comfortable going outside again on my own so I called it a night early. No Bible study.

The next morning I had a bit of an issue checking out. I was certain I had paid 10€ deposit, but they were convinced it was only 5€. Guess who was right after they pulled the tape out of the cash register. Breakfast was included, and it was actually a cute setup. There were several options, and you also got a drink; I got muesli and yogurt with a piece of fruit and coffee.

I wanted to arrive at the Anne Frank House by 9 but got a little lost and didn't get there until 9:15, meaning I was right behind a bunch of school groups- joy. I never used public transportation in Amsterdam, opting to walk everywhere. Firstly, the city center is pretty small, so since I was always rushing about it was faster to walk. But Amsterdam is a series of canal rings, so it can be pretty easy to get lost.

Seeing the Anne Frank House was a treat. When I was younger, Holocaust lit really interested me, and obviously The Diary of Anne Frank is the major work in that genre. The biggest group of schoolkids was British, and the kids were probably about 10, so they were at the perfect age to appreciate the story. In general, they were kind of bored and antsy, but one boy you could tell was very interested and knew a lot about Anne. At one point he called some kids out for not paying attention, and kept making comments like, "Wow, three people shared this room, and it's smaller than my sister's room". Adorable.

From there, I marched to the Rijksmuseum. The state art museum is for all practical purposes closed, but they have a small exhibition of the masterworks in the collection. Unfortunately they still charge full price...and don't have a student discount. The treasure of the collection is Rembrandt's The Night Watch. They also have four Vermeers, although the most interesting was on loan to somewhere else.

I had lunch on the street, having a hot dog and a waffle with strawberries. In Dam Square, there was a sand court set up and I saw kids so at first I thought it was beach volleyball. Then I looked a little closer and realized I was in Europe...definitely beach football.

In Dam Square I met my Sandemans New Europe free tour. I'd heard of these tours from friends. The guides work on a tips-only basis (although apparently the guides have to give the company a certain amount of money per head as overhead to cover the cost of flyers, etc., so you definitely have to pay something.) It was unfortunate that the tour was one of the last things I did in Amsterdam, since I felt like I had walked around most of the places we saw already, although I still got a lot out of it.

I was supposed to pick up my suitcase from the hostel by 6, which was ok, since my train was at 7 anyway. However, by the time the tour was over it was about 4:30, and I still hadn't done the Heineken Experience, which even someone who doesn't drink beer told me was a highlight of her time in Amsterdam. I did it, rushing a bit, but it was still fun; it definitely was the kind of thing that would have been much more fun with a travel buddy, though. I made it back to the hostel more or less at 6, not that it mattered because there was only one person at the desk and she was pretty busy.

I got myself some deliciously cheap made-to-order pasta and some Heineken at the station and waited for my train. I was a little nervous because the sign said the destination was Moscow...and none of the intermediary stops were Berlin. Some other people were also confused. The signs on the train when it pulled in were partially in Russian. However, they later changed it, and the train was going to end up in either Prague or Warsaw.

For the "overnight" train that left Amsterdam at 19:01 and arrived in Berlin at 4:23, I opted for a six-person bunk. Surprisingly it wasn't too much more expensive than a seat; I can't understand why some people opted for the regular seats for a long journey. I had been in four-person compartments on trains before but never for six. Of course I got stuck with one of the tops. There were four Americans going to Prague who all knew each other and some other guy who got on shortly after Amsterdam and fell promptly asleep with his shoes on.

Luckily I got some sleep so I wasn't too dead when the train threw me out at the crack of dawn. I had made a hostel reservation for Tuesday night because I knew I would want to sleep. I grabbed a cab to baxpax Downtown Hostel. The epic battle began.

Baxpax is a new, pretty highly rated hostel, but I especially chose it because of its 24-hour reception. However, the clerk informed me that I had to check in by 3 a.m. I was staying in the "K Studio", a 50-bed dorm (not for novice hostellers but surprisingly livable), and he said he couldn't let me in because I would never find my bed and would make too much noise etc. etc. However, I would still be charged for the night since they considered it a cancellation. The only open beds were in that room, so I was going to be on the hook for a bed he wouldn't let me into until 8 a.m. I was furious. Finally, he let me in. I left my bag in a locker outside the room, so I don't think I made too much noise and my bed was right by the door. I would have been so mad if he hadn't let me in because there were some REALLY loud Spanish guys who were obviously much more disruptive. So I finally got some sleep.

I'm about to run out of Internet time so I'll pick this up later. I leave for Munich tomorrow. I've enjoyed Berlin, but I'm exhausted from going so many places. Also, I haven't forgotten my trip to the Balearic Islands...