Limp Bizkit and 50 cents a Day

A couple weekends ago I took a trip to Amsterdam with the rest of the JMU group here. Here are the highlights:

Best Touristy thing we did on the trip: Visiting the Anne Frank House. I’m normally not a big museum guy, but this was amazing. The museum started off with many videos featuring people who were actually living in the house (Miep, Anne’s dad, etc.) It was really amazing to hear them tell stories about those years during the war when the house was a hiding spot for the Frank family. As we continued through the museum there were models of how the hideaway looked during the war, but I was really confused as to whether or not we were in the rooms where the family had hid or not. Then, as we turned the corner and I saw the bookshelf hiding the door to get up into the hideaway, and as I stepped up into the actual room where Anne Frank and her family hid over all those years it hit me. It was extremely powerful to be in the same rooms that the family had been silently surviving in for those years. Then I looked on the wall and saw the original markings that they had made showing the height of the children as they grew up in the secret hideaway, which was absolutely surreal. The entire house was incredible and definitely worthwhile for us to check out. So glad we saw it.

Worst food I had on the trip: It’s gotta be a tie between ANY beer I had there, and this nasty bread stuff I had at a local restaurant for lunch one day. Let me elaborate…One day a few of us went to a small local restaurant (see picture below) to experience some authentic food from Amsterdam. I decided to go with the soup of the day which was pea soup and it was served with a small plate of ham and this bread. The soup and ham was fantastic, but the bread was disturbingly gross. It tasted like cardboard mixed with the smell you get when you walk over by Memorial in Harrisonburg (no, not the dog food smell, the NASTIER one). Anyway, it was disgusting.

As for the beer, one night I went into a local grocery store to try and get a local beer to check out how Amsterdam’s beer was. I walk into this nice looking grocery store where they sell fresh fruit, cheese, etc and as I walk in I notice the music they are playing inside the store. No, not the usual smooth jazz that graces the aisles at your local Safeway, but instead they were playing the soothing sounds of the metal band Limp Bizkit. I am listening in as I am shopping and the lyrics are screaming “Burn this MOTHA F***ER DOWN! Burn this MOTHA F***ER DOWN!” hahaha it was hilarious. Then I go up to the counter and ask the guy working the register (who was this big bald guy looking all intense wearing a skull t shirt and wristbands) how he’s doing and he goes “ehh…a little hungover.” Then he proceeds to tell me about his night last night where he got a call from a friend that wanted him to come hang out so he cleared out all the beers from the fridge (drank ‘em) and then long story short he’s hung over today. It was pretty hysterical. Quite the change from the standard “good” we normally get in America. Oh and the beer…..was so gross I couldn’t even finish one. I can’t even describe it…just disgusting.

Best Food on the Trip: I got a really good spicy pasta dish at one of the 3 billion Italian restaurants they had there. It was a great bargain though, and right nearby the hostel. I’m pretty sure Italian restaurants are the Starbucks of Europe. There are like three on each block.

Most Impressive Statistic: Me only spending 50 cent euros on the last day we were there. I took advantage of the free breakfast at the hostel we stayed in and decided to make myself a couple PB & J’s for the road. Such a good decision. Then, instead of spending money on museums, a couple of friends and I decided to spend the day exploring the rest of the city. We explored all over Amsterdam. We walked all the way to Central Station where we decided to stay in Starbucks for thirty minutes to warm up and relax because it was freezing outside and had been snowing on and off all weekend. Then we walked back down through the city and ended up in this musical theater where we found an awesome statue of a guy busting through the door playing violin (see right). Then instead of taking a tram to the bus station like we had done on the way there, we instead decided to walk there. It was a hike, but we made it, and saved a couple Euros that way too.

One of the best feelings all week: Coming back to the Monty and showering. After two nights and three days in an Amsterdam hostel wearing the same exact pair of pants for three days straight, you’d be surprised how phenomenal a shower feels. Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised.

On another note, it was nice to come back to the Monty and actually have it feel like home for once. Definitely a nice feeling I wasn’t used to. First trip on our own….successful.