Rotterdam Tour: Day 19: Wednesday June 19, 2013

I have been anxiously waiting for today because I can’t even wait to get on the bike at Rotterdam. Also, I was so much expectant to have a tour of port of Rotterdam which is the largest port in Europe and the third largest in the world. For the field trip to be more interesting for us, the accounting class was included in the excursion. We took the Thalys train from the Amsterdam central station to Rotterdam central station, which is about an hour and some minute ride. We got down from the train station at Rotterdam and straight to the bike renter nearby the station.

Everybody got a bike and with Dr. V leading the way, we rode to the port of Rotterdam. It was a boat cruise tour of the largest port in Europe. Immediately, we got on board the tour begins. As we are having lunch on the boat and the facts and figures about the port is been narrated. It was very interesting to know that the port is visited by about 35,000 sea ships and 133,000 river barges every year. The port extends over a region that spans 40 kilometers between the heart of Rotterdam and the North Sea. The goods produced in the port and their industries each year have a total worth of approximately 11 billion euros. There are 5 refineries within the port. I was very glad to be part of this tour as a supply chain student seeing international logistics in action and how fully automated this port is. We saw different section of the port and various activities that takes place at the port.
We left the port after the tour and bike to the Mayflower harbor. From here, we proceed to the Euromast. The Euromast is the highest lookout tower in the Netherlands and gives you an amazing view over Rotterdam and beyond. High-speed elevators took us to the main platform at a height of 100 meters in only a matter of seconds. The main experience is our ride in the rotating and transparent Euroscoop to the top of the tower at a height of 185 meters. From the top we had an excellent panorama of Rotterdam and then had some drink at the main level of the Euromast.

Again, we rode to the park where there are different lakes and see some deer in there garden. We chilled a while at side of a lake where there is a restaurant and some old windmill before riding back to the city. The bike ride was the most interesting part of the trip. The whole day is best of my entire study abroad programme. We returned the bikes and left Rotterdam at exactly 17:37 and got to Amsterdam central station at 18:57 just in time for dinner at the hostel.

Research Day: Day 18: Tuesday June 18, 2013

Today is totally dedicated to our research work and some write up plus other personal things. I had to rest for a bit before heading out to the wine store I already located during my first walk round the city of Amsterdam. My plan for the day was to visit Gall and Gall store nearby and hopefully found some other wine or liquor stores along the way. I was accompanied by my partner in crime “Kay” whose responsibility for the day is to go to sport retail stores for his research. Luckily for me, as we are walking by I spotted a wine store called Wine Supply. I decided to give it a shot and entering the store the guy was a very nice guy. He attended to us and even took time to explain their store strategy. It was interesting that they allow customer have a taste of their wine before buying. From there, we proceeded to the Gall and Gall store. Though, the store manager answered most of my questions but failed to allow me take some pictures of their products. I was glad that it’s quite easier to conduct interview in Amsterdam compared to Paris and Brussels where language is a serious barrier. After two interviews, we walked round the city for a while then return to the hostel to take a nap. After some hours, we return back to the city for Kay’s sport retail stores interview in the evening. It was a good day as everything went according to our plan.

FloraHolland: Day 17: Monday June 17, 2013

We had to wake up very early in the morning ready by 6.40 am to go to the FloraHolland (the world largest international trading platform for Flowers) at Aalsmeer a neighboring town to Amsterdam.  We arrive there some minute to 8am because the flower auction is open to the public between 7am to 11am in the morning. We had a guided tour throughout the entire facilities of FloraHolland. Isabel, our tour guide took us from the Visitor Centre, we walked across a gallery which is 600 meters long through which we saw the flower displayed both sides of the building. We came across the auction complex close to the end of the gallery. We saw how the flower is been brought to the auction halls coming before the auction clock.
As we walked along the gallery, she narrated the brief history of FloraHolland to us. FloraHolland was founded in 1911 as a cooperative company. It has about 5000 members and a collection of about 20,000 different types of flowers. They get flower from all over the world including east Africa country like Kenya.  We saw the live Dutch auction system where flowers are been auction on the clock and the direct sales display room of the flowers. We were shown another auction room with 12 clocks and it was interesting to known that the rose flower auction utilizes three of the clocks.

The logistics is very interesting to me because of its high level of efficiency. Immediately after auction, the flowers are  moved around through the use of mobile carts and with the next 3 hours will be available at the local market. We saw the distribution center and the busy flower market logistics. Another interesting part of the tour is the quality testing center for the flowers which helps them to safeguard flower quality and improve it wherever possible. We traveled by bus back to  Amsterdam and got to the hostel at noon. Later in the evening, we chilled out with Mark for celebration of his birthday.

Rotterdam!! A chill, A trip and a long bike ride, June 19 (Day 19)

The visit to Rotterdam was by far one of the most anticipated tour of the trip. Rotterdam houses the largest port in Europe and the third largest port in the world with over 35,000 ocean vessels and 135,000 river barges flowing through the port every year, it was a great delight for me to see this firstly, because I am fascinated by the thrill of exporting and secondly, as a supply chain student it was a chance to see International Logistics in action. We set out early for this tour with the Accounting class and had to take a hour long fast train ride from the central station in Amsterdam to Rotterdam, we had been told we would navigate the whole of Rotterdam on bike’s an I wasn’t sure if I was excited to hear that or scared of getting injured because i wasn’t exactly one of the seasoned bike riders you know (started riding bicycles last summer) , but I knew I was going to brace up to the challenge and “own the moments”. We got the bikes and off we rode to the port where we were to board the ship to tour the port, and needless to say I crashed into someone before we got to the port (no injuries thou).

The tour of the port on boat was the most amazing ride I had ever had, with the ship sailing into the large expanse of water surrounded by the activities going on in the port, the weather was amazing with light breeze blowing and points of interest pointed out to us by the tour guide on a speaker on the ship and Dr V who seems to know the port like the back of his hands. We saw the ship hotel, a repair yard for the ships on the water, thousands of cranes loading and unloading to and from vessels and I even got a chance to navigate a boat simulation that was on the ship. Once the tour was over we all got off the ship and got on our bikes riding to the Euromast, it could be compared to the Eiffel tower of Paris but was cooler and less known (at least to me), it spinning vessel took us to the top of the Euromast giving us a panoramic view of the city and even some distant cities. We chilled at here for sometime before getting on our bikes again riding to where the Mayflower sailed from beside it was a very old windmill.

We continued our ride through the city, riding by parks, lakes and people having so much fun and enjoying life that it seemed like a living in a fantasy world on a summer weekday. As expected the other rider had to wait for me and two other ladies at a shed that had antelopes, from here we rode to a lake, had a drink and rested for a few minutes before riding back to where we rented the bikes to get our deposit.

We were on time to catch a train back to Amsterdam. It was indeed an exciting time as we relished the memories throughout dinner.

A Walk Through Amsterdam, June 18 (Day 18)

The main objective for today is to get interviews conducted for my research paper, I had located some potential sports shop to interview but I had not mastered the routes to walk around Amsterdam yet but was ready to start learning. I woke up to a good work out with Matthew and Trey Allen, which was the best workout I had had on the trip, after breakfast, myself and Leke planned to conduct some interviews and tried to locate some sports shops and wine stores with the help of Google map and the physical map before setting out for the day. Conducting interviews in Amsterdam was a lot easier than in Brussels and Paris, one, because almost everyone spoke English and two, because the people there were a lot more friendly to tourist especially when compared to Paris (The only thing Parisians hate more than work is tourist, especially those who cannot say a word or two in French). The Interviews went really good and we felt accomplished for the day.

Flower Auction, June 17 (Day 17)

I literarily dragged myself off the bed on Monday because I was so exhausted and had to be out of the hostel by 6:45am to catch a bus to Flora Flower auction outside of Amsterdam and learn something about the Dutch auction, we got to the bus stop in time to catch the bus to Aalsmeer and got to the auction at about 8:00 am. The building was a massive building from the outside and we could only imaging what went on inside, but we were soon to find out. On getting in we received an audio guide that the guide would use to communicate to us while we were taking the tour. Trey pulled a surprise Happy Birthday shout into the guides microphone for Mark whose birthday was today. The Auctions were still going on when we got in, the path for the tour was an elevated area where we all could see the activities going on, on ground we saw the logistics of the flowers from where they first are to where they are moved to once it was sold. The Floraholland is a corporative owned by the 5,000 growers who are members of the corporative. To be a member the main criteria was to “pledge” 100 % of your production to the corporative. The corporative was created in 1911 and has been thriving since then, We saw the 3 large rooms where the reverse auctions were conducted, I had expected a room full of people screaming out numbers but was surprised to see rooms of people sat down behind a computers and a large screen in front where we could see the price of products go from high to low until someone feels the price is low enough and click on a button to buy it, any flower not bought that day was burnt and those bought got to the buyers within two hours of purchase. The whole auction processes had definitely been perfected by these guys, but was threatened a few years ago by another large flower auction that sprang up in Saudi Arabia, but couldn’t survive. We went into a place i would call their “flower showroom” where people who bought in large quantities could place their orders, the showroom had a large variety of flowers from all over the world, they were incredible. On our way out Dr V bought raw Herring, which was good but the taste needed some getting used to, I definitely would try it again and think anyone who is up for a new taste challenge should go for it.

Walking Tour: A walk through the city and the amazing “Red Light District”, June 16 (Day 16)

Started the morning with a brief orientation after another lovely breakfast at the StayOkay hostel. Had some plans to go to church that day after the walking tour, one of the tour guides came over to our hostel to pick us up and take us to the Dam square where the walking tour was suppose to take place, we meet other groups when we got there and were divided into groups, we started the walking tour with a large scream of “I Love Amsterdam” and a few history of the city, from there we went to the famous “Red Light District” which was next door to a 600 yr old church (Ironic). It was said the history of the the district was tied to the church as it was rumoured that the ladies that worked their trade there were the mistresses of one of the fathers in the church. From there we proceeded to the Jewish quarters where they talked about the Dutch trade, tolerance and the invasion by Spain, the French and eventual occupation of Netherlands by the German Nazis, it was indeed a dark time for the Netherlands and Europe as a whole. We went to many other interesting places like the cannabis college, the sex museum and a few other places. When the tour was over we were totally clueless of the direction back home and had to ask the tour guide for the best way home. Either she sent us the wrong way or we were not listening but myself and Erica turned a 45 minutes journey to a 2 and half our journey, we git back to the hostel and was tired to the bone. Well needless to say that we didn’t go to church on that day as the plan for it fell apart. After dinner, I took another stroll around town as I could not have enough of it, got back and got straight on my computer to say hi to my loved ones.

Last Lap: Amsterdam Baby!! June 15 (Day 15)

For a change we didn’t have to leave Brussels in a hurry, which gave me some time to say goodbye to Brussels, I did that by visiting the Brussels city museum, here I saw some ancient painting and sculpture that dated back 11th century, but the most interesting exhibits they had there were the 700 costumes of the Manneken Pis, the “Peeing boy”.

They were Hilarious and where from every continent. I made an observation that there was no German costume thou. After the museum visit, I did a last minute chocolate shopping. Left the hostel around 1 pm to take the Thalys train to Amsterdam, Amsterdam was the most anticipated destination of the 3 great European city according to opinion polls conducted by me and expectations for the city was high. We got there and it was colder than I expected, I guess it had not gotten the memo that we were in summer, the hostel was the best hostel we had stayed in and looked like a fancy youth hotel, with young people bouncing up and down like it was a fancy school dormitory. We settled in to our massive rooms with its own bathrooms and shower and came down for dinner, it was the best dinner I had since the study abroad began and to crown it up it was a buffet, I ate as much as i could and took a stroll through the city and you had to dodge traffic from Trams, bicycles, motorcycles, horses (lol), boats, people and cars. It was a mad town but very beautiful, I came back tired and had to call it a day.

Secret Garden & Guest Speaker - June 20

I had been falling behind in my blogging so I dedicated most of my day to catch up on that and then do some exploring on my own to get souvenirs for my family.  I was somewhat impressed with myself for how I didn't need a map as I was walking around.  I later walked around with some friends and we went to a secret garden in a courtyard that used to be a pseudo-monastery.  

Later that afternoon, we had a guest speaker by the name of Zoe d'Amaro, creative partner at Godfather Films.  They create commercials and documentaries for businesses with social and environmental causes.  Zoe is originally from Italy but moved to Amsterdam to work in the advertising industry.  She told us about life in the ad world, which included frequent 18 hour days.  Zoe explained to us that after some time, she decided that she wanted to start her own company and work for companies that have causes to help society, rather than just trying to sell more sneakers.

Unfortunately the internet wasn't working but she was able to show us a couple of videos that she created for clients.  One of them was Greenpeace, a sometimes controversial company who focuses on environmental health.  The organization went from being aggressive to companies to instead using social media in a more friendly manner to create awareness of what the organization believes is an abuse to the environment.

It was a worthwhile presentation to attend, and it made me envious of seeing someone who left their corporate job to fulfill their dreams.

Rotterdam - June 19

A field trip was scheduled for the marketing and accounting students to go to Rotterdam, a city northwest of Amsterdam that houses the largest port in Europe and the third largest in the entire world.  We first took a train to get there, which I enjoyed for reasons I have already discussed on this blog.  From there, we found a bike place near the train station and we all rented bicycles to ride around for the day.

From the bicycle shop, we rode to the port to go on a boat tour.  The tour of the port was a pretty neat experience.  The groups were able to eat the lunch we got for them while looking at the modern architecture of the city before heading into the port.  Once inside the port, there were endless large cranes near the ports to be used to load and unload cargo onto ships.  It was a pretty neat to see equipment and structures that were so massive compared to what we see in everyday life.

After the tour, we got back on our bikes and rode to the largest tower in Holland.  It was there that we were able to go up and see the best views of the entire city.  We continued our biking journey around town and was able to see the small canal where the Mayflower supposedly left en route to the states.  The ship went there for some kind of pit stop of supplies before leaving for the journey.  I was told by my family that I have some descendants that rode on the Mayflower so it was a bit more surreal seeing that.   

Once we left the canal, we then went on a really long, but fulfilling bike ride through the city and then onto the rural areas where there was endless space of public parks surrounded by a large lake.  There were a lot of people out for a Wednesday afternoon, which seems to be common even when in Amsterdam.  Do these people ever work?  Our final destination around the lake were these two giant old school wind mills, which was really neat to see since that is one of the large symbols of Holland's past.

We got back to Amsterdam for dinner at the perfect time so we were able to catch up with our friends about their day before a small group of us went to nearby Vondelpark to hang out and relax.

Day of Exploration - June 18

We did not have an excursion today so I was able to do some exploring of the city on my own, which is one of the favorite things I like to do alone.  I needed to work on research and interviews so I started walking around with my trusty map handy if need be.  Amsterdam is centered around canals so it was pretty neat to see Amsterdam more and get a feel of it.  People are so friendly here and one huge advantage here compared to my experiences in Paris and Brussels is that practically everyone speaks English.  

The weather in Amsterdam is typically rather cool since geographically it is far north of the equator than I estimated.  Today was one of the hottest days of the year so I made a mistake to wear pants while walking around with no sunglasses (two pair broke on the trip).  Overall it was a peaceful day as I was able to secure three interviews, got some alone time, and learned new routes of the city in the process.

Amsterdam Walking Tour: Day 16: Sunday June 16, 2013

It was our first official day at Amsterdam. The breakfast at Stayokay Hostel in Amsterdam exceeds my expectation and far better than what we had at Paris and Brussels. After breakfast, we had a meeting with the faculty and then break up to different classes for information about the week schedule.

Dr. V. advised us to go for the Amsterdam free walking tour for the day. Since the tour was organized by same company as that of the Paris free walking tour, I was expecting a very much interesting tour round the city of Amsterdam with highlights of important places to visit during our stay. My tour guide is a young lady I will call the “Happy Lady” because she is super excited telling us about the history of the city as we walk round different historical site. 

We started the tour in front of the Dutch royal palace; pass through the famous red light district, the Jewish district and a couple of the “Coffee shop”. She narrated some of the history of coffee shop and it’s interesting that the Netherlands tolerated smoking of weeds. Also, police protect the prostitutes because it’s been legalized and they pay taxes like every normal business. One of the things that were also amazing to me is the structural design of the building in Amsterdam. Most of the buildings are leaning forward with a pulley system at the top. This allows them to move the merchandises or properties from the canal or outside to the building.

Dutch people are traditionally business minded and love money; which reflects in their early dominance in the European economy. We saw the Dutch East India Company called Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) which was the first multinational in the world. The Dutch made much money for their trade 17^th century from this company due to its monopoly nature. The tour was very interesting, not only because I learnt so much about the Dutch history and culture within 3 hours but I also met a new friend who is from Canada.

Dutch Flower Auction and Anne Frank House - June 17

I had a very early morning to my 33rd birthday, as we went to the FloraHolland flower market, which is the largest flower market in the entire world.  Over 20 million flowers are traded on a daily basis.  The facility was massive, having the size of over one million square meters, and is the fifth largest building by square footage in the world.

The tour that we took had an elevated walk way so we were able to see the automation in work.  Each mobile cart was filled with flowers, some were boxed up and other carts were with wrapped flowers with open tops.  The mobile carts were similar to railroad cars in that each cart had a place in the front and back for another cart to connect to it.  These carts were lined up by long rows and then were able to use a machine that could transport the rows to its destination through the various stages of entrance, quality control, sell of the flowers, and transport to the buyer.

As we continued on the walkway, we were able to observe three massive rooms where the auctions were taking place.  Each room can house up to 350 bidders but in what we saw, each room was about a quarter full.  The set up reminded me of that as a NASA control room or in the grandstand of a horse race center.  There was elevated seating with computers and monitors available for the bidders to use.  Two large screens utilized by a projector hung at the end to monitor the bidding and the product (flower/plant) currently on bid.  

After the auction, I was able to get some rest before going to the Anne Frank House with another class.  I remember reading her diary in middle school and always tried to visualize what the attic may have looked like so it was surreal to actually visit the place.

The line is always long to go inside and no photos are allowed.  Since the house was actually on the top floors of an office building, the tour took a bit longer than I expected.  It starts out on the first floor and gradually goes up to the attic.  Along the way is the story of the Frank family and includes quotes from Anne's diary.  It also discussed World War II and how the Jewish population suffered.  There were various short movies and World War II-era artifacts.  It was incredibly sad and my mindset was identical to that when I visited the Nazi concentration camp when in Brussels.

Walking Tour of Amsterdam - June 16

Dr. V had his students to take the free walking tour that was offered on our first full day. In the tour, we learned a lot about the history and culture of Holland.  They are very accepting of others, having allowed gay marriage in the 1980s and are famous for having legal prostitution and are tolerant of marijuana "coffee" shops.  Although I don't partake in any of those activities, I really admire that openness in culture and wish that we could be as tolerant in the United States.  Maybe in my lifetime?  

The Dutch was notorious on focusing on money and growing their economy and allowing others to do whatever they want socially.  During the colonial era, they ended up losing New Amsterdam to the English in what is now New York City.  Although that is the black eye for them now, Holland was very profitable in trading goods.  In fact, it dominated the merchant trading business compared to its European cohorts.

We also went around various neighborhoods, including the famous Red Light District.  It was also interesting to learn about the Jewish Quarter and learn more about what happened during World War II.

Travel Day to Amsterdam - June 15

It was time to depart Brussels and begin our voyage to Amsterdam.  I have been looking forward to it because I wasn't overly impressed with Brussels.  I love the beer and I love the Old Town market, but the city was dirty, petty crime is high, and it just doesn't have the architectural feel of other European cities that I have been to.

I was pretty excited to take the high speed train again.  I am such a proponent of high speed trains.  They are quiet, fast, and it is so fun to see farms and cities during comfortable travel.  I took a few videos on my iPhone of our trip to Amsterdam, including seeing modern windmills in action as we were blowing by them.

Since we have been on the go, most of us were pretty tired when we got to the hostel in Amsterdam.  For the most part, we have the same room arrangements as Paris and Brussels.  The hostel in Amsterdam is nicer but I still liked the hostel in Brussels the most.  The hostel in Amsterdam is more commercial and I don't like that we do not have WiFi in our rooms like we did in Brussels.  That said, I really really enjoy that we can change temperatures in the shower.  That makes up for not having WiFi in my room!

Bruges - June 14

One of the highlights of my trip came when three of us escaped Brussels on our free day and went to Bruges. This city in the Flanders region (northern part of the country) is full of canals and seemed to me to be a somewhat miniature version of Venice.  What's fantastic about this small city is that the medieval architecture has been preserved so you feel as if you are walking down the city streets of 500 years ago (without the horse manure!).  They have over 50 bridges that cover the canals so the city is accessible to walk around.  It is also easy to get there.  Trains leave Brussels almost every half hour that stops in Bruges.  The round trip cost to get there was around 26 Euros so it was relatively cheap.    

Once we arrived in the train station, I used a map that I found and we went near the city market.  The first order of business we did was get some ice cream at what was labeled as the best ice cream in town, Da Vinci.  It was there that we met the owner of the store, Sylvia.  She spoke perfect English and had a very charming personality.    

None of us really did any research on what to do in Bruges, which is very different for me since I embrace structure.  While at Da Vinci ice cream, I asked Sylvia on what to do since she is a local and knew what to avoid.  She told us to go to the city market that houses a large church and other city buildings that are 500 years old, walk around to get a feel of the city, and to also take a boat for a canal-ride throughout the city.  Sylvia even suggested where to eat for lunch!  We took her advice and did the exact itinerary she suggested.  

Everything bout Bruges was fantastic!  One funny moment came was when two professors spotted us on the canal ride and shouted hello- we ended up running into them after the ride was over.  

Museum day, June 14 (Day 14)

At this point I was already two weeks into the most amazing trip of my lifetime, an adventure that had seen no rival. We got our Museum passes at breakfast that morning and was ready to hit the train station and storm as many museums as possible. Our first stop was the Museum of Natural Science, it welcomed us in with the statue of a dinosaur, as we walked in, at the lobby looking into the sky was the bones of one of those prehistoric big birds. The journey through the museum went from meteorites, stones, radioactivity, soil science and then to pre historic animals and how some of them were discovered, after that i went to the different kinds of animals section, both land and sea, and couldn’t be more amazed at God’s wonderful creation. I left the museum to join Leke who had gone to meet an old time friend of his at the mall, got there had a plate of Chinese rice and a big piece of chicken, we chilled for a few minutes with Leke them reminiscing on old times. After we left the mall we headed straight for mini Europe and the Antomium, but was disappointed when we got to mini Europe and was told we can’t see both because of time, we choose to go see the antomium instead which proved to be a better choice because from the top of the atomium we could see mini Europe through a telescope I had put 50 cents in (Brilliant, you would say). The antomium itself didn’t hold many memorable moments but was glad it was cancelled off our to do list. The journey back was smooth and I decided to turn up a bit on the last day in Brussels by going to Delirium and Celtics at the grand royal.

The Monk’s have got a hobby: Brewing Beer, June 13 (Day 13)

The Cantillion is the only one of the old breweries that have survived through the ages. Founded in 1900 by Paul Cantillion, the brewery has stayed the same way since the 1900’s at its inception with no increase in capacity and storage space, although in the early 1900’s to the last two decades of the 20th century the brewery suffered a lots of hits and only managed to stay up by its whiskers, many of the order breweries in town died except for this one which was running efficiently but was underused because there was no plan to expand. They however had a comparative advantage that other brewers did not have in that the founder of the Brewery was the only brew master and passed the touch over to his soon, and the brew master right now is the fourth generation of Cantillion to be brew masters, this most have helped them a lot because money could not be offered to ur brew master to make him work for a new company because the brew master was also a part owner of the inheritance. After we left the brewery we went down to the mall on Louis Street, It was a mall that housed some of the biggest designer names, the things they sold there were unbelievably pricey it was surprising people ever patronized them, we walked into the hugo boss store and immediately we walked in the attendant had a look on his face that said this people can’t afford anything here, we took the simplest looking stuff, a belt, looked for the price tag, but didn’t find any (maybe because the people that patronized them don’t look at price tags), we asked the sharply dressed attendant and he said 350 euro, at that point we knew it was time to get out of there. On our way back myself and Leke picked up some good food from Happy Fish at the City mall 2 and walked straight to the hotel with semi filled belly with just enough space for dinner.

Rotterdam, June 19, 2013

      Our days in Europe are winding down and we will be home in a few days. It’s a bizarre feeling, but it helps me to try and cherish the time I have left. I might not be able to travel ever again, so I’m treating this opportunity as such.

Rotterdam was our destination for the day, and I was mainly excited about riding around the town on bicycle. I had yet another run-in with a tram and almost died again. Good thing I was on a bike though. It’s really tough to navigate the busy streets of Amsterdam for the first time. Despite my near death experience, it was cool to see the world’s third largest port. We took a tour of the port by boat, and I really couldn’t believe a port could be so big. Afterwards we went to the EuroMast and got to go up to the very top of the tower. From the top, we could see the entire city and the blurry horizon. It was great to see the city in its entirety from bird’s eye view, and it also gave me time to put everything into perspective. When you’re travelling you get caught up in what you’re doing and forget to think about how you’re in a completely different country, far away from home. I’m practically in another world. Once again, it was an experience that helped me cherish this amazing trip I have been on. 

Albert Cuyp Market, June 18, 2013

Our mission today was to go to the Albert Cuyp Market and observe the different shops. It was an interesting outing and I definitely enjoyed it. The whole market was set up down a long street and there were plenty of tables set up in front of the shop they represented. It was pretty much like a big garage sale or maybe an estate sale. There were clothes, shoes, toys, fish (not my favorite of the bunch) and juice stands everywhere. There were even a few Dutch shops which were interesting.

Once we were done exploring and observing, we made our way to a falafel restaurant. Our pitas were delicious of course, and the lady who served us was kind and had a good sense of humor. The best part of our day was when we unexpectedly started up a conversation with a lady who was sitting next to us. She said she was from the US and she was “stuck” in Amsterdam. She went on to explain how much she detested Amsterdam and Holland in general because there was no, “openness” This at first made me really uncomfortable because she was so outwardly unsatisfied with Amsterdam. But, it was actually neat to get someone else’s point of view on Amsterdam. Of course, as tourists who have never been to Holland, we don’t see it the way the actual citizens do. My favorite thing she said was, “Don’t mistake sex and drugs for freedom. Freedom comes from within.” We parted our ways and we haven’t seen her since but that quote has stuck with me. I think it always will.

Today was a good day. It was nice to be able to immerse ourselves in the culture by talking to someone native to Holland. I hope I will have more experiences like this before I leave.