Amster who?

So let me tell you a story, about a time, when 5 men embarked upon a great quest in a land not so far from here...

This weekend marked our trip to Amsterdam, a city world renowned for it's tourist attractions. Museums, tours, coffee, Heineken beer, and various other sundry things.

The train ride to the Netherlands was rather uneventful and let us use our recently acquired 50% discounts cards. After arriving at the Netherlands, however, we found that we arrived ten minutes late and missed our train. This is when we realized how much English is actually spoken in the Netherlands. Figuring out the correct train and finding our way to the main train station in Amsterdam was incredibly easy. In fact while we were in the city I heard and spoke so much English it felt like a home away from home. That probably sounds weird to those who haven't studied abroad, but there's something comforting in being able to fluently communicate with strangers.

Our hotel room was a bit out of the main city but was really cheap, especially when we snuck in our fifth friend into the 4 person room. The only problem we had with the room was the fact that there were only 3 beds for the supposed 4 of us, one was a two person bed, which helped but we were still short on sleeping space. At the end of our day's adventures we'd draw straws of a sort. Everyone slept on a bed though the 3 person was a bit cramped. Luckily I scored one of the single beds.

After moving our meager travel packs (which each only brought a single backpack with a change of clothes) into the room we were ready to explore the city. We had already stopped for coffee at one of the shops and decided it was best to take an hour or so nap before exploring any further. After awakening from our slumber we set out on a mission, Adventures in Amsterdam, take 1.

If any of you have heard about Amsterdam (I know it's an obscure city lol), you'll know that it is an acclaimed tourism city and said to be a very pretty city. I found that the buildings and architecture were both very interesting and generally ascetically pleasing. I would not however call the city beautiful. Most buildings are in good repair but graffiti tags are extremely common, most of which are just scribblings. There wasn't much in the way of graffiti street art, so this mostly took away from the sites we saw. I also found there was a good deal of trash throughout the streets, thanks largely to the tourist population meandering the streets. The bus and tram system was very effective but some of them looked like they could use some fresh paint and some replacement rails. The bus rides were also the closest things to amusement parks I've visited so far. Our first trip on the bus nearly ended with all of us falling or tripping in some way within the first 5 minutes. I doubt the driver used the break pedal more then absolutely necessary to not drift into poles during turns. It's one thing to be in a rush but I found it almost a sport to stay standing during any of the bus rides we took (Most of which I was relatively sober for, so my inner ear WAS in functioning order I would like to point out).

That aside I have to say I absolutely loved the city. Even with the graffiti the buildings were all still worth seeing. Especially in the center of the city where the alleys and buildings all still appear to be authentic and old. We also happened to come during some kind of minor festival which resulted in a lot of lights, rides, and carnival attractions in the center of the city. We stopped by the Anne Frank museum as well as the Amsterdam letters during the trip, though we didn't have enough time to stay at either very long (we're considering the implications of another trip) but they were both fairly impressive. The city also boat tours, which we've had enough of for one life time, which would probably provide some history and a more macroscopic view of the city then I'm interested in currently.

We stopped at several coffee shops throughout the trip including The Blues Brothers, The Grasshopper, and a few others such as Ben's. I would recommend any of them to anyone interested in the atmosphere and I actually found their coffee to be the best coffee I've ever had. The one shop I stopped for a milkshake at was a bit mediocre so I'd suggest just drinking the coffee, maybe some fresh squeezed juice if you're feeling extra healthy for some reason. We also wanted to make time for a few of the clubs and the ice bar that we found but sadly didn't have the patience for an hour long wait to get into the club and never found the ice bar. After all this was said and done the question everyone must ask themselves in Amsterdam came up from an unlikely place. While walking around the city center some girls (assumedly from the USA) asked us (in English! yay!) where the red light district was. This sparked an adventure to a group of streets which is fairly well known as a tourist attraction. The area is worth visiting to say that you've done it but honestly there isn't much to do there. We did stop at one of the coffee shops here as well though and hung out drinking some Heineken and did some people watching of the tourists walking by outside.The most interesting, and mildly concerning thing we saw led to some conjecture over events we missed. While talking we noticed there was a man, laying on the ground outside speaking to police officers and obviously unable to stand by his own power. After several minutes of discussion an ambulance showed up (curiosity and concern peaked at this point) and they proceeded to put his leg in an adhoc cast. During this we noticed he had a sizable bloody gash on one ankle and there was a damaged bike next to the man. When I say sizable I mean we were able to see and identify this wound from across the street on the second story. After all was said and done the man was put into the back of the Ambulance and is now hopefully all patched up. While getting put into the ambulance the blanket he was wrapped in (it was chilly out) fell over his face and a British girl in the next booth over thought he was dead. That incited some minor hysteria in their booth until they realized that the blanket had simply fallen over his face and wasn't meant to be a shroud at all. The paramedics flipped the flap of the blanket away from his face before pushing him toward the ambulance.

I also discovered that the waffles in Amsterdam are amazing. They're premade but reheated in under a minute in a professional, and I do mean PROFESSIONAL, waffle warmer before they're covered in delicious chocolate sauce, which in some cases is hazelnut flavored, and any other toppings you want. I tried one with the hazelnut sauce and one with milk chocolate and cherries. Both were amazing and I need to say it's a must if you're in the city.

I do wish we had gotten to take a tour of the Heineken factory,  but again time was short this time around and we wanted to see some sites while were in the city.

Post Trip?

We had a few people over my room, made some good old potato noodle and onion soup and smoked some hookah. A few turkish girls, two polish girls, and my newest roommate joined us for a few hours and we all just relaxed, all there really is to do on a Germany on Sunday.

School? (Believe it or not I am still a student!)

So a few developments in school life have come to light recently. I've been toying with the idea of increasing my class work load since classes meet only once a week. I also realized some of the classes offered are in English and I can take them without prior commitment until exam time when I must sign up for the slot I want. I have my eye on a computer simulated numerics course as well as an Aerodynamics course my friend is taking. I'm also of course still taking my hydraulics course and doing my work project for the konstruktionstechnic institute. It looks like I will be doing a project directly related to a competition sponsored by ELVA. I will be working on electric car chasis design with Andrew Moakes and a team of German engineering students, graduate as well as undergraduate, whom I have yet to meet. I'm rather excited for the project which will net me 3 credits and some experience that I will hopefully be able to use in a lot of different design projects. Though material properties isn't my specialty nor is it of direct interest to me it touches in many of the fields I'm truly interested in and affects any mechanical project anyone can think of. If everything goes well I'll be going back to URI with some very interesting scholastic experiences.

Well this turned into a bit of a doozy. I don't think I'm going to post any facebook pictures this time, I'll have to edit this post in the next day or two to include some.

Over and out