I do really like this city. It's been a very relaxing two days. I spent almost two days straight on the beaches of Den Haag, turning myself into a very red lobster. The beach walk that they have their was very cool, and there were plenty of "clubs" which had cushioned lounge areas that I just sat at and enjoyed the view. I think you're supposed to order something off their ridiculously expensive menus but I just waved the waiters away whenever they came by, or else asked for water. One place, the Beuno Vista club, had a very nice guy who suggested some rose lemonade instead since it'd be the same price (free tap water = nonexistent, everything was at least 2€ and came in a pretty glass). Rose lemonade? Sure!! Everywhere I went, as soon as I said a single word, people would ask me where i was from. And most of them knew where Colorado was, which was very cool!
On Saturday, I headed back to Amsterdam to enjoy the huge, beautiful parks and to get out of the sun for a little. It was no fun at all to haul a backpack on shoulders that were glowing :( in the parks, everyone was BBQ-ing, everyone was playing loud fun music, and there were thousands of people it seemed! I made my way back to where the old men played chess and got to watch a spectacular game that ended up being a draw. The guy sitting next to me, about halfway through the game, asked who I thought would win. He turned out to be friends with the White player, both being professors from a university in Africa on assignment to iron out the last details in their foreign exchange program with the University of Amsterdam. He was a professor of chemistry; his friend the chess player was a professor of physics. After the game, we sat for a few minutes talking about engineering, the future of power, how Germany was planning to do away with all it's nuclear facilities, and the e.choli breakout that was happening.
The sun stayed out until late; when I tried to go to sleep, the place I was staying at was so cold, I literally put on all the clothes I had packed with me (shorts from Jess, my two pants, a skirt, both shirts, a tank top, even my scarf!) and still I shivered! it drove me out of bed at 4am. I had hoped that by walking around, I'd get some circulation going and be able to fall back asleep. As I walked around, I got to see the end of the Saturday night party spilling into the streets -- streets that were absolutely trashed! It was as if someone had gone through the entire city, upending each trash can they could! The city also had put out standing urinals everywhere, urinals that were nothing but an unsheltered stand with a hole in them! If there was a puddle of liquid, it was likely pee.
The clubs didn't close until 5am, at which point all the fast food places and street vendors were hawking pizzas, fries, coffee -- the city was still completely alive! There I was, just trying to get warmed up, and the rest of them hadn't even begun to wind down. Girls walked around shouting about where the after party was going to be, people were just chilling out in the streets laughing and with no intention of sleeping it seemed. I thought they were all crazy.
I headed to where my next hostel would be, hoping to be able to drop my bag off and get back to exploring the city without it. It turned out to be an hours walk away from where I'd been before, clear on the other side of town. The nice thing was how quiet everything got after I left city center; no one else was awake at 6am on a Sunday. I got harassed by a taxi driver when I was about 3/4 of the way there, but after I pretty much shouted "No!" at him, he drove away, surly. when I got there'd, I found out I could leave my bag but there were no locks on the door, so I decided against it and caught the bus back to the city center.
Sunday was rainy and cloudy and cold. I sipped hot drinks at a coffee shop for a few hours, watching people run by trying to avoid the rain. When it let up, I was able to check out the outdoor art stands that they'd set up. Then I wand through the shopping district that they ad ear the main square, finding some ridiculous umbrellas and a crazy toy called "cat in a bag," which was just a vibrating cat tail stuck in a brown paper bag that rolled all across the room.
When the rain started up again, it was just late enough for me to actually check into the hostel so I headed back, catching a much-needed shower, washing up my dirty clothes, and catching a nap. I hung out in the lounge area after, having a few quick chats with other hostel members. At one point, a group of London guys came in from their bachelor party. The bachelor was wearing a long night gown which had things written on it that he was suppose to do sometime in the course of the evening, like steal a kiss from the bartender (male), dance on the table, and sing karaoke. The bachelor was completely trashed and only talked with me for about two minutes, none of it making sense. His two other friends, though, hung out for a good bit, loudly proclaiming that I must be from Canada, that Colorado was right next to Canada, that I must be a Pisces, coming up with this crazy fantasy where I was a dog owner who had fallen in love with one of them, "we were made for each other, look, we both have two arms and two legs!" it was pretty late at this point and the night manager came up to yell at us, having apparently already told the group once that they were too loud, so I slipped away back to my room before we all got kicked out of the place.
I went out to the lounge area where the wifi was at about midnight, getting everything ready to call home at 1am my time, but Popi called me first! It was awesome to talk with him, mami, and Elena. I can't believe Randy made so much off his tooth! Im tempted to knock out a few of my own for that sort of cash!
Today it's still rainy and relatively cold. I went out for a bit to the local market but came back quick enough. The weather is supposed to turn again tomorrow, in time for my walk back to the city center to where my last hostel of Amsterdam will be. I have my flight out to Berlin on Thursday at 7:50am. Tia Ysabel's foreign exchange student and I have been talking about who will be picking me up; she works, but one of her friends will be there and we'll spend the day doing tourist things like seeing the Berlin wall. Until then, it'll be more relaxing and coffee-sipping here in Amsterdam. I feel like I'm really on vacation right now, being the relaxed and slow-paced tourist. I've got nearly all of my hostel stops figured out now. I've even started working on figuring out which hostels Andreina and I will be staying at.
I miss home like a bruise -- it's there, an ugly pain that flares up whenever something brushes against it, whenever you do something to remind yourself that it's there, but ultimately bearable. Listening to music, it seems like all those sappy songs about being sad far from home were written by me in my sleep. All the songs about missing my love, too. It was so good to hear about Lucas, but again good in that causes-a-sharp-pain sort of way. I had a terrible dream about him and Jessica last night, where we were in an RV in the mountains that rolled off a cliff, and he was the only one that wasn't ok. That left me feeling pretty shaky all morning and even now it gives me the chills thinking about it. I get asked where my boyfriend is, why he isn't here, and I tell the stories about how he begged me not to go, that he held my hand at the airport and said that if I left it would kill him. Lucas didn't do any of that but I'm glad, because if he had -- if anyone had, I think -- I wouldn't have been able to leave.
There are plenty of other tourists out here with me, other young people trekking the continent, but it seems like most of them are focused on partying and being wild, getting the craziness out. Sometimes I'm not sure what I'm here for, aside from the basic sight-seeing of it all. I think that it's partly about the challenge, that I wanted to see if I could do it. Partly it's about experiencing things I've only read about, seeing places that were just words on paper before, catching a glimpse of what other cultures are like. And partly it's about getting back to myself after spending so many years away, being able to hear what I think to myself away from the noise of everything, if that makes sense. I don't know, I'm rambling now.
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