My Body Hates Me

Today (or really the past two days) have been long and eventful. Let’s start with the bad and end with the good (and tiring). Everything at DFW Monday afternoon was going smoothly with my first flight until we actually got on the plane. We were “grounded” due to bad weather in Memphis which meant that we got to sit on the plane at the gate for about 45 minutes until Memphis gave us the all clear to take off. I had a major freak out because I was just envisioning a domino effect of missing flight after flight after bus ride but my worrying was in vain. We landed in Memphis around 6:45 pm (my next flight was slated to leave at 7:25) and fortunately, I only had like 40 gates to go from one side of a terminal to another AND my second flight was pushed back until 7:50. On top of that delay, we actually didn’t even take off until about 8:15 since we were waiting on other passengers who were coming from delayed flights (so I probably would not have ever had a problem with the delay; now I know that they’ll hold an international flight when lots of people get delayed). The actual 8.5 hour flight to Amsterdam was super painless. Time flew by and it felt like it was only 4 hours or so. I chatted a bit with an Israeli my age sitting next to me but then he conked out for most of the flight and I read for 7 hours (and slept for only 1….). Amsterdam airport was a piece of cake and I was able to withdraw just enough Euros to get me through the day (I started with 70 and just have 5 left). I hopped on the train to Central Station (sans my suitcases; ends up my two big bags were checked straight through and then I locked my carryon in a baggage locker before going through the passport check; speaking of bags, only one of mine was overweight and the fee was only $75) and it only took about 15 minutes to get into town. From there, I began the walk of a lifetime (around 12:30 pm I think). I decided to just walk with my backpack too since I didn’t want to go a little out of the way to the hostel first. So (… I just had to go retrieve the map I used today in order to remember everything I did!...), I started with Dam Square and the Royal Palace. I walked down one of the major streets, stopped to take some pictures, and then thought “well, that wasn’t too far. Might as well walk the rest of the way down to the museums instead of taking the tram.” Remember how I mentioned that I have a perceptions problem in a previous post? That was confirmed (again today). It was about a 30 minute walk and even though I thought I’d get there quicker, it still wasn’t a big deal even with my backpack on (the weather was cool and I had sneakers on; can’t really go wrong there). I saw a bunch of museums (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, a concert hall) but didn’t go into any. I didn’t want to waste the money seeing things I wasn’t really interested in. The one museum that I really did want to see (Stedelijk, the modern art museum) was closed for remodeling until September. When I was done walking around that area, I thought about doing a canal tour but since I had already been walking around so much and I knew I would be walking more, I figured I had/would see everything anyway so I might as well save some money. After relaxing for a bit around the museums, I decided that I had a good amount of time left before my 6:00 pm Anne Frank House ticket to check in at the hostel and possibly see some of the sites around there. As I walked back towards where I came from, I walked through the Bloemenmarkt (the flower market) and then proceeded to get lost for about 10 minutes in the Red Light District. Yeah, I know. Best place ever to get lost. I finally found the hostel, got my bed and locker, laid down for about 2 minutes and then headed back out again. This time I headed east and went by the Jewish Quarter where I saw the Jewish History Museum and the Portuguese Synagogue. Then I backtracked through the Red Light District again to make my way to the Sex Museum which was near Central Station. Before I talk about that museum (which I actually went into), let me make a brief comment on the Red Light District. I was not surprised or shocked at all by what I saw. It was just like looking at a Victoria’s Secret ad in a window or on tv. I just walked through it and didn’t give it a second thought. Now, on to the Sex Museum. This museum claimed to present the history of sex. What I guess I missed somewhere in the advertisement was that the history is presented through pictures only. So, it kind of felt like €4 porn. There were hundreds of pictures of sex and very few explanations or descriptions or anything even remotely academic in nature. I was a little bummed because I was hoping for something new, fun, and different. I got done there around 4:00 pm (since I didn’t stay as long as I thought I would and the museum was tiny) and made my way over to the west part of the city where the Anne Frank house is. Since I had plenty of time, I decided to eat first rather than after my visit to the Anne Frank house. I went to Pancake Bakery and oh my goodness, it was delicious and ridiculous! I at the whole thing (more crepe than American-style pancake) even though I almost couldn’t because I was stuffed! I got done there around 5:00 and had an hour to kill before my “entrance” into the Anne Frank house. The line (which I didn’t have to wait in since I had a ticket already) was actually moving fast (like only a 20 minute wait) so after sitting out in the cold for 20 minutes, I went in and asked if I could just go in. They said sure and then I began probably the coolest thing I did today. The Anne Frank house was amazing! For some reason, I thought you could only see the bookcase door but not go further but I was totally wrong. You actually got to go into some of the spaces through the bookcase door. It was so cool to actually see the space and see the picture reproductions of what it looked like then.  I wish I could’ve taken pictures but it’s a policy not to in order to help preserve everything. Once I was done there, I was done. My body hurt so much by then and I was fighting to not collapse on the way back to the hostel (the area behind my left knee was going out, my right calf was burning, etc.). I made it back surprisingly quickly especially given how many times I got lost today (I had to walk around with my map out which I never do because all the streets curve and change names and I had no idea where I was half the time; I just knew the general direction I needed to go in and even that was wrong sometimes). So now, I’ve been here for about an hour (it’s 7:00 pm now) and I think I’m going to shower in a bit and then just read or fall asleep early tonight. Tomorrow, I think I’ll be leaving the hostel at 6:00 am (apparently, they can have my free breakfast ready early and to go which is pretty cool) in order to catch the 6:15 (or whatever time around then) train. I’ll make it back to the airport early, can get my final ticket printed, grab my suitcase and can meet up with the rest of the group who will probably either already be there or will be getting there right around the same time (from Detroit). I doubt I will get a post up tomorrow night because we get into Romania around 2:00 pm and then have a 7-8 hour bus ride to Severin. Last time I did this, it took like 10 hours and we didn’t leave the airport on time which caused us to get in at like 2:00 am. So, I’m just going to anticipate delays or tiredness now and we’ll just see what actually happens tomorrow.

Side note about the flights that I forgot… it’s a miracle that I didn’t throw up on the plane coming into Memphis. The whole last 30 minutes of the flight was spent in massive turbulence (like the flight attendants had to stay buckled in and passengers were smacking against seats). If I thought I got motion sick sometimes before, that was nothing compared to earlier today. Fortunately, I kept it all down but boy was it bad!

No pictures yet… the internet is way too slow and inconsistent here for me to get them uploaded. I could barely get on long enough to copy and paste this post from a word doc to my blog. L