Monday, March 25, 2013

Amsterdam Blog


Zach Wasielewski
Amsterdam Blog
            The final day in Amsterdam had to be the most interesting day that I had on spring break.  This was the first day that I felt like I was back-packing around the world, because we had no place to leave our belongings.  Chryssie, Pat, Hayley, and I only booked our hostel for 2 days so we were roughing it out around Amsterdam for the last day until 7 o’clock until my friend could meet us at the Amsterdam Train Station. We were going to stay with my friend Jason for the night.  It was a different feeling having to worry about all of you belongs then just your wallet.  I didn’t ever take my eyes of my backpack or my passport and wallet. I felt like we were all guarding our bags with our lives because if you lost your bag you had no way of getting home or anything. It was hard to think that I was completely on my own because I have never traveled without my parents and this was the first time I was doing that I thought that my parents would be proud of me for traveling around by myself and not missing my planes or getting lost in a city and stuck there.  We were going to spend the night in Utrecht Netherlands were Jason studies for school.  While we were waiting we all decided that we were all feeling in a daze so we just hung around and shopped.  It was a pretty basic day living in Amsterdam going to the shops and sites.  The Anne Frank House was an eye-opening experience because it was the hiding place where Anne Frank wrote her diary during the Second World War.  I couldn’t believe how 8 people actual hid in that house.
            Jason is one of my friends from Connecticut and he is studying abroad in Utrecht Amsterdam.  Once I saw Jason at the train station I was so relieved because we had been out all day with all of our backpacks and just wanted to put down our belongings.  We ended up getting on a train and heading to his school.  The train ride was about 40 minutes and we went through the countryside of Amsterdam.  Once we arrived at his school we were all blown away with the size and beauty.  It was an actual campus with gates and different buildings and dorm rooms.  It was nice to see a real campus like we have in the states not like the one in Greece were it is just one building and not really a campus.  Jason told me that it was their mid-term week so we came at a good time because they would definitely be going out and drinking tonight.  There was a bar on campus that all the students were going to go to so we could end up meeting a lot of kids.  That was fine with us because we wanted to see how a different campus was and meet some different students.  A bar on college campus may sound like a bad idea but, the campus is smart for putting it there.  The bar had 1 euro beers so it was cheap and on campus so no one was driving.  It was fun we ended up getting a few drinks having a good time. We meet so many different people.  I met a kid from Barcelona, Amsterdam, Vienna, and other places.  It was interesting because his school only had about 50 students from America.  So there school was mostly European people.  Jason said that all the European kids spoke better English then he did.  It was good to have Jason because it made me feel like I was at home.  A familiar face was a good thing to see because it has been awhile since I have seen anyone from my hometown.  We ended up having a great night and when we got back to his apartment we were ready for bed.  

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