Amsterdam
Friday of fall break came and I was rather glad that I was sensible and had not booked a flight for 8 in the morning. An 8am flight means up at 4, which is certainly not the way I wanted to start my break. I had an afternoon flight so I was able to sleep in and finish some last minute things before leaving my dorm at 11am. Very sensible.
Transport to the airport was easy peasy. Tube to DLR (which a train) - all could be done the day of. Check in went smoothly and flight was quick. All was well and my break was off to a great start. I was beyond excited to go on this journey. My soul was on fire and it felt like God was right next to me, ready to go on the journey too.
This greeted me when I arrived and I couldn't help but smile...and take a picture:
Transport to the hostel wasn't too bad. I had an entire folder full of instructions, travel plans, tickets and maps for my entire journey. No such thing as too prepared :) I also borrowed guide books on each city from the student resource center. I didn't know much about each city before I left and didn't have much plans about what to do once I got there, but that was something I would figure out along the way. I like that kind of spontaneity! Travel plans, not so much.
I read quite a bit of my Amsterdam guide book during my travels that day and all the talk of the city's beauty had me brimming with anticipation.
Immediately when I arrived I could sense the kindness of the Dutch people. A woman on the bus ensured me that I was heading the right direction when I expressed concern about not being able to read a particular sign to another lady who was not sure what I meant. As we were heading in the same direction after we got off the bus she even walked me part of the way there and sent me off with good wishes.
I turned the corner and there it was - Shelter Jordaan. It would be my first hostel experience so I didn't really know what to expect. Big door in a brick wall that was locked shut on a quiet cobblestone street with a lit up sign overhead. I checked in and walked upstairs to the first female floor and found my bed:
Top bunk. Welcome to hostel living.
Lockers to keep your stuff safe, which luckily fit everything I had brought! (Thank God for my duffel bag!)
It may look rather bare, but honestly I didn't mind. The many nights I had spent at summer camps or camp retreats had prepared me for this. Communal bathrooms and bunk beds were no matter for me. Luckily I was all prepared against any night distraction with my eye mask and headphones.
Once I unpacked some of my stuff and made the bed I ventured outside the hostel for a bit of exploration. Immediately I was overwhelmed by its quaintness and beauty.
Even though it was only around 5pm, the sun was setting.
I headed towards the Anne Frank Huis (House) thinking I could make it in before they closed, but the line was so much longer than I had expected. I waited for a bit trying to assess how fast it was moving and then bailed knowing that I had plenty of time to come back to it.
I had just landed in Amsterdam and wanted to explore. Which to me means walking!...and pub culture, of course. I looked at my guide book for places around the area I could hit up for a beer before dinner. I picked a place called De Twee Zwaantjes - The Two Swans. It was at the bottom of the list but said something about live music and good beer and it was supposedly rather close. While wandering the "Stasses" (streets) trying to find it, I came across this, which to me is a version of Heaven:
If you didn't know, I have quite the affinity for cheese :)
Um, hello! Who wouldn't die at the sight of this? My heart literally melted.
After spending some time sampling ALL of the cheeses that were out to sample and exploring the mini cheese museum on the lower level, I exited the building to find the pub I was looking for was right next door!
Clearly it was meant to be.
As you will soon find out, this became my pub. It became the place where everyone knew my name, a la Cheers and all that. And it is truly the reason my experience was so incredible! But more on that later...
I walked in through these swinging, rather noisy, doors and everyone looked at me. It was then that I realized how tiny this pub was. Literally one room, a bathroom that was down some steps, and a tiny kitchen that was up some steps and behind some windows. There were no seats at the bar so I found a table, but not before ordering a white beer (witbier) - which I had read about in my guide book was pretty Dutch.
It doesn't look white due to the lighting, but it was rather white. And quite delicious. Definitely interesting.
It was at this moment that I realized I was alone. Sitting in a foreign pub, drinking foreign beer while others around me conversed in multiple languages and laughed...I thought, "Okay, traveling alone. Here we go. You're a big girl now."
I glanced over at the groups laughing and having a good time. My impulse was to join a conversation, but there were no seats available and I didn't just want to awkwardly stand by them until they noticed me.
Oh, did I mention I was definitely the youngest one there? Yes, the majority of the people there were my parents age and older. Actually, the majority of the people there were much older than my parents! Haha. But I really enjoyed it. I felt like I was in an authentic Amsterdam Pub and not a highly commercialized, youth-anized, popularized one.
Sure enough, after about 20 minutes of sitting silently and reading a bit more of my guide book, a man came up to me and asked why I was sitting alone. He then proceeded to invite me over to where he was sitting and introduced me to some other Dutch people. They were all beyond friendly. Before I knew it he was buying me drinks and I was laughing and conversing with them. Erik, the guy that approached me, became my new best friend. My new sixty-some year old best friend :) I fully realized this when the bartender all of the sudden handed him the mic and he started to sing! After some Dutch verses of a song I had never heard before, everyone in the bar joined in for the chorus! They were swaying back and forth and singing to a Dutch folk song that was rather catchy (I would be singing along to it by the end of the weekend). I felt like I was in a movie. Here I was in this beautiful city, not even for half a day at this point, swaying with the people of Holland and experiencing true Dutch culture. Not in a million years could I have asked for a better start to my fall break. Erik eventually found out that I was a singer myself and he begged me to sing for him. I shyly declined for that night, but said possibly at another time. So we agreed to meet back there tomorrow night so that we could sing some more!
After a bit I realized that I still had yet to eat dinner and asked Erik for suggestions nearby. He asked if he could accompany me to dinner and tried to inform me, through broken English, that in no way did he have bad intentions, just pure friendship, good conversation, and good food. He was very sweet. So we walked towards this Turkish owned Italian restaurant that he knew stopping on the way to show me small alleyways that led into large terraces which housed numerous apartments and courtyards. They were hidden. It was surreal.
At dinner we both had salads, bread, vegetable lasagna, and tiramisu. All of it was delicious! And we had wonderful conversation. I learned that he was catholic and we spent most of our time talking about our shared faith in God. It was magical. He kept saying I was a beautiful young woman and had a beautiful soul and he was "so glad to have met" me. Then he walked me home and kissed me thrice on the cheeks (as they do) and wished me a good night's sleep.
I spent an hour laying on my top bunk listening to music and planning the next days festivities and reveling in the unexpected magic of what just happened. It was very serene. And God was most certainly there.
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