Amsterdam

In mid-April, I had my first two final exams. After the first, I bought myself a glow-in-the-dark watch to celebrate. After the second, I bought a plane ticket to Amsterdam.

Well, technically I bought it before I took the exam. But you know what I mean. I celebrated passing both my exams in the A-B range with a trip to Amsterdam is the point I’m getting at.

Olivia and I had talked about meeting up again in Europe during my trip to Copenhagen – we discussed a couple possibilities: Budapest, Paris, Barcelona, and settled on Amsterdam. Olivia’s already headed home, so for her Amsterdam was one of the last trips she was able to make out of the Scandinavia area.

This trip marked my first Ryan Air experience – and it was an experience. Tiny suitcases, lots of conditions of travel, and… a song when we landed? The trip went smoothly, though, from trains to buses to flights to more buses.

I flew into Eindhoven, an airport about an hour and a half from Amsterdam, and took a shuttle into the city. Coordinating with Olivia, who had already arrived, was a little difficult without phones or internet – we decided to meet at the city library, within walking distance of the station where I’d been dropped off, before heading to our AirBNB place. I’m pretty proud of myself for finding the library with absolutely no knowledge of Amsterdam and without asking anyone. And I never even headed in the wrong direction! Outside of the library we had our first sighting of the famous I Amsterdam sign.

Welcome to Amsterdam!

Olivia and I grabbed dinner at a place nearby that turned out to be Italian. I just can’t get away! But I ordered the least Italian thing on the menu (pasta with curry and duck) and enjoyed the heck out of it.

 

Yum!

Our room for the week was a spare room in the apartment of a really great couple. They had maps, museum passes and metro cards for us – all we had to do was put some credit on the metro pass and wander the city.

My first full day in Amsterdam, we headed for the Hermitage Museum, which is housing most of the Van Gogh Museum’s collection while it’s being restored. Van Gogh has always held a place in my heart, and my walls at home usually have at least one of his paintings on them. It was really interesting to see so much of his work collected and organized by style. I had no idea he only painted for 10 years, and that he worked on so many diverse styles in that time. There were the classics we know and love, Japanese-inspired paintings and some pointillism that hearkened back to my days as a Seurat-obsessed child (what a weird obsession for a child).

We sped through the Hermitage part of the Hermitage Museum, stopping to try on a few pieces from Peter the Great’s wardrobe. Olivia sounded surprised when she said I could pull off the coat.

Rocking that Peter the Great coat

Olivia in a very nice hat

 Next up for us was quite a bit of wandering and the Stedelijk Museum, the modern art museum in Amsterdam. I really enjoyed this one – I’ve seen a lot of renaissance art this semester. Van Gogh was a really great way to break it up, as was the Stedelijk. My favorite collection was a set of paper models of an artist’s studio and apartment. Lucy McKenzie made paper pop-ups of buildings and drew the furniture in pencil on the walls. It was fascinating to walk around them and see the level of detail in the tiny rooms.

Another favorite from the Stedelijk

Outside the Stedelijk, in front of the Rijksmuseum, we had our second I Amsterdam sighting. What a cool spot! We also stopped by a photography museum that had some really cool, experimental photography. Amsterdam has some good stuff, y’all.

The next day we went to the Anne Frank House and the Rijkmuseum. Obviously, the Anne Frank House is a huge part of coming to Amsterdam. It’s the must-see, and it was very powerful. It’s stark, in a way, and I think that lends a lot of gravity to the experience. I haven’t read the diary since I was young, but so much of it came back to me as I walked through the halls and staircases of this tiny annex.

The Rijkmuseum was a quick trip for us – Olivia had already seen the majority of it, and it had been a long day. We braved the hordes of tourists surrounding the Rembrandts and Vermeers for a few quick peeks. There’s a definite Dutch style, let me tell you. Seeing it all lined up, the similarities were pretty clear. Of course, my favorite part was the dollhouses. I'm a sucker for dollhouses. Olivia surprisingly already knew this, and took me straight there. What a good friend!

One very rich lady was very happy

On the last of our five days in Amsterdam, we took a bus to Keukenhof Gardens, a huge botanical garden outside the city. It was absolutely beautiful. Many of the tulips were already blooming, and I may have gone a little bit picture-crazy… It was so nice to take it slow and eat a sandwich on a beautiful lawn. Wandering the gardens was an all-day activity, and well worth it.

 

Some fancy tulips at Keukenhof

In a wooden shoe, not for the first time in my life

Highlights of Amsterdam, according to me: The Van Gogh Museum. Keukenhof Gardens. Stroopwafels. Architecture along the canals. An English-speaking population. Falafel.

Amsterdam was a great trip. So far, it’s the only city I’ve visited where I can imagine myself, long-term. This might be due to the fact that I spent the most picturesque years of my childhood in a Dutch town – it felt familiar. The architecture, the sweets, the words, the windmills. It was a very nostalgic experience, considering I’d never been to the Netherlands before. I’m so glad I was able to visit Amsterdam, and I hope I’m able to go back soon. 

An American Friend in Italy

Well, a few…

1. Brynne & I Take Bologna

Brynne and I got together twice during the semester – once when I went to visit her in Arezzo, and once when she came to see me in Bologna. Here’s the weekend we spent together, which was the first time I’d been to many of Bologna’s tourist attractions.

 

On top of the Basilica San Petronio in Piazza Maggiore -- Brynne

...and me

We spent a lot of time walking the streets and portici of Bologna, which I always forget are a novelty – after almost four months, covered sidewalks seem like an integral part of Italy. But in reality Bologna is one of the only cities in Italy with the walkways. Let me tell you – when it rains as much as it does here, they earn their keep.

Brynne had a guidebook that mentioned Bologna (which is more than I had – Rick Steves, why have you forsaken me?), so she had a good idea of what she wanted to see, and my (minimal) local knowledge supplemented.

First up was a trip to Piazza Maggiore and the Fontana Nettuno, one of Bologna’s most famous sights. At the time, they were setting up a giant stage in the piazza for a concert honoring Lucio Dalla (which I got to go to the next week – what the heck, here’s a few pictures!), so some of the things around the square were closed.

4 Marzo concert in Piazza Maggiore

We did have the good fortune of visiting a palazzo nearby that had an art collection as well as a few Bolognese historical artifacts. My personal favorites were a small, wooden model of Bologna in medieval times (I found my street!) and this painting of the death of Cleopatra, which looks suspiciously like Lena Dunham of Girls fame.

Tiny Bologna!

Spitting image. I swear.

Brynne agreed with me. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Brynne’s favorite part was the horses. It usually is.

Next up was the Torre degli Asinelli, the symbol of Bologna. When you see tourist maps with little icons next to all the cities, Bologna’s always features two towers – one that’s crooked enough to rival the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and another that’s straight and very, very tall. Together, they’re the Due Torri. And, of course, for only 3 euro you can climb that very tall, very thin tower. So.

 

Rachel, Brynne and I at the top of the tower

It’s about 500 steps, and it’s narrow and steep the whole way up. Luckily, they have landings every hundred steps or so, which helps a lot with my steep stairs thing. If you’ve never seen me try to climb a lighthouse, let me tell you: it can get bad. Usually on spiral staircases. Luckily, this tower only has a very small portion of spirals. The rest are blessedly straight and have ample handrails.

 

The view from the top... Yikes!

We also went to Santo Stefano – known as the Seven Churches. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, except six of the churches are INSIDE the other church. Pretty fancy.

 

The courtyard in Santo Stefano

It was a great weekend of reminiscing with an old friend (it’s so weird that my college friends can be called ‘old’ now – I guess it’s all relative! Everyone feels old when you’re starting completely from scratch in a new country). We ate some great food, we saw the best side of Bologna, and I was pleasantly surprised by how many stories I was able to tell about the city I’ve learned to call home.

2. And finally... Copenhagen!

Joey, Olivia and I in Copenhagen

This one is a trip I had hoped for but didn’t think could possibly actually happen. My friend Olivia is spending the semester in Copenhagen, and our friend Joey was looking for a spring break trip. It turns out he knew two girls studying in Copenhagen, so he decided to make the trip over. We had talked about him coming to Italy, but it just wasn’t enough time. I, however, could justify a few days off of class to see two of my best friends from high school.

This was my first inter-country travel experience here, other than the initial London to Bologna flight. I woke up ungodly early, took a taxi to the train station, took a 3-hour train to Milan, took a bus to the airport, took a plane to Copenhagen where Joey met me at the airport, and we took the subway to downtown Copenhagen. That’s a lot in one day, let me tell you. Luckily I know my way around an airport through instinct by this point. I spent a lot of time in the Kansas City International Airport as a child. It sank in.

Everything is old and cool!

Joey and I wandered the very charming streets until Olivia was done with her class work for the day. It was a really, really great few days – the perfect solution to a little bit of homesickness. Joey and I only had a few days of overlap there, but we got to see quite a bit of each other. After some good hangout time, Joey had to go home – but I had an extra day or two with Olivia. She was kind enough to show me around all the tourist attractions that Joey had already done that week, as well as a few others.

Olivia in her natural Copenhagen habitat -- the metro

Olivia and I on a canal

How picturesque! 

When I was deciding to come to Copenhagen, the sum of my knowledge came from the Danny Kaye movie and one of the Happy Hollister books. I am, of course, referring to Hans Christian Andersen and the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. I told Olivia this was my only must-see, and one very cold, windy day we set out to find it. There’s a lot of walking involved, but it was absolutely worth it.

 

The Little Mermaid!

It was a short trip, but I learned a lot about traveling – namely, that knowing someone who lives at your destination makes the stay more fun and much cheaper. I’m so glad I got to see Olivia and Joey, especially since there won’t be much if any overlap in our time at home this summer.

 

In the Glass Market, where they give out all kinds of free samples

We found some interesting souvenirs -- the one of the left says "I <3 Green Bay"

So, that’s two of my weekends down, many more to go. I just got back from a fantastic trip that I can’t wait to tell you about! 

Whirlwind in Rome (No. 1)

Well, it’s been a while. Too long, my mother would say (I would also say this).

I guess I do have an excuse – I’ve been so busy doing things that I haven’t had much time to write about them!

Please say you’ll let this one slide.

Anyway – I’ve got a lot to catch you up on. So let’s look back about two months…

My roommate/fellow OU student/BIFF (best Italian friend forever) Rachel is half Italian – her mom is Italian, and her parents met when her dad spent about eight years living in Italy. In addition to her two American siblings, she has a half brother, Christopher, who grew up here in Italy but now studies in Edinburgh, Scotland. In February, he made a trip to visit us and his family that lives nearby.

Christopher and a friend came and spent a weekend with me and Rachel in Bologna (we were still fairly new to the city – they took us out more than we did them. Whoops!), went to visit their families during the week, and then…

Met us in Rome the next weekend!

My first trip to Rome was a whirlwind – Rachel and I took a train on Friday afternoon to meet Christopher and another friend, Giulio, at the Tiburtina station. Giulio and his family have an extra room in their apartment, and were kind enough to put the three of us up for a few nights.

We did a bit of sightseeing on this trip, but our priority was spending time with Christopher, who hadn’t seen his Roman friends in a few years. We got to know them over the weekend, and had some fantastic tour guides for the local sights.

Our first night in Rome was a doozy. We went for an aperitivo and then out to a street with many, many bars. We met about a dozen friends of Christopher and Giulio, including an Italian journalist (who warned me about what I was getting myself into!), a scenographer for Italian film, and many, many computer programmers. After wandering the streets of Rome for hours and exploring all the nightlife there, we all piled into a car and headed into a more residential area.

I, maybe foolishly, thought we were calling it a night at 3 a.m.

How wrong I was. We pulled up at a discoteca.

We finally collapsed in our beds a little after 6 a.m. So, we got an understandably late start the next day. We may or may not have slept until it was once again getting dark outside.

But that made for some really great sightseeing – Rome at sunset is something else.

First up: the Colosseo.

What an amazing way to see something as, well, colossal as the Colosseum for the first time. It’s amazing to me that something this gargantuan is possible now – let alone 2,000 years ago!

Enrico, Christopher, Rachel, Giulio and I

After we marveled for an appropriate amount of time, we walked around Rome, hitting the major sights – the Spanish Steps in Piazza Spagna, Piazza Venezia with Mussolini’s palazzo, the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, and…

The Fontana di Trevi.

Giulio, our lovely host, had a bit of a surprise for us as we walked down Via del Corso. “Do you trust me?” he asked us, and we hesitantly responded yes. Let me tell you, I’m glad we did – he had us close our eyes and take his hands, and he led us blind to… something. We had no idea what. After a corner, he had us uncover our eyes, and there it was – right in front of us.

It’s a great sight to see, and what a way to see it! I’m so glad that was one of my first experiences in Rome.

So, night no. 2 progressed much as night no. 1 had – we made it in slightly earlier, but not by much. Christopher had to leave for a very early flight and only got about three hours of sleep. Luckily, Rachel and I got a few more hours before Giulio took us to the station.

It was a great weekend – seeing Rome through the eyes of a native was an experience I couldn’t have duplicated. I knew I’d have plenty of time to do the tourist traps later – and I’m so glad my introduction was such a whirlwind.

Getting to know Christopher was a great experience as well – he and Rachel didn’t grow up together, so being a part of their time together felt very special. There’s a definite family resemblance. He and all his friends were so welcoming and helpful, and Rachel and I have our eyes on a trip to Edinburgh sometime this summer… I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

The happy family

I’m going to keep chipping away at these stories. There’s a lot to tell, but hopefully I’ll have you all caught up soon!