Amsterdam, Holland

We left Colindale at an ungodly time to take the N5 to Golders Green, only to hop onto the National Express bus to Stansted Airport. After arriving at Stansted, Jess and I boarded our 7am flight to Schipol Airport, outside of Amsterdam, Netherlands. We made it through border control and headed towards the trains towards Amsterdam Centraal Station. The train wound up taking about 20 minutes, but we wound up sitting next to the most typical Dutch woman I have ever seen. It must have been an omen for the trip ahead.

After arriving in Amsterdam, we were kinda overwhelmed to say the least. Everything was in Dutch, which is by far the craziest language I have ever seen. It more or less is German influenced, but with the addition of a zillion letters and a heavy emphasis of j's. It was hilarious. After perusing the area, we found a quaint little bistro to get some lunch and to map out where we needed to get to. We figured out our itinerary and were able to get ahold of the apartment renter. We got our GVB tram passes and headed down on the number 4 to Fredericksplein, where the letter would meet us. We wound up getting a studio apartment down the street off of Flackstraat. After settling in, we went off exploring and managed to grab some food from this local Dutch-equivalent Whole Foods. With groceries in hand, we went to get some dinner from this quaint little Mexican joint called Antonio's, which was somewhat reasonably priced. From there, we decided to call it a night, and enjoy the studio apartment, free from crazy Middlesex students.

The next morning, we got up early and headed into the center of town. We managed to get lost about every turn, even with our fancy map. We wound up touring the flower market (Blomengrach) and tried to visit the Anne Frank huis, but the line was unbelievably long. After walking all the way to Prisengrach, lunch time was upon us, so we finally were able to justify eating Dutch pancakes! We stumbled upon this place called Sara's, which had the largest pancakes I have ever seen! I wound up getting a Dutch Waffle with Strawberry marmalade, which is still making my mouth water. After this delicious lunch, we navigated our way down to Museumplein, which has the I Amsterdam sign and the various museums. We decided to hit up the Van Gogh museum, which was really good just exceptionally busy. We decided to skip going to the Rijicksplein museum and went to grab dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, down in Leidesplein. We ultimately wound up adding another pin to my collection, and also, got a pretty kickass sundae for free. :) After strolling outside, we decided to walk down the shady Red Light District, which I actually found to be beyond amusing in a childish way and really scary. As we were walking down, there were all the men just staring into the booths with the prostitutes, which I thought was kinda weird. On the other hand, as we were walking, some of the prostitutes started to bang on the windows to get our attention, since I wasn't paying them any attention. After our little walk, we decided to turn in for the night.

The following day, we just did some more rambling through the city and crossed paths with the Hemp and Marijuana museum. With just the name, we knew that we needed to partake in this and walked in. After perusing the exhibits, we more or less came to the conclusion that most of the so called information was complete rubbish. They had this section that talks about the US and their law enforcement, which was complete nonsense. Yet, the crown jewel of the place was a room where they grew marijuana bushes, and being complete tourists, we took pictures infront of it. After that, we visited this place called Condomerie and they even had painted condoms of different objects. It was well worth a visit.

After all of this, the next day was more less demure. Just continued to wander around and take in the sights. Ultimately, we wound up having to head back to the airport and came back into London on Saturday at about 10am, gaining yet another three stamps! :)

The Swans and Ducks in the Red Light District

A Gay S&M Store, complete with mannequin in bondage

Clydesdales and Heineken Bier

Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

On Friday, Jess, Mika, and I went to go see Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. We have literally been talking about seeing this musical since we got here due to our numerous meanderings passing by the Palace theatre outfitted with a giant stilleto and shimmer. We finally bit the bullet and bought £20 tickets randomly for Friday.

So, we arrived at around 7pm for the show at 7:30 and were directed to our seats. Now, when we bought the tickets, I understood they might not be the best since they were only £20, but we were in for a shock when we got there. We had to walk up over 5 flights of stairs for the balcony seats, and once we were there, it looked like it was such a sharp incline forward it felt like you were going to take a tumble. Anywho, the curtain rose and its just history from then. I don't think I have laughed nearly as much as I did during the entire time. There was some times when I felt like I was going to start crying from laughing. I will dare say I did have reservations going into it, drag queens, really? I mean, I saw Priscilla in my IDH4200: Australia class with Dr. Erben two years ago, so I knew what I was getting myself into, but it was so much better than I thought. Needless to say, the three of us were singing along with everyone else, continuing on down to the tube back to Colindale.

The Divas

Tick, Bernadette, and Felicia

Felicia, Bernadette, and Tick

Fish and Chips + Walk along the Thames

So, it has yet again been another incredibly busy week here in London. For one, Jess and I had our mock United Nations Security Council paper and Security Council presentation day last week. The paper took and extremely long time and the mock UN possibly took even longer to complete, but we finally have finished it! So for the past couple of days we have had a bit of breather to relax and do some more London-y things. On Friday, Jess, Mika, and I went down to Charing Cross to go clubbing, but Jess didn't have her I.D. and wound up not being allowed in. It turns out we had more fun roaming around Southern London than we would have had in the club. We strolled across the bridge towards Southie, and meandered along the riverwalk, actually wound up walking along the river at one point. We continued on further towards St. Paul's and towards the City of London, crossing the Millennium Bridge breakdancing was probably even more priceless. All in all it was a good night in the end.

On Wednesday, Jess, Mika, Cat, Nick, and I headed down into town down by London Bridge underground stop and had a good 'ole pub night. We acquired an amazing table overlooking the Thames and actually got there to see a magnificent sunset. After a bit, the temperature began to drop significantly, so we made our way inside to grab some dinner. For the first, and decidedly the last time, I ordered Fish and Chips. I think I am just going to stick to chicken, but alas, I can now say I have had an official English dinner.

In other news, I have officially booked Amsterdam and Dublin in the upcoming weeks and we are finally in the last 90 days of the trip. It's hard to imagine its already the halfway mark, and I imagine it is just going to continue to sail by, especially with the papers and the upcoming travels.

St. Paddy's Day + Queen of Hoxton

On Saturday, Mika, Jess, and I went down towards Embankment and headed towards a new/retro indie hipster bar called the Queen of Hoxton. Supposedly, according to TimeOutLondon, the bar was supposed to be amazing, but it was more or less alright. We wound up leaving around 1am and hit up another Kebab/Fried Chicken Restaurant in search of the N5 bus back to Colindale. Ultimately, we wound up walking around and running into the two craziest crazies we have met in London since January. Both were King's College students, Brit and Frenchie, and were desperately searching for directions on how to get to their bus station. Now, with my iPhone in hand, we gave them directions which were along the same way we were going so we talked for the time, only to hear some of the most wacked out stories I have ever heard. Anywho, we got to our stop, avoiding the dreaded N91 bus to Cockfosters, and got back to Colindale around 3:30am.

On Sunday, London celebrated St. Paddy's Day in Trafalgar Square with some good 'ole Irish music. We got down to Leicester Square around 2pm and there must have been at least a good 100,000 people already there, with more on the way. There were thousands, upon thousands more people there than on Chinese New Years. They didn't have much traditional Irish fare food, but the Guinness was flowing, so it felt somewhat authentic. After about 4-5hrs. there, we headed back to the dorms.

London Eye

Last night was one of the best nights I have had in a long time. The London Eye had just opened this week and as part of their 10th birthday celebrations, the first week they were offering £10 tickets, which is almost 50% off, and it was also Noora's last night in London, we decided it would be something fun for the five of us (Jess, Me, Cat, Noora, and Mika). We had an original flight time at 6pm and wound up just meeting Noora and Mika at the London Eye, which is off of Embankment in Southie. We somehow wound up getting a perfect time in the continuous boarding scheme and ultimately had an entire private capsule for the 5 of us. The Eye revolves once every half hour and the views are just out of this world. The panoramas of Parliament and Westminster Abbey and everything up and down the Thames was just magical. The weather was not cooperating with us and we had planned for the sunset to coincide, but it was still something very cool to see and do. After a good thirty minutes of laughing and taking about 500 photos between the three of us, we headed down Waterloo in Southie to check out some possible restaurant options. After being lured into a Turkish restaurant with a cheap dinner, it turned out it is only valid for a short period of time. After a little prodding, the manager gave us a round of Baklava for the table, which was incredible. After some more shenanigans across the the Thames, we reboarded the Tube and headed back to Colindale.

Cat, Jess, Noora, and Mika at Waterloo Station

The London Eye

Go Bulls!

Mika and Noora

Big Ben and Parliament

After Skool Klub

Last night, we all headed down to Charing Cross station and decided on going to this club at King's College down by the Thames River. We ultimately ended up getting down there earlier than the club opened (11pm, really?) so we headed towards a local pub around the area. After a quick pint at the pub, we headed towards King's College and got into the club for only £3, which is considerably cheap for a Saturday night. After a quick ride up the elevator, Noora, Mika, Jess, and I wound up getting a booth overlooking the Thames at night, which is gorgeous, especially seeing the London Eye light up and all the other buildings along the river. Around midnight, the club started to get more crowded and started to play the good stuff. Around 2:30, we all decided to call it a night and for once got on the right bus (N5) back to Edgeware. We got back to Colindale station around 3:30 only to get hit with -5ºC artic wind that is outer London.

Avenue Q

Tonight, Jess and I went down Leicester Square and got tickets to Avenue Q from tkts. Motivated by the fact tickets were only £22 and having been told that the show was extremely raunchy and funny, we bought tickets and headed down to the theater. The show was shown at the Gielgud Theatre off of Shaftesbury street and started at 8pm. The show was hilarious from beginning to end and is just so completely strung-out there but it was a riotous good time. I think by far our favorite song was the "Internet is for porn!" sung by Monster himself. I think we were both on the edge of tears by the end of it. Haha.