Peace up, A-town

Traveling is amazing. Seriously - the fact that we can take 3 or 4 day trips every weekend and not even bring a single schoolbook with us is beautiful. Of course, the recovery day (you know, when you adjust from being on vacation back to being in the real world) can be wasteful... especially if you get back on a Monday, feel lazy on Tuesday, and are ready to go by Wednesday... the last day of class! And then leave again on Friday. It's a nice little cycle. Then again, I am feeling more and more like this is three months of vacation - we have schoolwork and we go to class (more updates on that later) - but it is a lot more.... indulgent, if you will... than normal, non-abroad life. I am anticipating quite a rude awakening come January 16, the first day of class next semester.

Anyway, on to Amsterdam! Unfortunately my camera broke last week at Oktoberfest so I didn't have my own this weekend. I've snagged some from the other people on the trip, so 100% cred to them (Corey, Jenny, Michael). I'll keep this one short because my last one for Oktoberfest was quite the reading assignment, sorry.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, to beautiful and sunny weather. An easy bus ride from the airport took us to our hostel, StayOkay Vondelpark. It was in a nicer area of the city - about a 20 minute walk from the red light district, but right near the museums and a huge park (Vondelpark). The hostel wasn't great - it probably ranks above Istanbul's Chillout hostel, but below the others I've stayed in. It worked though, and we didn't have any random people in our 6 bunkbed + 1 rolling trundle + 1 sink, shower, and toilet, teeny room.

Mike really enjoyed the rolling bed.

Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen throughout my travels. The entire city is built around canals - basically every other block there is a bridge to go over another canal. So, all of the water, tree-lined streets, brick sidewalks, and beautiful architecture really make it a romantic and very pretty city. We had great weather the whole time, which of course adds to the experience in any city. You could sit along the canal - literally the edge of the sidewalk is the edge of the canal:

(Brandon, Michael, Mike, and Corey)

This is how all of the streets looked!

The girls by a canal (Dalila, Jenny, and me)

The entire city is walkable - we never even needed to take public transportation. It is pretty touristy in a lot of areas, but that makes for some competitive prices on food! We ate SO much - traveling really makes you realize how bad English food is. French fries, waffles, Dutch pancakes, Indonesian food, Argentinian Steakhouses, Falafel -- basically we just ate the entire time. The waffles there are unbelievable. In any bakery or sandwich shop you could find these delicious fresh waffles with different chocolate toppings, and most places you could get them heated up with whipped cream or ice cream. Here's Jenny with a chocolate covered one -

I know it seems crazy to talk about waffles this much, but if you knew how many we ate and how many waffle searches we embarked upon, you'd understand.

At an Argentinian Steakhouse on the first night. Rare Steak, Chorizo, Fries, and Ice cream. What more could you want?

The red light district was crazy! We went there Friday and Saturday night, and just walked around (to the boys' dismay, we never made it to a live sex show). The prostitutes literally stand in the window and smile at people passing by, or dance to whatever music they have playing. They are practically naked and completely made up in different costumes and sexy lingerie. It was a really weird experience and definitely inspired a few conversations among the group about prostitution. I think the general consensus was that we're glad it's not legal in the US, and that since this is such a crazy exception, it makes it more acceptable? I don't know. We really just wanted to hire a prostitute for a couple of hours, take her out to dinner, and talk to her about her life, but I don't think that would have gone over well. The major question is whether they really are choosing to do that -- if they are 100%, then it's fine by me -- or whether they're forced into that by some sort of class/economic situation... in which case I am less accepting of the "sex industry." Either way, this could inspire some great material or discussion for the next issue of The Fword! I don't have any photos because you're not allowed to take any, so you'll have to use your imagination. There are a lot of red lights, a ton of people on narrow streets, and a whole lot of half naked women. I think that pretty much sums it up.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for, I'm sure -- the "Coffee shops." In the "Centrum" area (city center), there were literally coffee shops on every corner. Obviously, I've never seen anything like it, but it was even crazier than I expected. You smelled weed any time of day if you walked past, and a lot of people even smoked outdoors (even though that's supposedly less legally acceptable? I don't know). Interestingly enough, they don't sell alcohol at the coffee shops - just coffee, tea, juices, and a whole lot of marijuana. Again, I think I'm happy it's not like this in the US.

A famous coffeeshop where a scene of Ocean's 12 was filmed! Who knew? Thanks for the trivia, Corey.

Besides the beautiful city itself, there is a lot to see in Amsterdam - we went to the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House (or Huis, in Dutch...). The Anne Frank House was definitely well done, but also a little creepy.

One more thing to mention about the trip - the bicycles! EVERYONE rides a bike in Amsterdam. People of all ages, wearing anything from a business suit to a dress and high heels, even when it was very cold out at night... all across the city! On any lamp post, bridge railing, sidewalk, etc., there were dozens of bikes leaning against each other. Most of them didn't even have locks! The bikes are those cruiser types, with the low seat and the high handlebar and a cute basket in front. It looks like so much fun! The bikes have the same traffic rules as the cars, if not the right of way in many cases. They ride on the street sometimes, but there are a ton of wide bike lanes that you better not get caught walking on.

Bikes along a canal

Dalila and I have black raincoats so people think we're sisters.

In other news, I am randomly featured on the 34th Street Blog (Under The Button)! I've always wanted to be famous. Of course, whoever found me doesn't know me that well... they really think my name is Rachel Knight Squire. People, come ON. Facebook lies -- and who would be named Knight Squire???? Wow. Anyway, thanks for the shoutout, whoever wrote it! Now I'll have to try harder. Check it out: http://underthebutton.com/2008/10/around-the-world-in-10-blogs/
In honor of that, here is a broken button that we found in the Museum area of Amsterdam:

Classes are going well -- definitely not as good as Penn classes, but I can't complain, considering the workload. I like my history class a lot, but the rest are just okay. Maybe they'll get better? I'm off to the theater tonight (Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh) and Dublin with Uncle Danny this weekend.

Cheers!

Danke, Munchen

Lederhosen, bratwurst, and hendl, oh my!

This weekend, Brandon, Andy, Jenny, and I traveled to Munich (Munchen) for Oktoberfest! There were soooo many people there and so much to see - I'm sure I'll forget some things. Anyway, we got there on Friday night pretty late, and checked into our hotel. On the way to the hotel, we saw tons of oktoberfesters on their way home, decked out in all sorts of German attire. Suspenders and shorts and knee socks for the guys, and those low-cut patterned dresses with aprons for the women. Really - all of the Germans were wearing them! And it wasn't just young idiots - a lot of the people we saw were over 40 or 50 and there with their whole families. That was our first taste, but we finally made it to our hotel. It was a 2 person room but there was a king bed and a living room so it worked out perfectly - plus we each basically paid hostel prices since we split it four ways! It was very late so nothing was open except for our hotel bar. We had our first Hefeweisbier (wheat beer) in Munich and some currywurst too. I am DEFINITELY going to start putting curry sauce in my ketchup when I eat hot dogs. I highly recommend it. We went to bed soon after to prepare for our big day.

Saturday we woke up crazy early and headed down to Theresienweise (the stop on the U-Bahn where the fairgrounds are). The subway was PACKED with people headed to the festival, and when we got off the train, the platform was absolutely filled - like when you're going to a baseball game at National's Stadium, or when we went to that pro-choice march on the National mall. TONS of people. Keep in mind, this was 7:45 AM!! We were told by some insiders (aka Michael and about.com) that you have to get there very early in order to get into the tents, or else you won't get in and you won't get served. We walked into the fairgrounds with a ton of dressed up Germans around us. It definitely reminded me of the Prince William County Fair - except instead of rednecks it's Bavarian-themed. There are rides, bumper cars, souveniers, and SO much food! Stands with nuts (the candied kind that smell amazing and make you want to buy them), bakery items (particularly, humongous pretzels that are the absolute best thing to eat while/after drinking beer), and a ton of MEAT -- bratwurst (sausage), various schnitzels (fried pork, veal, etc), hendl (roasted chicken - generally half or whole), and even pork knuckle. Ew! The basic set up of the fair is like this: there are about a dozen huge "tents," each owned by a different restaurant. They are HUGE on the inside - like 2 stories and 5000 seats at least. Just rows and rows of picnic tables. There are also smaller tents with just 30 tables or so, but we didn't go into any of them. Anyway, it's really hard to get into any of the tents without a reservation (which Germans make like 2 years in advance if they're really into it), so that's why we had to get there so early. You either make it in in the morning when the doors open, or you're out for the majority of the day.

We were supposed to meet at the Hofbrauhaus tent (one of the more famous ones, and the only tent that you don't need a seat to get served) with a few other Penn people. We got there and there was already a crowd of about 75-100 people outside the front door. We parked ourselves there and put up our hoods and waited... and waited... and then all of a sudden people started yelling and pushing! There would be a 5 second pause and then another "aahhhhhh" and a push forward. It was kind of funny at the beginning, but it got tighter and tighter until people's elbows were in my neck and my ribs were squeezed so tight I thought they would break! We got closer and closer to the open door (the crowd was very wide and were trying to squeeze into two small doors at opposite ends of the entrance). Andy was a few people ahead of us, and just kept getting pushed to the side -- closer to the door! The three of us were packed like sardines and really uncomfortable, and then we lost sight of Andy. He made it through the door! All of a sudden the whistles started blowing and the doors SLAMMED SHUT! There were two people between us and the door. I saw my life flash before my eyes, and the day go down the drain. I knew it was over. The three of us stood there for over an hour -- squeezed at first but after people started bailing out, there was more room to stand. We saw people singing, laughing, holding steins of beer up at NINE IN THE MORNING, and just oktoberfesting it up while we waited outside! The security guards were being really mean and wouldn't tell anyone what time they'd reopen the doors. We stood and stood and came up with all sorts of strategies to get into other tents - none of which we were confident enough in to leave the door where we were already standing. Finally, the whistles started going like crazy again, and the German polizei moved in and started pushing people out of the way - "not an entrance" "entrance closed"!! CRAP. Now what? Where to go? Everyone was pushed away from the door, and then, we saw it. The outdoor seats! DUH! Each tent has outdoor, or "garten" seating. Of course, it was drizzling and gray out, but I had my raincoat, so what the hell. We plopped ourselves at a table with four Italian men (apparently the Italians all come to Oktoberfest the third weekend - there were a TON). It was crowded outside too, with lots of happy drinking people, singing songs, randomly raising their beers in a toast. We flagged down a large German woman who could carry like 12 steins at a time by resting them on her large bosom, and ordered a stein each. That is the ONLY size they serve there! It is one liter - about 3 beers.

For the rest of the morning we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, the group of Italians left, and about 8 more came over throughout the next couple of hours. Drinking that early in the morning is very odd. We made good friends with this new group -- I learned all of their names, some new Italian, and they complimented me on my Italian accent. Sergio, Paulo, Paulo, Stefano, Massimo, Rocco, Nicola... I think that's it. Somehow we decided to leave the outside of Hofbrauhaus (we had a pretzel, don't worry) and find some friends in another tent -- Hacker something was next door. So, off to a few more closed doors with mean security guards. By this time we knew any waiting wouldn't be fruitful, so we went around the tent to the back. All of a sudden, we saw it. An open door! There were NO guards in front - just a wide open door with people walking in and out. We couldn't believe it! We were finally inside and didn't even think it was true.

We somehow managed to find Michael and a bunch of other Penn kids amid the waiters and waitresses carrying huge trays of 1/2 chickens, Germans walking around in lederhosen and dresses, and people standing on their tables every few minutes screaming "Prost!!" (cheers). The tent was awesome on the inside - like nothing I've ever seen before. There really were so many people, and a big wooden gazebo in the middle of the room with a 12 piece band playing German music - and often some random American oldies songs too. People were having such a good time - lots of Germans, of course, but also Italians and Americans. We stayed there for a little while and soaked it all in but as the afternoon wore on, our restful night's sleep wore off and it was clear what we needed: naptime. So, we met up with Andy, picking up a pretzel along the way, and headed back to our comfortable, quiet hotel for what turned into a 4 hour nap! By the time we knew it, it was 8 pm. We were tent-ed out, so we headed to downtown Munich for dinner.

We found an authentic Bavarian restaurant much like the smaller tents at Oktoberfest - picnic tables where you sat with other random Germans - but this one was much more calm and not as overwhelming. We got - yep, you guessed it - weinerschnitzel, bratwurst, potatoes, and hefeweisbier. What else, honestly? Then again, by the end of the evening I was not feeling 100% -- all of the beer and meat had certainly caught up with me. It was clear we needed to call it a night.

The next morning we actually got some sleep and went to the tent around 11 am. This time we saw much more of the carnival scene - sampled some candied nuts, bought some souveniers, and saw the insides of some more tents. It's much different when you're not freezing cold/stressed about getting inside a tent/on your second liter of beer... right? We sat outside Hofbrauhaus again and had our final beer and wurst, and played a nice game of Rummy 500 (I dominated, btw). We said goodbye to Oktoberfest and headed to a park near some Munich museums to relax for the rest of the afternoon before our flight. One hard day was definitely enough for us, especially since we knew we were going to get on the plane that night and head to class the next morning!

Our trip home wasn't so smooth - at least an hour and a half delay on our EasyJet flight back to London, 30 minutes in customs, and then the train back to London wasn't running so we had to pay 18 quid for a "replacement bus service" back to London, which wasn't even near where we lived, so we had to take another city bus and walk to go home! I was finally in bed at 3:30 am. Oish.

It was definitely a good trip, though, and worth the traveling time and expenses! I don't know if I would go back - in fact, I think once is enough for me - but I'm glad I went. Maybe I can bring back what I learned to Penn for our own little Palace Oktoberfest next year? What do you guys think?

Photos of Oktoberfest:

Brandon and Jenny with their first liters at 10:30 am.

Outside of the Hofbrauhaus tent

Posing with Paulo and Sergio, or was it Stefano? Who knows.

Inside the Hacker tent - Brandon and Jenny with Bryant, another Penn kid who came up to me and started speaking German... I said, no sprecken ze deutsche (I don't speak German), and he started laughing... and I realized I knew him from Penn! Good one.

Some more of the Hacker tent gang

Inside Hacker tent - check out the skylights and the murals on the wall... and all of the people!

View of the carnival itself on Sunday morning

Inside Hofbrauhaus tent

The outside of Hacker

In other news, I have been going to class, in case anyone was curious. Classes are great! I have had 2 art history classes - London Architecture. We take field trips almost every week. The class is almost all American students, and our prof. is a Ph.D. student who doesn't speak loudly enough when we are touring around. We went to Hampton Court last week (Henry VIII's and other kings' castles) and Westminster Abbey this week. Not too shabby. The other course is history - "Britain and the Wider World." We'll only cover from 1880-1935 before we leave in December, but it should be really interesting. It's a lecture (1 hr) and recitation (1 hr) each week, with two papers for the whole term. It doesn't seem like you need to do all of the reading. So, in total, that's 8 hours of class between Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday... and that's it. It's crazy. And barely any work for the classes - pretty much just doing the papers toward the end of the semester - which I am definitely going to get done BEFORE December. If I do one a week between now and the end of the year I should be ok! It's a really nice break from classes and work at Penn, if nothing else. Plus plenty of time to read, sleep, walk around London, eat lots of food, and travel. Sounds pretty good to me.

Off to Amsterdam bright and early tomorrow morning. Gutte nacht!