As many of you already know, I took my first solo trip across the pond this past weekend. I left Wednesday night and got home Sunday night. Let me tell ya, it was quite the adventure. I am about to lay it all our for you.
Day 1
I guess you could consider my day one to be more than just one calendar day. I started Wednesday night, took an all-nighter at 8:05 pm over to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, and arrived at 10:35 am their time. The kicker here is that I couldn't check into my hostel into 3 pm so basically, I had the whole day to explore Amsterdam without anything hindering it. When I was first getting into Amsterdam, I honestly couldn't contain my excitement. It had been six years since I had been to Europe and this being my first time alone made it even more exciting. When I walked out of the airport, I saw the famous I Amsterdam sign, or I thought I did, and just kind of awed for a second and kept on walking. I didn't know I could have easily taken the train to where I was staying so I caught a taxi which was just ridiculously overpriced for how far I was going. Luckily, I soon learned the train system like the back of my hand.
Following this, I taxied to my hostel, paid (even though I couldn't check in yet), then caught a train to Amsterdam Central which was where all the fun was. When I got into Amsterdam Centraal, I couldn't figure out how to get out of it and I was just in sheer awe of how big it was. Finally, when I did wander my way out, I swear my jaw just dropped when I saw the city. It was a really cool moment. I just stood there and took it in as long as I could. Then I got my phone out and started taking pictures. Basically all I did on this day is walk around and check out the city. I stopped in a couple pubs and grabbed a drink and quick bite to eat and just hung-out until I could check in. I then went and checked in and rested for a little bit. After a quick power nap, a couple walked in and announced that they'd be my roommates for my stay and that they were from Australia. We talked for a solid hour or so about our travels and our plans for the week. We didn't talk much after that because we were all doing our own thing, but shoutout to Megan and Tyler for being awesome.
Yes, I know, a third paragraph for one day. It was a LONG day, but bare with me for I am almost done.
Following my conversation with my new friends, I realized I was starving so I set out on my journey to find dinner. I planned on staying around the hostel for the night so I ended up finding this little pizza/grill joint and it looked good and I was starving so I went on in. I don't mean this to be mean or call him out or anything, but the waiter I had sucked and looked like he wanted nothing to do with the American who just walked in and couldn't speak flemish (aka dutch, the official language of the Netherlands). I just ignored it and I ended up ordering a couple glasses of some red wine and some lamb dumplings. The lamb came out and looked little burger patties, but no complaints from me because they were delicious. Following this, I just went back to my room and crashed for the night because I was tired.
Day 2
Woke up early due to the time change of course so I just got on up quietly and went on with my day. Went and tried to find a good breakfast place, but nothing was close enough for me to make it in time for breakfast so I ended up going to this little buffet place, but it turned out pretty good. Following this, I made my way to the Moco Museum which is a museum that houses a lot of street and modern art from famous street artists such as Banksy and Icy & Sot. I spent about a hour and a half in their considering it wasn't too big, but thoroughly enjoyed it. As I walked out of the museum, right in front of me is the REAL I Amsterdam sign and it was about three times the size of the one at the airport. It was really cool, however, there were a ton of people around it. So I just took a quick selfie and regular picture with it and went on with my day. At this point, I had done a lot of walking on the day and I was getting pretty hungry for it was dinner time as well, so I stopped at a pretty popular place right in the center of the Museum Quarter. I didn't get anything special, just a beer or two and a nice ham and cheese melt, but this was also good.
Following this, I headed back down to see the Red Light District at night which was the one thing I really wanted to do before I left. It was raining pretty hard and it was cold as heck so I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to down there, but I enjoyed walking through it a couple times. After this, I just walked back to Centraal, hopped on a train, and made my way back to Sloterdijk to hit they hay. I had a train to catch at 7 am the next morning.
Day 3
On day three, my plan all along was to head to another country for the day, my only problem was that I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to Paris or Brussels. I used rationale and deep thinking to realize that I am going to Paris in March and the train ride to Brussels was about a hour and a half shorter than that to Paris and after that, it was an easy decision. My train left at 7:30 from Amsterdam Centraal so I got up at 5:30, showered, hopped on a train to Centraal and actually got there at about 6:45. As it was hovering at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, I was freezing. I went to seek asylum in a nearby Starbucks as I waited for my train to Brussels and inside I met a nice couple named Jerry and Melody who I eventually found out were from Cleveland. We talked for about 45 minutes and ended up becoming pretty good friends. If ya'll ever see this, thanks for conversing with me!
Hopped off the train at Bruxelles-Midi (Brussels-South station), got very lost inside the train station, and then finally found my way out and got in a taxi. This was a super cheap taxi (I was thrilled about it) and he took me to my first place which was the Grand Place. Basically, this is just a large square with very old and very cool buildings that is essentially the capital of the European Union (Brussels is the capital of the EU and this is the main hub of Brussels). I didn't have any plans for the day and I was just going to walk around when all of a sudden I see an umbrella in the sky that said, "Free Walking Tours. English Group." so I walked over and the tour hadn't even started yet. This pretty much lined up my next three hours for me. Not even going to lie, I learned so much. I found almost everything the guide said to be very interesting. (Fun fact: the most known and famous statue/monument in Brussels is a fountain of a little kid peeing and it is called the Manneken-Pis.) I saw a statue of Don Quixote, a cool clock, lots of the museums, and a lot of different shopping areas.
After the tour was over, I was STARVING. I found this little restaurant that looked good, had a couple glasses of wine, and still to this day, ate a burger thing that was mostly what looked like grass and this orangish colored meat. I tried to ask the worker what it was, but she spoke mostly French and we were unable to come to an understanding of me asking what I was eating. But, it was good so what do I have to complain about. After I ate, I walked a couple miles to this thing called the Atromium which were like these very large metal balls that were held up together by long metal rods. I have no idea what it was and why it was there, but it was very big and very cool. That was my last item on the agenda for the day so I just hopped back on the train and took my long journey back to Sloterdijk. I ran into a little trouble on the train with the guy who checked my ticket and we had a little misunderstanding and I almost was thrown into Dutch jail, but thats neither here nor there. I finally made it back to my room and cased to get ready for my early flight in the morning.
Day 4
I wouldn't really consider this a day, but I figured I would add it as it was my day traveling back to the States. Easy trip and got home at about 7:30 Sunday night.
Overall, the trip was a wild success and I had the time of my life. This article will end up being a series as I will be known as will continue to document all of my trips to every new country I visit, whether I am by myself or with friends or family. I cannot wait to get back out there in the world and I hope y'all start to join me.
