Mary: A little Cadiz, a little Toledo…and LOTSA Amsterdam!

¡HOLA!

I skipped last week because the weekend in Cadiz turned out to be a bit of a bust…at least, not worthy of an entire blog entry. So I thought I’d combine Cadiz with an unexpected day trip to Toledo and the main attraction: Amsterdam.

May have mentioned this, but the Cadiz trip was a bus trip offered through an organization called “EuropeanVibe.” The organizers basically get paid to party with college students on weekend trips and bar crawls. So, early EARLY Friday morning, Kirstin, Laura, (a new Laura), and I get on one of four buses, only to be hit in the face with the smell of cheap vodka and blaring techno music. Uh…what? Turned out Laura, Kirstin and I were the only travelers above the age of 21: fraternity boys and sorority girls who intended to devote their weekend to complete obliteration surrounded us. I almost cried into my copy of Jane Eyre. However, after two of the NINE hours, the crazy youngsters simpered down a bit. The highlight of the trip was having our own hotel room with a humungo complimentary breakfast.

Well okay, okay…so Carnival was pretty cool. After a day at the Cadiz beach, (too cold for sunbathing), which was a very pretty portion of the Atlantic Ocean, we began to get ready for Carnival. We bought some supplies at a local Claire’s and I ended up with green hair clip-ons and a pink boa, (see below). People go CRAZY for this event though, showing up in platform shoes and multi-colored wigs and all kinds of costumes. Just like a huge Halloween party. Also, it’s funny, while we, (in America), all coordinate costumes to somehow compliment each other, (aka SIX PACK FUN PACK), everyone in Spain coordinates by dressing up as the SAME THING. So there will be a group of like 5 Katy Perrys, or 7 “Where’s Waldos?” I was expecting a parade, but we got to the main point of the city and it’s literally just a huge gathering of people in a square in front of the Cadiz cathedral. Haha. But this is where stupid EuropeanVibe got to me…they decided to drop us off at the square at 5:00 P.M., and of course no one in Spain was partying yet! And so we all got good and liquored up, but by 10:00 P.M. I’m starting to lose my stamina, (I know I’m lame), so that come midnight, when everyone is showing up, we all felt so sleepy and unmotivated! Grr. Oh well. So we went home around 1:00 A.M. and then drove the entire day the next day. Really, not a well-planned trip and I wish I would have known but you live you learn!

Did you notice I failed to mention any certain Cadiz foods? Well because I didn’t find any! Another reason I was disappointed with the weekend. Moving on…

Last Thursday, Kristen, Rachel and I decided to do a day trip to Toledo, only 45 minutes outside Madrid. I loved it because it was settled atop a hill. Didn’t learn too much about the history, except that it was one of the first established Spanish cities after some war—so a lot of military history/tourism attractions. We went straight to the Alcazar when we got there, which honestly was a disappointment compared to the other two Alcazars I’ve visited. We found better spots around the mountain with great views. The other main attraction was the marzipan! I tried all kinds of different marzipan treats—some covered in nuts, others in chocolate, and others mixed with fruit. We kind of did a “marzipan crawl” and tried a new one at each little treat shop. Toledo is the El Greco city, and we didn’t have the money to have a look inside his house, but I felt his spirit while walking through the super skinny streets, (which Granny warned me about). Small city so the four hours we spent there was just enough!

This past weekend was my trip to Amsterdam. Originally, I had planned on going to Morocco this weekend, but as the weekend drew closer Amsterdam sounded a little more appealing. I traveled alone because Rachel and Kristen had booked the trip before me, which was a little intimidating only because I had to navigate the Amsterdam train system, (simple), and find my hostel. However, when I got there, I got my phone out to text Rachel and realized I didn’t have service in any country beyond Spain! So silly. So that was a dilemma until I got to my hostel and, thanks to the nice hostel ladies, got in touch with Rachel and Kristen through hostel phone.

Did I mention I stayed on a BOAT while I was there—so flipping cool! It was deemed the “Vita Nova,” and a gruff lady named Monica with a toppling gray bun greeted me as I stepped onto the small ship. She showed me my room: a 2-foot by 6-foot cabin! Really cute and cozy, and from my window I had a view of the Amsterdam harbor. Another wonderful aspect of the Vita Nova was Monica’s mean breakfast spread. I ate four bowls of cereal Sunday morning. She had four different kinds so naturally I had to have them all! Cereal withdrawal, people. It’s a problem.

Thanks to Dad’s friend Sanne, a native of Amsterdam, we had a long list of recommendations for our Amsterdam trip, (thanks again, Sanne!). I met up with Kristen and Rachel Saturday afternoon and right away we went to the “Sex Museum,” (freaky), and then to the famous “Bulldog Coffee Shop” for some coffee…

Then we made the long trek to a famous market. I forget the name of it, but it basically just had good eats and lots of odds and ends to buy. Next door was the “Heineken Experience”: a tour of the Heineken factory. So crazy. Really felt like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, except we got beer instead of chocolate at the end! Brittany, thanks to you I felt so knowledgeable because basically they said exactly what you did during your chemistry project. You need to open a brewery. Seriously.

Next, we tried a famous Dutch snack—fries with mayonnaise sauce. It makes me gag a little to think about it but it was realllllllllly good. The mayonnaise was nothing like Hellmann’s. It had a sweet tang to it. Found another coffee shop for some more coffee and then we just wandered around and enjoyed the city. I loved how the water ran right up to the buildings, and the small streets made going out fun.

I fell asleep to the rocking of the Vita Nova boat and woke up to my four bowls of cereal. Haha, what a life! Sunday we found the “I Amsterdam” sign and took pictures around that, and that’s when I realized we were right near the Van Gogh museum. It was a 14-euro entrance fee, which was a little steep and I could tell the other girls weren’t too interested, so we skipped that. L Oh well, next time. We then found another coffee shop for coffee and then tried the famous “stoopwaffel,” kind of like a waffle cookie, which were very yummy. And I got more fries with mayo mmm…

We decided to split for a siesta and meet back up for Chinese food, (Amsterdam’s china town is INSANE—some of the restaurants were four-stories high). The place we went was okay—I got lo mein. Even though it was Kristen’s birthday, we were pretty wiped from the past two days so we decided to call it a night and meet in the morning for the Anne Frank House, which was by far my favorite part of the trip. Both Sanne and Ashton warned that the line for this tourist attraction is usually off-the-wall long, but because we went early on a Monday morning, we walked right in!

The house was truly an eerie experience, but also amazing and very emotional. Quotes from Anne’s diary lined the walls and there were video documentaries in every room interviewing people who were close to the Frank family about the WWII experience.

Maybe I am just plain dumb when it comes to renown history, but I had no idea why the Frank house was located in Amsterdam? I thought it would be in Germany. Probably most of you know this, but the Franks moved to Amsterdam when Anne was 7 and lived there 5 years before they had to go into hiding in Otto Frank’s jam warehouse. There was an interesting exhibit on Edith Frank, the mother, which one really does not learn about in Anne’s diary because Anne and her mother didn’t get along very well. I liked the exhibit, though, because it shared a lot about Edith—how depressed she was when the family moved to Amsterdam—she had no social ties in Amsterdam and became extremely lonely, hating the city.

My two favorite parts of the tour: seeing Anne’s decorated room and the Otto Frank room. Anne decorated her room with random pictures, some of celebrities and some of just things she liked to look at. Couldn’t believe I was standing next to walls that she had lived between. The Otto Frank room was where my breath got caught in my throat—as many of you probably know, he was the only one to survive Auschwitz, I don’t know how, and they had a video interview with him playing. He talks about Anne and how he felt very close to her while she was living, but upon reading her diary, he felt he was discovering a whole new person. He chokes up at the end and says, “I don’t believe parents really know their children.” Lost it. But a really good, true thing for me to see. I’m so glad I did.

Then booked it back to Madrid!

In other news, I live down the street from Marta Sanchez. Look up her song entitled “Get Together.” Catchy.

I have made a list of all the museums/restaurants I need to visit before heading back home. Now that my class is finished, I need things to do during the day! Today I went back to the Prado—am in love with Goya’s “Dark Paintings.” Really liked pieces by Mariano Fortuny, as well. Look them up!

Alicia informed me that her English grade has improved two marks since last semester! Totally and completely her doing, but still made me feel kinda good…

Hope everyone is doing GREAT back in the states or wherever. Missing everybody, a lot. Thanks so much for reading, (I know this was a long 'un)!!

Love,

Mary