Amsterdam

The train ride to Amsterdam took about 2 hours. Once we got to the station we went outside and it was raining!!! Luckily we saw signs for our hostel!!! We followed those and checked in to our private room. The room looked like a dorm/prison cell, not joke. It was very cold and drab looking. We had to make our own beds which I’ve never heard of but that was okay. Definitely more barren than the hostels I’ve stayed in previously. We were starving so we went out to grab something to eat. It was still raining pretty good (my brolli didn’t survive the storm!) so we just went to Burger King!!! We sat in there for a couple hours because it was raining and because we didn’t want to go back to our hostel room. Eventually, when it stopped raining, we left and walked around a little bit then headed back to the hostel. Chelsea unpacked the sheets to make the bed and as she was unfolding the sheets she saw a stain on one of them! Then she unfolded the other one and it was stuck together! We were horrified!!! Definitely not sleeping in those beds!!! We didn’t know what to do really, but decided it would be a good idea to try and find somewhere else to sleep. We went out and went to 2 hotels before finding one with the same rate! 55 Euros for a private room and bath, breakfast and WiFi included!!! The hotel even had 2 cats!!!! They were sooooooo cute!!! We paid for the room and went back to the hostel to grab our things and talk to the person at the desk about a refund. The person at the desk was the night guard and told us that he could not do anything about a refund, we would have to return in the morning. So we left and stayed in the nice, kitty-friendly hotel :)

Breakfast in the morning was really good. The cats were hanging out with everyone too. After breakfast we went straight to the Anne Frank house. Rachel told me that the line gets ridiculously long so to go early. We got there at a great time, no line! We weren’t allowed to take pictures, which was disappointing. But it was really awesome being in there. I haven’t read the book in a long time, since 5^th grade, and I also haven’t seen the movie for a while. The rooms were unfurnished, that was Mr. Frank’s wish when the museum was opened. Anne Frank’s original diary was on display, as well as sheets of paper she’d written on after the diary was full. There were interviews being played of Mr. Frank and one of the women that helped the Franks hide in the annex. There was also an interview with one of Anne Frank’s friends. It was pretty amazing all of the items the museum had on display. After walking through we looked around the gift shop where we could see the MASSIVE line that had formed outside! Glad we got there early!

We took the tram back to the area near our hotel walked to the hostel to talk to the manager about a refund. We explained to her what happened and that we came downstairs and told the night guard we were leaving and that he simply only asked us for our room number. She told us that this was not normally grounds for a refund, that clean sheets or another room would have been offered to us. We further explained that we did not trust that “new” sheets would be clean and that we were not going to sleep in the beds so what were we staying there for? She then said that the night guard didn’t tell her any of this had happened, therefore she would have to speak with him to get his story. She couldn’t do anything for us until she spoke with him. She did say that we could file a formal complaint with the company by writing a letter :P (Result as of November 5, we got our refund!!!!)

After that ordeal, we went back into the shopping area and walked around all the shops. There are tons of stores all over the place. After a little shopping we wanted to check out the Red Light District. INTERESTING is the only word to describe it I think. I’ve seen pictures of it before, but it’s a bit different in real life. Tons of people walking around there too, with women (not attractive by any means either) on display here and there. It was just really odd to see and be around. The area reportedly gets sketchy at night but attracts a lot of curious tourists during the day for obvious reasons. We wandered around some more and eventually went back to the hotel so we could organize our luggage before heading to the airport for our flight home. After some repacking, we took the tram to the central station and took a train to the airport. We got to the airport a little early, so we couldn’t check in right away. But when we finally got on the plane it was smooth sailing from there! Literally up and down! We arrived at the Stansted Airport in London at 9:30 PM and took a coach back into the city. We got home around 11:30 PM. After we unpacked we were off to bed for work in the morning. BRILLIANT HOLIDAY :)