Amsterdam!

Let's see how fast I can describe one of the most fun weekends of Lauren's year in Europe. Ready Set Go.

At the start of the year at Corina and David's birthday party, I somehow got convinced by a charismatic Dutch guy who loves Vancouver and hitchhiking that as I clearly already knew how fabulous Vancouver was, I needed to try hitchhiking in order to be even cooler than I already am. Two and half month's later, a few planning sessions having been attended and facing a day of wind, rain and chilly temperatures, I stood outside the Centre Pompidou in the center of Paris about to embark on my first ever hitchhiking expedition. That's right friends and family - Lauren was going hitchhiking. I was part of Le Concours d'autostop (hitchhiking competition) from Paris to Amsterdam over the Armistice Day (Remembrance Day) long weekend. 10 teams of 2 had signed up, and were racing to Amsterdam and then reuniting for a weekend of partying.

The keen crowd ready to rock outside the Pompidou. Note the umbrellas.

Timon, my Dutch friend who roped me into this adventure had also set me up with a partner, Simon. Simon was born in Switzerland but has lived in the States for the last 10 years. We headed off just after 10 and took the metro, as permitted, out of the first three zones of Paris out to La Courneuve. After a bit of walking we managed to find the gas station we were trying to leave from. Problem: two very large concrete walls seperated us from the Gas Station. We quickly decided that it seemed unlikely I would be able to scale the walls in the rain, so we headed back to road, temporarily stumped, but thanks to our "No Retreat, No Surrender" policy, we quickly asked the first passing car by the on-ramp if they would take us to the gas station, which they kindly agreed to so after a moment's hesitation. Score. Arrived at the gas station just before 12, to find two other times trying to get rides. Apparently two other teams had also been here and had left before us. They had all walked a bit further down and scaled the wall. Oops. Well at least we got there and I wasn't all muddy and wet.

Our good luck continued and Simon and I got dibs on asking an incoming Uhaul sized truck for a ride. The driver accepted. That's right, very first car we asked took us out of the city, which is the hardest part about hitchhiking. Once you get onto the highway and hop gas station to gas station, its relatively easy. Some teams didn't make it out for hours, with one team calling it quits, and another disbanding and a girl taking the bus. Needless to say, we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

We hopped in and met Peril, our driver (fortunately his name was not a bad omen.) He was headed back to England going through Calais for work, and had to drive this truck full of lighting equipment back for his company, which does luxury photo shoots. Peril was the coolest guy ever. We chatted about our lives, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of Irish and Barbados decent and in his late 30s, Peril has had a pretty sweet life. He got into film production in his twenties, owned his own record store and a DJ label in London before becoming a lighting technician that gets flown around the world doing shoots. Not shabby. He gave us his card and told us to get in touch with him if we needed anything as he was back and forth between London and Paris a lot with work and his girlfriend. Our ride was awesome, though admittedly slow, crawling along at a mere 90km/h.

As we drove north, we also passed by the fields of the Somme. Seeing the muddy rolling hills and river on this dreary day, I couldn't imagine what fighting a grueling war in conditions like these would have been like, for weeks and years on end. It was the Remembrance Day reminder that I needed and we all reflected on the history of the region.

Our first time check was a 2pm, where we had to text a referee back in Paris our approximate position to receive a ranking. This came just as Peril dropped us off at a gas station 50km from Lille before he headed west towards Calais. We were in 4th place. Not shabby. This was when we got our first real taste of hitchhiking. We ended up waiting about an hour for our next ride. During this period, we grabbed some lunch, got cold and wet outside (ok well Simon did anyways), and made a sign for direction Amsterdam! It was somewhat entertaining how I would be smiling with my sign hopefully, people would smile back, read the sign, and -still smiling- shake their heads no. I firmly believe that smiling goes a long way though. Eventually, an older gentlemen said sure, come along and we hopped into a small hatchback for ride number 2 of our journey.

Meet Ivan: A middle aged man from Turkey who has lived in France for the past 30 years. In his youth he was an avid hitchhiker, and loves helping out young hitchhikers nowadays, especially since its so much harder to get rides nowadays. He was headed to a small town near Rotterdam to visit friends for the weekend. Unfortunately I was in the back and didn't get to talk to Ivan very much, but he was a wonderful old man and went above and beyond for us and one of the reasons my hitchhiking journey was amazing. As soon as we got in the car, he immediately gave us each a portion of his 3-part sandwich. Mid-route, we stopped for a bathroom break at which point he bought us all coffee. In the end, he also took us 45min out of his way north of Rotterdam to drop us off in the "good spot" where we could easily find our next ride. He was a bit of a father figure on the trip. He gave us his number in case we had any problems and so that we could give him the final results of the competition. He was thrilled with our 6pm time check two, when we managed to move into 3rd place.

Ride three was thankfully found in only 15min, as it was downpouring and we were riding a bit of a high from our great ride with Ivan and being only 30km from Amsterdam. We could practically taste the accomplishment. Our final driver surprised me, and unfortunately I didn't catch his name. A middle-aged white collar dutch man, he clearly didn't particularly like us. I had the feeling he thought I was a bit of an idiot. (Probably because I got really excited when I saw my first windmill and explained how it was exactly like in my childhood books Donald and Daisy got to the Netherlands). He also said he could never live in Amsterdam because there were too many foreigners and tourists - but not like us, the other kind. Despite his coolish demeaner, ride three was still pretty awesome, because despite not even living in Amsterdam, he took us right to door of our hostel. Simon speculated his Dutch civil duty to help these ignorant young travellers. Either way we had made it over 430km! Arrival time 7:51pm meaning it only took us less than 10hrs to do a 5hr trip! And we came 3rd overall. Not too shabby if I say so myself. (We texted Ivan our result and he called us back, so excited :)

Arrival at hostel, checked in and wolfed down the most delicious 3 euro dinner of kebab. Mmm mmm Mmmm! As most groups arrived by 9 or so, there was some sharing of the best stories, which included a direct trip from Paris to Amsterdam, and a car of Romanians who decided en route that why go to Brussels when you can go to Amsterdam! By 10 we were out the door and on the tram headed down to Rembrandtsplein to meet some of Timon's friends and celebrate our achievements. A fabulous night on the town that somehow escalated and featured the most unbrazilian Brazilian bar I have ever been to and another great club that played some traditional Dutch marching music. Highlight of the night: Brandon, a fellow hostel dweller befriended by Poullette and Leo and came out with us. I pretty much cry laughing every time I look at pictures of him. Back to the hostel by 4 or so, except Ayumi didn't have her key so we waited up for her roommates to get back until 5. By waited up, I mean slept on the couch in the lounge. Quality nap right there.

Myself, Leo, Timon, Poullette and Ayumi celebrating our hitchihiking victory.

My shot of the night: the creeper in the back is Brandon.

Saturday clearly came much too soon as I got up at 9:30 for breakfast. I also made another pleasant discovery. I advise against being in recovery from a strong cold and then hitchhiking all day, no naps, no tea and then going out dancing, singing and having a few alcoholic drinks and then going to bed at 5 am. Not pertinent to the maintenance of a speaking voice. So Saturday was spent virtually sans voice, or at least a very crackly, pubescent, warble, which would only go downhill as the day progressed.

We checked out of our hotel and headed downtown to Central Station, which is beautiful, with the intent of taking advantage of the walk in policy at one of the numerous hostels. Reason being, many people were just meeting on the trip and decided it would be easier to find accomodation when we there, together, and others were headed off to visit other friends, family etc. Anyways, long story short, bad call. Always book your hostel first. I paired up with Juliette, a girl from England, and we wasted about 2hrs calling and dropping in on porbably over 50 hostels and sketchy hotels, with no luck. Needly to say we were a little panicky, and not looking forward to paying 50 euros to stay in the sketchiest, dirtiest dorm style hostel. However, lady Luck decided to reward our search by having a kind hotel receptionist at this very cute hotel in the bourgeois Jourdan neighbourhood rent us a room for one night of a three night reservation for only 55 euros all in. Score! We unloaded our bags and then proceeded to walk around the neighbourhood reveling in our luck and finally getting out and enjoying Amsterdam!

What a city. Every city has a distinct character, and Amsterdam is cozy. The narrow houses that I'm in love with and the gorgeous canals, with bikes covering every available railing make you want to stroll around and then duck into a gorgeous bookshop with books floor to 12ft ceiling. After you could pop into one of the hundreds of gastro pubs or coffeeshops and curl up sipping a good tea. The pace of the city is so relaxed, a far cry from Paris. You can easily go from your coffee to a bar or club with out necessitating a change in clothes, and everyone smiles. I truly loved the atmosphere of the city and recommend it to anyone.


So yes, Juliette and I walked around, got some lunch and headed up to Vondelpark to meet up with Boris, Timon and Ayumi before heading to indoors for some hot chocolate as the temperatures had started to drop. So cozy. The rest of my night would consist of hopping from cozy watering hole to neighbourhood eatery with Lauren Bailey, Poullette, Leo, Simon and Juliette amidst strolls through the streets and featured a delicious pink fruity beer and the best brocolli soup I have ever had. By 10:30 though, I had to back down on another night out on the town as literally I had no voice, so I headed for home. You know you made the right choice when you enter your room, fall onto the bed and are instantly sleeping fully clothed with the lights on.

Enjoying delicious pink beer with Simon and Lauren.

I woke up Sunday very refreshed, although I must admit my voice sounded even worse and faint. Juliette and I were out of our hotel in good time, and walked 10 min to our new hostel for Saturday which we had booked the day before and dropped our bags before beginning a mission to find the most delicious greasy breakfast. 5.50 english breakfast did the trick. We briefly met with Ayumi before heading off on our own to partake in the New Amsterdam FREE walking tour. I must say, this was the highlight of my trip. Our three hour tour was led by a young university graduate, Shannon, who was both entertaining and pointed out the quirks of Amsterdam, such as the public open air male urinals, and the reason for the purposely leaning houses. The tour was also a history lesson the developments of many areas of Amsterdam and the landmarks of the city core. Obviously being the history geek that I am I had a ball and would love to recount all the amazing fun facts I learned but I will summarize my favorites with a few pictures.

The narrowest house in Amsterdam: 1.8m. Its current inhabitant is 2m tall. So he cant lie down sideways in his own house. The houses are narrow because they used to be taxed on their width.

There are 2.2 bicycles for every Amsterdamer. You will by your own bike back every 16 yrs. Every year when the canals are emptied and cleaned, over 15 000 bikes get pulled out.

Post tour, Juliette shared my affinity for public markets and we strolled up to Waterlooplein market and picked our way past the stalls. We then headed back to the hostel to shower before meeting up with Ayumi, Poullette, Lauren and Leo in Dam Square (main square). It was a bit early for dinner, so we headed decided to take a small tour of the Red Light district (when in Rome) and then to a 'coffeeshop'. An enjoyable evening was had, topped off by delicious greasy pizza, my first since being in Europe, and the best waffle I have ever had (fresh and topped with hot liquid milk chocolate). Heaven. Rounded the night out with some cider at an Irish bar in Leidseplein (I have so much fun trying to pronounce Dutch street names) before a rainy walk home at 1 (Amsterdam is also friendly to walk home in at night).

Juliette and I enjoying the most delicious waffle ever. EVER.

Sunday was the day of the traditional tourist that began, once we checked out of our hostel and left our bags at reception, with a long Sunday morning walk through the city to the edge of the core to the Van Gogh museum. I love walking through quiet morning streets in a bit of rain, its just so calming. As I munched on some sausage rolls for breakfast given to us by some randoms at the Irish bar the previous night, I was yet again in awe of the sheer number of cyclists in city. There are literally no cars, only trams, bikes and pedestrians. Whole families will roll by, and you quickly learn to look both ways before crossing the bike lanes. We Canadians do have a thing to learn about bike commuting. It warmed by heart.

So back to Van Gogh. After a short wait in line, we spent the next couple of hours wandering through the museum that also featured a group of works by Monet and Daubigny. I must confess, I am not a huge art museum person (don't know if you noticed I have yet to go to one in Paris). When I am there, I find the most interesting part reading the descriptions of the lives of the artist and the context of the work, rather than spending hours reflecting on the piece itself. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy our visit, and the museum does a great job showing the influences on Van Gogh's development and the evolution of his style.

Classic tourist moment right by the Van Gogh museum.

Walk back through town and grabbed some lunch at the fabulous chain Wok to Walk (clever). My first asian food since crossing the ocean, it was a real treat, and I really need to reinfuse the asian into my culinary world when I return. Afterwards I even managed to grab magnet #3 for my world tour collection!

Final stop on the tour: the Anne Frank House. I had read the book as a teen, and it was quite the sobering visit to see the reality of a life spent for two years in such a confined dark place. I can't even imagine what those years would have been like for a young girl no less. The museum is very well done, andI highly recommend it to anyone visiting the city.

Sadly, I had to rush through the last few rooms so as to get back to the hostel to grab my bags and hurry over the train station to catch my first train back to Paris, stopping in Brussels. Note to self: always print train tickets out in advance. After some ticket stresses I hopped on the train and proceeded to spend the next two hours in suspense as this commuter was overfull, and kept being threatened to be stopped if passengers did not disembark and find alternate transportation. My 42 min layover in Brussels was reduced to 12. I ran through the station to get ticket number 2 Brussels to Paris and made it up to my platform with one minute to spare - until I realized that train was going to be 40 min late.

This did give me lots of time to reflect on the weekend. Europe is so incredibly blessed with such a diversity of cities with so much history and character. If only I had endless amounts of travelling money to finance trips all over to see them (hint hint christmas!) I am so glad I let myself be persuaded to do this trip, for both the hitchhiking and also the opportunity to meet new people. Before I left, I was really only casual friends with 2 of the 20 people making the journey, and it is always so wonderful to meet new international friends (check off Mexico Finland). I also learned some valuable travelling experience this time, which will serve me very well in the future. Amsterdam 2010 definitely is on the top 10 experiences for the year.


Done! That only took me approximately 1 hour and 59min to write and add pictures over the course of an evening and a morning. This is why I procrastinate updates on a regular basis.

Bisous mes amis. xx