Yesterday Lieselotte and I went to Amsterdam to 
meet her friend Sjors (pronounced Shores) who is studying at the university there. He met us at the station in Amsterdam (only 10 minutes away from Haarlem by train) at 11 am. First Lies and I wanted to make reservations for our train to Paris the next morning, but after waiting in line for over 30 minutes, we got up to the ticket desk and they told us that the reservation costs were 33 euros per person, instead of the 13 our Eurorail guide told us. The lady, who wasn’t very friendly, said that we could go for free though, and printed us out a route. We took it and walked away, then, after looking at it, we realized the free option was 9 hours long, whereas the 33 euro option was 4 hours. We figured it would be worth the extra money, but we didn’t want to wait in line all over again, so we resolved to come back after the day spent in Amsterdam.
We wanted to go to the Rijksmuseum (which has many famous Dutch paintings including The Night Watch and The Milk Maid). We decided to walk since the day was lovely with sun (which it hadn’t been for some days). Sjors pointed out different buildings of importance as we went, and then we stopped in a grocery store to get lunch before going to eat in a park. I was amazed at how beautiful the buildings are in Amsterdam and there are many lovely canals.
I really appreciated that Sjors did his best to speak in English even though Dutch is his first language. Lieselotte’s parents grew up right near his, so they’ve been friends for a long time, but he still made an effort to include me. After eating lunch in the park we finished our walk to the Rijksmuseum and had a nice time looking at all the fascinating paintings. So many of the people in the pictures were so life-like they seemed as though they would reach out and touch us. It was pretty pricey at 11 euros but very enjoyable.
After that we walked to a fountain and sat on a bench, talking as we observed a man throwing a ball for his dog. The dog often ran through the fountain which was very amusing to watch, since he’d leap like a gazelle through the shallow water. From there it looked like it might rain (the sun had dissipated in favor of dark clouds), so we went to an Irish Pub and got some drinks. I was a bit sleepy since we hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before so I ordered hot tea. However, I realized that, though I try to deny it, I hate tea. Even mango flavored tea cannot mask the disgusting tea flavor. I drank half of it.
We sat in the café for some time, talking about school and cultural differences, and abortion legality and genetic counseling, and all sorts of strange but intriguing subjects. Around 5:15 Sjors’ brother came to meet us and sat with us for a while until we left. Outside there were some break dancers in an open square and we watched for a while as we waited for Sjors’ girlfriend Lotte to join us to go to dinner. When she did we found a pizza place where every kind of pizza was 5 euros. I got cheese pizza with pineapple.
At dinner it was easy for them to slip into Dutch with only one full American there, but one time when Sjors realized what they were doing, he said, “We really need to speak in English guys, it’s rude.” And they tried harder after that. He speaks much better than his brother or girlfriend, so I appreciated that they all three made an effort.
As had happened the night before at dinner with Lieselotte’s Aunt Nicolette and her family, the discussion turned to the difference in American vs. Dutch education and the price of college. It was a general consensus among the Dutch that Dutch kids are spoiled since they don’t usually have to work to pay for their education. Also what a shame it was that parents like mine had to work so hard to pay for a college education without the government giving aid. Lies and I generally agreed, but as she pointed out, it is just a different mentality. The kids who work every summer don’t feel particularly disadvantaged since that’s just the way it is, and parents usually start a college fund early on. Plus, housing in the US is SO much cheaper.
After dinner we got McFlurrys at McDonald’s nearby and then Sjors’ brother left us as he and Lotte walked Lies and me to the train station. I chatted with Sjors most of the way about his studies in astronomy (he’s getting his masters in that right now) and about the places he’d been to in the U.S. We talked about the differences between NY and London, and I said I’d much rather live in London as NY is way too hectic.
After saying our good-byes at the station, Lies and I went to get a numbered ticket to wait for our turn at
the ticket reservation counter. We were number 561, and they were on number 544, so we thought it shouldn’t be long, but 35 minutes later, they were only on 552. As the number flashed on the screen nobody got up (we assumed number 552 had already given up and left), so Lies and I ran up to the desk (as they don’t check your ticket number).
Lies explained to the guy in Dutch our dilemma - the book said reservations were 13 euros and we needed to go to Paris but didn’t want it to take 9 hours. He was very helpful, as it was the end of the night (we made it in 2 minutes before they made the cut off at 9 pm for the last person to receive a numbered ticket for waiting in line). After a lot of effort, he found us a route that was only 4.5 hours and cost 10 euros each. We were very happy with this, and finally got back to Haarlem around 10:15.
It took us a while to pack up our stuff, do laundry, etc, so we didn’t get to bed until about 1:30 am, and then got up at 9 to finish our getting ready process and give us plenty of time to walk to the station and
get a few groceries before getting on the train. I bought some Dutch cookies that I’d had at Lieselotte’s house before that are so yummy - sort of gingerbready.
Now we are on the train to Paris and we should arrive in 45 minutes. We will stay with a CSer named Blandine who seems very nice.
We are now in Paris staying with Blandine's sister Sophie because Blandine had to go out of town for work unexpectedly. Sophie is very nice - she made us pasta for dinner and then walked us around her area to Notre Dame and the Jewish quarter. She is 22 like us and we had a lovely time with her. Goodnight for now!
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