Holiday[s] in the Sun

Well, The overwhelmingness of the Amsterdam bike culture may or may not have motivated me make my latest purchase. Or... maybe it's the fact that I have found beauty in old things. On the other hand, it may be because I now have a bike that matches my moms. I'm not sure if that statement is 'cool' for a 20(almost 21) year old to say, but I don't care. This blog is all for you! Mom, I hope you think my bike is as cool as I do! $25 and a quick tune up and now we can ride our blue and red Holiday bikes together!

I bought this 1980's deep red Holiday(yes, the gas station) bike for $25 from a vintage collector. All it needed was a quick tune-up and possibly new tubes for the tires(photos are from the repair shop). Now, I'll have a new bike for my 1mile commute to school! Oh yeah, and I can't forget it's second purpose, photo shoots!

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June 27th, 2010


Day 27


Lately it's been really frustrating exploring the city in a group. I've gotten frustrated at people walking to slow, bathroom breaks, everyone has different interests or cravings. It doesn't help that it's so hot out, either! So I decided to have a day for myself. I slept in, took the tram to a shopping center/market, went to a camera store, and had a delicious salad at a wonderful cafe. The waiter even talked politely to me(waiters are really rude here), asked me how my food was(they usually could care less here), and had a chat with me about Amsterdam. It was really nice to see that this city has someone who is genuinely kind. After all of that I went to the a photography museum called FOAM(photography is spelled with and 'f' here). There was everything from fashion, celebrities, and nudes.


Once I came back to the hotel I enjoyed some itunes time to myself and caught up with all of my blogging! Sorry it took a while to get caught up. Oops! Grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant with some friends and had a caesar salad. I was so excited to have a salad with REAL salad dressing and not vinaigrettes. I was really enjoying it until someone mentioned that it tasted a little fishy, only to realize they make their caesar dressing with anchovies. *sigh* I still finished it, but I had bad thoughts in my head the whole time. I still decided to take the night off from going out with everyone so I stayed back and talked with Bob(our professor) on the stoop while he smoked. Another pretty uneventful day, but I cannot wait to get back to the US. The language barrier and craziness of the city is getting overwhelming. Only one more ful day of Amsterdam and I'll be headed home(if thats what you call all of my belongings stuffed in a garage and a house completely bare). I wish I was back in Scotland! 


Traci

It was yet another day that I didn't want to carry my digital camera

 around so I took film photos. Sorry no daily photo today! Since

 tomorrow is my last day I will take some!

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June 26th


Day 26


Apparently Holland likes hard boiled eggs. I've never went to a hotel breakfast and instead of a hot plate of scrambled eggs, they have a hot plate of hard boiled eggs. I improvised and mashed them with a fork and put them on my croissant. Delicious. We were off to the Vincent Van Gogh museum which is probably one of my favorite historic painters, although I'm not a huge fan of historic paintings. I grabbed a sandwich and Fanta from a street vendor and we were off to a Canal Cruise which was amazing. It was amazing to see Amsterdam from the grungy-beautiful canals. I felt like I was in Venice. 


Soon after, Sarah, Julian, Justin, and decided to zig zag our way through a shopping district and go to a market. Well, shopping didn't go too hot. One person in our group had to stop at every shop we went into and strike up conversation(aka flirt) with a clerk for 45 minutes. It didn't help that I was hungry and crabby, but tiramisu ice cream made me feel slightly better. Luckily, we made it to the market just as it was closing. There was everything from dresses to cheese. I forgot how much I missed fruit so when we saw all the fresh fruit and vegetable stands we went nuts! I purchased a brown paper bag full of sugar snap peas(grandma Pearl's are still way better) and the rest indulged themselves in the best strawberries ever. After we got back to the Hotel we didn't really do anything. We have been so rushed and tired since it's really hot that everyone seems really lazy.


Traci

It's a grungy-beautiful city

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June 25th, 2010


Day 25


Good morning Amsterdam! First on the agenda was the Heineken Experience with most of our group and the professors! Extremely cool place with a movie/ride where they 'Brew You'. I got to learn how to taste beer and we finished the 'experience' with two free drinks at their state-of-the-art bar. I got a few souvenirs for my brother and off Sarah and I went to browse the city on our own! We learned that Scotland does not have bagels which was extremely sad so we were overjoyed when we found a bagel shop!


So far Amsterdam is a little overwhelming since their main way of transportation is bikes. This would be fine except you can hear them coming and they don't obey traffic signals or yield for pedestrians. This is the order that a person has to watch for when crossing the street and in this order:


bikes
scooters
cars
trams
cars
scooters
bikes


Between each lane of those listed is a little pedestrian stop which means, runs across one lane, wait, next lane, wait, and repeat until you cross the street. It's a little hectic and overwhelming! Hopefully I get used to this. 


The rest of the day we tried to avoid the heat and made continuous trip to our un-airconditioned hotel. I think I may need to buy a few dresses or something so I don't die from this heat. I probably should have packed some cooler clothes for this.


Traci

bike parking

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June 24th, 2010

Day 24

Today I woke up and finished packing and met up with the group at 9:30 to head off to the airport. Everything went smoothly through security, but when it came to the flight it wasn't so easy. During take-off it seemed that the pilot yanked the plane so that the whole take off was quite shaky and jerky. As usual I slept most of the 45 minute flight up until the pressure on my ears became far too uncomfotable. As my family knows I have had issues with strong pain in my ears during landing and thats exactly what happened. At least there wasn't crying involved! Our luggage came promptly and out the door and into Holland we headed! First of all we were quite surprised to experience 72 degrees Ferenheait that felt like 85! I know Landon will be jealous to hear that outside of the airport entrance they had a grandstand full of people and a jumbo-tron across the road for everyone to see. Welcome to Europe during the world cup! 

Another sweet surprise was that we are finally back to people driving on the right side of the road! With this comes the drivers seat is on the correct side of the vehicle! Life is perfect again.

We were warned that we are staying at a 'European Hotel' and weren't warned about what this meant. Basically it just means we have a room similar to a dorm room(minus bunk beds), but thankfully we have our own miniature bathroom. Sarah and I were roomed together which works perfectly for us since we are sharing the computer and other things. It's also really nice to know that I don't have to worry about being roomed with some of the annoying/dramatic people on the trip. 

A few of us went exploring the city to grab some food and realized that this might be a little tough. Stores, Signs, and the people speak Dutch. It probably didn't help that we went to a thai restaurant. My chicken with mushroom in a garlic sauce was amazing. Oh yeah, and my 2,80 Euro($3) miniature water was too. Apperently many places you have to order a small bottle of water which means no refills. 

Supper was about as exciting as the night got. We went to bed early since we were dealing with yet another time-change. It's now 7 hours later than home instead of 6.

Traci

I was so sick of carrying my heavy backpack around for so many hours so I didn't take anymore photos for the rest of the day. on the far right you can see part of the TV screen. On the left you can see a glimpse of the grandstand. Here is most of our group waiting for the shuttle to take us to our hotel.

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June 23rd, 2010

Day 23

Sadly it is our last day in Glasgow which also means it is our last day in Scotland. I have loved everything about this section about the trip and really do not want to leave such an amazing place. I can now say that I have seen the most beautiful place in the world.

This morning I demanded we sleep in a little bit and go shopping! It’s been really frustrating wearing the same 2 pairs of jeans and 7 shirts for an entire month. We hit up every possible hip clothing store and only found things at H&M. I bought a dress, tanktop, and leggings! Hopefully they won’t stand out when I get back to the states since Europe is quite ahead of fashion in Minnesota.

10 or so of us celebrated our last night in Scotland by dressing up and going to the the Horseshoe Bar for the best veggie burgers ever(way better than meat burgers). We continued to the Counting House and ended at Campus. It was awesome hanging out with everyone and celebrating end to Scotland, and beginning of Amsterdam!

Traci

Sarah, Me, Bryan, Jenna, Amber, and Christina at the Counting House

It was another one of those days that I didn't feel like taking photos so this is the only photo from today

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June 22nd, 2010

Day 22

Sarah, Justin, Julian, and I needed to see what the city of Glasgow was really about. We climbed up all of the steep streets to the top of the city to visit the Glasgow School of Art and Design where I bought a canvas tote, awesome wallet, and some other random things. The headed to The show at the CCA which was very interesting and object is the only way to describe it. None of the pieces had title or descriptions so it was pretty frustrating. Then, we had to stroll through a really nice park including a skate park full of graffiti and kids that wanted their photos taken! Sadly I only had my film cameras, but Sarah and Julian had a lot of fun getting some action shots. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was next followed by the Hunterian Museum which was home to the Mackintosh House. When we were all museumed out Julian and I took the subway back to our hotel.

Supper was something I had never experienced before. Since Sarah is a vegetarian and I am not, she was a little hesitant to ask to go to a vegetarian restaurant for supper. Little did she know I love trying new vegetarian dishes! So, Julian came along with us for some company. The appetizer was abourgines (eggplant) with peppers and a touch of lemon. My main meal was Gnochi with pesto, and dessert was a slice of lemon-blueberry cake. Delicious!

Traci

inside of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

I only took 9 photos today. I guess I needed a day off.