After class on Friday, I went over to Bethnal Green to meet a friend my Uncle Joe had introduced me to via e-mail a few weeks ago. Annie is a student at the London College of Communication and was generous enough to show myself and two of my friends around Camden for a few hours on Friday afternoon. Camden was absolutely brilliant. Probably one of my favorite places I’ve been so far. The Camden market left me in awe and I can’t wait to go back next weekend and spend some serious time there. The music scene is still going strong in Camden, with bands at every corner handing out flyers for their next show. Definitely going to try to go to a show at the Electric Ballroom (right off of the Camden tube stop) for a show… I think Sleigh Bells is there very, very soon.
I had tickets to travel to Amsterdam with three other students on Friday evening (or so we thought), so we headed back to the flats to hang out until it was time to get on the tube to the train station. Upon returning, I thought I should double check the tickets, seeing as I did not book the tickets, I was still unsure of our travel arrangements. Looking at the tickets, I noticed we had to be at the station in an hour for our first train, instead of three hours like I was told from the other students I was traveling with. So we hurried to the first station to catch our first bus. It didn’t show. After waiting outside for an additional 15 minutes, we simply took the tube to Victoria Station where our next bus was supposed to depart from (probably what we should have done from the get-go…).
Our bus departed from Victoria at 7:00 PM. We found ourselves on a ferry over at 9:00 PM. We were scheduled to arrive in Amsterdam at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. We got in at 6:00 AM. Unsure of where to go next, we left the station and started walking. By some miracle, we found the central downtown area after about an hour of walking (without any backtracking, mind you). So we’re in town at 7:00 AM. Nothing opens until 9:00 AM. We were homeless for a few hours on Saturday morning… Before the sun was even up… It was around 35 degrees Fahrenheit. We saw most of the city in an hour as walked around aimlessly. We happened upon a grocery store that opened up at 8:00 AM (we found it around 7:56 AM), which we warmed up in for a little bit before we went to a bagel store, which was just next door, which opened at 8:30 AM.
After an extremely mediocre cup of coffee and a very brief nap with my head down on the table, we headed back out on the streets at approximately 9:00 AM. Now things were starting to open up, and people were out and about on the Saturday morning. It was bone-chilling outside when the wind picked up, and a majority of the restaurant were not open yet. We did some more walking, and were able to grab lunch and sit for a while. After lunch we headed to a movie theatre, on the suggestion from two of my companions who thought that’s where they could close their eyes for at least two hours in a somewhat comfortable chair. I had no problem with this, but I wanted to see a good movie. We went to go see Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was beautiful. I came out of the theatre only angry at myself for having put seeing the film off this long. Everyone was out and about after the movie ended – The streets were PACKED. We grabbed some dinner and took a cab back to Amstel Station (only about a ten minute drive) without much traffic. We got back on our bus at 7:00 PM and began the 7 hour drive back to France where we got back on a ferry and upon docking in the UK, we proceeded on to Victoria station. We got into Victoria, found a bus home, and rolled into the flats around 6:00 AM. I have never been as happy as I was earlier this morning to lay down in my bed and sleep.
Overall verdict: Amsterdam is a beautiful place. But for the amount of traveling we went through to spend less that 12 hours there? Not worth it. We learned the hard way, and from now on (for me at least) we’ll be flying, or spending more than 12 hours in a location and get a hotel room. Kind of bummed that I missed out on College on Friday night. He was playing at a local venue just down the block and it only cost about 6 or 7 pounds to get in. This weekend was a learning experience, and I am glad I was able to visit. Will I head back for an extended weekend? Maybe. Probably not.
We listen to the radio. It's better than the stereo. 