The title of this blog is a quote about England by Shakespeare, the URL is "erica-in-england," and I've spent the majority of my summer in England, yet by far most of my posts are about other European places and my adventures in them. As Harrison pointed out when he stayed with me for a few days after our trip to Amsterdam before he headed back to the States, I've SUCKED majorly at exploring Cambridge. In two days here, he saw over fifteen colleges. In my seven weeks here so far, I've seen about four or five. That's PATHETIC. So my goal for this weekend, besides writing two term papers, is to do some serious Cambridge exploring. If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll make my third trek back to The Orchard (more on that in a second). I'll visit more of the colleges and learn some Cambridge history. I'll be a good little explorer.
Good, now that I've got a goal, let me work backwards in time. I had a take-home midterm due today for my Avant-garde Lit class. I also had the final exam for my Shakespeare class which went okay. Earlier in the week, Harrison was here. I took him to The Orchard in Grantchester (where many famous writers, etc. hung out), which is the next town over, and we had some delicious tea and scones at this QUAINT--I capitalize QUAINT because it is especially QUAINT there--although our trip was somewhat dampened by the rain (HA!) and by the swarm of bees trying to eat the honey from my little honey pot. That was anti-exciting because I am terrified of bees (never having been stung by one, I fear that it will be the most painful thing ever). But there was good news: using my newly discovered bee-trapping talent, I slammed the lid onto the honey pot and sentenced that little bee to his not-as-sweet-as-it-sounds death. It went like this:
OWNED.
Anyway, I want to go back one more time before I leave, so that might have to be this weekend.
Harrison and I also went punting for both our first times and it was fun although also kind of terrifying.
So, that's Cambridge. Now, Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is an absolutely charming city--the houses are skinny and tall, the canals are wide, the streets are overrun by bicycles, and there are prostitutes and pot. What more could you ask for!
No, but the city is really beautiful. I was expecting seedy, but I got clean and charming and pleasant. Despite a debacle with our hotel room having been overbooked and thus given to someone else (we didn't so much smooth out the situation as pay an extra 30 euro to rent out one of their apartments), we had very few problems with logistical stuff. We got in on Saturday morning and went on another free tour, run by the same company that ran the Dublin one. This one was much better. The guide didn't repeat himself three times for everything he said and he kept up a good pace. He received a slightly higher (ha) tip than the Dublin guy.
After the tour, we walked over to watch the Gay Pride Parade float down the canal. There were a bunch of characters and lots of phallic imagery. This couple was particularly adorable:
Then I think we went back to the hotel to check in (at which point we had our debacle) and ended up in a kinda sketchy apartment, complete with red Christmas lights, a giant stuffed tiger, and a disco ball. The toilet and shower were also not at all separated, even by a shower curtain. Whatever, it was a place to sleep.
We headed back out, grabbed dinner, and then went to take a tour of the Westkerk. We climbed to the top (stopping on a bunch of the floors to see the carillon setup) and had a pretty nice view of the city.
After the church, we went on a canal cruise which lasted for about an hour. I was far too tired to pay attention to much of the information (which was first said in Dutch, then German, then English) but the views of the city from the water were nice. I like this one:
After the canal cruise, we walked around the Red Light District for a bit, which was awkward and interesting. Some of the prostitutes stand there with their doors open, flirting with potential customers and trying to draw them in. We went to bed pretty early (I didn't really sleep on Friday night since our flight was so early) and then got up early Sunday morning to do the bulk of our sightseeing.
We started off the morning with a visit to the Rijksmuseum, which holds some of the most famous Dutch art (Rembrandts and Vermeers and etc.) and then we made our way (a bit too slowly) over to the Van Gogh Museum. When we got there, there was a pretty long line, but we waited it out and got in after about forty-five minutes. I enjoyed it, Harrison not as much.
After Van Gogh, we walked across the city to a windmill! An actual windmill! It looked like you might imagine a windmill to look:
There's me in front of the windmill!
Then we walked back to our apartment, gathered up some strength, and headed back out for dinner and more sightseeing. We had pancakes for dinner! They were delicious (apple and bacon, yum!). Then we went to the Homomonument (which is exactly what it sounds like). It was beautiful and moving and a lovely monument to all those persecuted because of their sexuality. This is just one of the three pink triangles that connect together to form a large pink triangle (the Nazis forced gays to wear a pink triangle as identification).
Ending our sightseeing on sadder note, we went to the Anne Frank House and Museum. The museum was the saddest one I've been to since the Holocaust Museum in Berlin. At the same time, it was uplifting to see how Otto Frank survived and carried on and helped to build this great historical place which now plays a role in anti-discrimination and anti-hate movements. He must have been one the strongest people ever--to have lost his entire family and then to create something like the Anne Frank Museum--and that is inspirational.
After the museum, we walked over to what should have been the Skinny Bridge but was instead a re-built not-so-skinny bridge. But Amsterdam is pretty by night:
We went to sleep pretty early again, got up the next morning, checked out without too many problems, and headed back to Cambridge.
This trip marked what was basically the end of my European travels. My passport is much fuller than it was at the start of summer. I've added London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Dublin, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Ibiza to my list. That is pretty impressive for a short nine weeks. This summer has been FULL of wonderful experiences and I could not be happier with how it all turned out.
I've got one week left and it's time for me to buckle down and write some term papers. The upcoming week involves lots of homework, the final formal hall, and a few loose-ends, and then I'll be headed back to the US. That final trip will be bittersweet, I think, but more on that later in the week.
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