Belgium/Amsterdam/Holland

Sorry for the late post about this one but there was so much to write about!

The MV Explorer was docked in Belgium for 5 days. SAS let students travel independently to the countries that surrounded Belgium like France, Germany, the Netherlands. Over the summer I booked a trip with SAS to travel to Amsterdam and Holland. I thought that it would be easiest to travel with SAS when going to different countries, especially because I didn't know the language. 

The first day we were docked in Antwerp I had a field lab for my Leadership Development class. For my field lab we traveled to NATO and the European Parliament. At NATO we met with two representatives, Daniele Riggio and Jonathan Parish. Daniele Riggio is the Information Officer for Afghanistan, Central Asian Republics, Iraq, and Mongolia. His presentation was about NATO's commitment in Afghanistan. Jonathan Parish is the Senior Planning Officer and Speechwriter. Mr. Parish's speech was about NATO's New Strategic Concept. It was really interesting to hear how NATO operates and the process the organization goes through to pass a decision. All of the information both Mr. Riggio and Mr. Parish said was so informative. I didn't know that much about NATO and I was able to learn a lot about what is going on in Afghanistan and the changes that are being made in the organization as well. After we went to the European Parliament, which is located in the same city as NATO. I liked the NATO presentations better than the European Parliaments. Probably because NATOs was more relevant to me.

That night we had dinner in the city of Antwerp where the boat was docked and went to a few different places. Almost everything was closed since it was a Monday and Antwerp was kind of a small town.

My SAS trip started the next day. Our first stop was to Delft, which was a little 17th century city. In Delft we went to the Royal Delft factory. It was so amazing to see and learn a lot about the process it takes to create Delft porcelain. Did you know it takes almost 10 years just to perfect the practice?

After we made a stop at a beach in Holland and made our way to our hotel in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was NOT what I was expecting at all. All you really hear about Amsterdam is the red light district but you don't hear about all the amazing museums and buildings there are. That night a few of us went out and met a professional drag street racer! It was awesome to hang out with him! 

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city. We saw the Baroque-style Royal Palace where the Queen stays when she visits the city. We also saw the New Church, Mint Tower, and the central railway station. The railway station was really cool because it was constructed on an artificial island of wooden piles. We also went into the Rijkmuseum which was really amazing. After we took a canal boat tour!! So awesome! There are so many canals in Amsterdam. It was nice to see the city while sitting down because I was so tired!

We had lunch at this really cool place called the Three Flies....Walt Disney ate there and drew Alice from Alice in Wonderland in their guestbook...a year before it came out!! After we saw a flower market and headed over to the Anne Frank House! We went into the Anne Frank house and toured all of the rooms. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It was an amazing experience and I couldn't believe that at the end of the tour they showed us her original journal. A lot of people were so emotional while walking through the rooms. It's hard to believe that something like that happened not too long ago. 

We had some free time in the city after...we went shopping and looked around the town a little more. A few of my friends who weren't on the SAS trip came to Amsterdam so we hung out with them that night. 

The next day we went to a small town called Marken which was a little fishing village on the banks of 'Zuider Zee' The houses were made in the early 1900s. After we went to a town called Volendam.

 

In Volendam we had lunch on the water and walked around the little shops that were filled with clogs. I've never seen so many clogs in my life.

We went to a clog and cheese factory after lunch which was so cool. It used to take almost a day to make just ONE clog. Now with different machinery it takes about 10 minutes. I bought myself a tiny pair of clogs with my name on them.

We then went to a windmill factory in Zaandam which was called Zaanse Schans. (I know these names are ridiculous). I made a new friend too.

 

It was the most amazing view from the top of a windmill. Later we headed back to where the ship was docked. My friends and I had dinner in the city of Antwerp and then went to a few different places. It was a Thursday so some of the bars had student night.

 

 The next day my friend Raquel and I went to Brugge to meet up with some of our other friends. Brugge is such a beautiful town. We went on a boat tour of the city. 

 

After we started walking around we came across a bar that was blaring music...we went inside to figure out what the occasion was and they said "it's Friday." I always forget what day it is since we are on the ship and are traveling so much! That was kind of embarrassing... It's amazing how different every culture is. The drinking age isn't 21 in Europe (obviously) so all the kids had their school backpacks on them when they were walking into the bar at 4pm.  In the corner of the dance floor sat a pile of school backpacks. We got some chocolate to go and went to the train to go to Antwerp. 

 

We had dinner in town and then went to a few bars. I think it might have been the first Friday we've been in port since Ireland. A lot of the people from SAS were at the same bars because, yet again, Antwerp is a small town. It was fun to hang out with all of the SASers not on the ship.

The next day my friends and I explored Antwerp. We walked down the main shopping street and saw a few of the historical buildings. 

Right before we got on the ship we got Belgium Waffles (obviously). They were the most delicious waffles I've ever had! (sorry mom)