Under Stars and Over Seas: Orange Is The New Red, White, and Blue (Or Amsterdam Really Likes Orange)

As I sit in the train station in Amsterdam, a delayed train due to the second strike we've encountered in four days alone, I'm wondering if I should start praying to the patron saint of travels (Saint Christopher, if anyone was wondering). Either that or I'll start writing angrily-worded letters to the train workers ("Good for you for standing up for change, but I needed to be somewhere so please don't").

On the upside, at least this time there was another train journey for us to take. A lot has happened since leaving Scotland, and despite the travel difficulties, it has been an enjoyable week.

The week started out in Doncaster, a city in northern England, where my roommate and I were able to watch a football (soccer) charity match featuring a couple famous Rover football players and Louis Tomlinson, a member of One Direction. The stadium was full of Louis fans who screamed whenever he got near the ball, but beyond that it was a good match. It was for charity so all the players were from the same team, just split into two to have some fun.

There are really only two sports have a comprehensive understanding of, and those two sports are tennis and Quidditch, so I had to ask a few questions about positions and fouls, but after a bit I understood the basics. There was a surprise during halftime (which I may have accidentally called intermission) when another member of One Direction, Liam Payne, showed up to support his friend. That resulted in a lot more screaming and crying girls.

Right afterwards when the game started up again I went off to find a bathroom. Afterwards I wanted some fries and while I was checking the prices Liam Payne was suddenly five feet from me being ushered away by his body guards. I was about to try and snap a picture when suddenly from the abyss of the One Direction fandom came 400 screaming girls, nearly trampling me in their attempts to get to Liam. I was actually completely terrified and by the looks of it Liam was too. So long story short, I was almost trampled trying to get fries and Liam was there. I never did get my fries.

The morning after the game we headed off bright and early to Leeds, where we'd be catching an Olly Murs concert. It was my first big arena concert, and it was a lot of fun without being too wild. The English are very calm people, so it had a very chill attitude, despite being a huge concert.

The journey back to Oxford, where my roommate would be heading home and I would be moving on to London to meet up with a family friend for further traveling, was an interesting one. We were taking a bus with a change halfway through, a journey that should have only taken about two hours. The first part went smoothly, but the second part, after our change, got a little rockier.

The bus we were supposed to get on ran from Cambridge to Oxford, but the bus we ended up getting on (with approval from the driver even) was running from Oxford to Cambridge. We were almost to Cambridge by the time we realized our mistake, and we then had to get off and walk a mile and a half, hauling our luggage, back to the bus station and hopefully grab the bus going the other way. By the time we got on the right bus it was already the time we should have arrived in Oxford. Three hours later we finally reached the city.

From there I changed out some of my luggage and, leaving the big bag in hold and saying good bye to my roommate, I boarded another bus to London. That took longer than expected as well, due to some unfortunate traffic, and I finally arrived in London after being on several buses for a combination time of over eight hours. Not the worst or nearly the longest I've spent on a bus, but for something that should have only taken a combination of maybe five hours, it was unfortunate.

I met up with my friend in London and got to hear all about his terrible luck with the airline, which dropped him in London two days after he was supposed to be here, along with a combination of terrible service and long hours of waiting.

His luck must have followed him here, however, as after we'd checked out of our hotel and headed to the train station to take a train to Brussels, then Amsterdam, we heard that a train strike in Brussels had shut down all trains going through. We were able to rebook our tickets for the first leg for the next day, but the station in Brussels was completely unhelpful in trying to rebook tickets to Amsterdam online.

Stuck in London for the day, we found a new hotel to stay in (a ridiculously fancy one where they filmed scenes from two Harry Potter movies and an episode of Downton Abbey--I was freaking out when I found out) and decided to check out the inside of Westminster Abbey. Along the way on the underground, we picked up a couple trying to make their way through the transportation system to a hotel near Westminster. I offered to let them follow us and together all four of us made our way across the city.

The couple were from Texas and really nice, chatting with us about the difference between cities (they had just come from Paris) and how much it had changed since they'd last been here (twenty years). At the end of the journey we bid our good byes and wished each other luck with everything.

Westminster Abbey is beautiful on the outside and stunning on the inside. Though I don't know if anything will ever compete with Notre Dame for me, Westminster Abbey was incredible for its history. People like Winston Churchill have plaques there, and buried among statues and pillars of carved marble and stone are people like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. There was a writers corner were Geoffrey Chaucer was buried, and they had plaques dedicated to Gerard Manly Hopkins, Charles Dickens, and many more.The Abbey also held the tomb of the unknown British Warrior, a dedication to all the service people who had fought and died in World War II. It was surrounded by fake poppies, the symbol of the second World War, and is one of many statues and memorials and dedications to the war.

Several kings and queens were buried in alcoves in the abbey as well, including Queen Victoria I, Queen Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, King Henry V, King Richard II, King Edward I, and Queen Anne, just to name a few.

The cloisters of the Abbey contained a beautiful room filled with stained glass and a story that told the history of Abbey; it's purpose for the monks, it's damage during the second world war, and its restoration. It also contained Britain's oldest door, a wooden not-quite-square piece from sometime in the 1050's.

Westminster Abbey is also the home of the wooden throne where the kings and queens of the United Kingdom are crowned. The stone from Scotland, something that ancient Scottish kings had been crowned on before the two kingdoms united, will be brought down and combined with the throne when it is time for the next monarch to be crowned. The stone resides in Scotland at all other times though, after a rough history of theft by both nations. There will hopefully be some time before the next monarch is crowned though, as the current queen, Queen Elizabeth, has a very high chance of becoming England longest reigning monarch. If she remains on the throne until later this year, I believe, she will have been ruling for over sixty years, making her reign longer than any of the others.

After leaving the Abbey we wandered around London for several hours, walking along the river and getting lost trying to find the Globe, but for being stuck in London a day longer than we were supposed to, it was a lot of fun.

We headed out the next day to finally board our train to Brussels, where we booked our ticket to Amsterdam for the same day, and finally arrived in the city in the late afternoon. With a day less than we'd planned for, our first evening in Amsterdam was spent at the Anne Frank house, which was an incredible and humbling experience. The house itself is unfurnished, just as Anne's father, Otto Frank, requested, but the walls still contain the photos Anne pasted to the wall, and now have quotes from her diary printed alongside the blacked-out windows.

Eight people lived in that upper series of rooms for two years, hiding from the Nazis and wishing every moment that they could step outside and breathe the air. Unfortunately, someone informed the police where they were hiding, and the eight in the annex, the four Franks, three Van Pels, and Doctor, were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Of the eight, only Anne's father, Otto Frank survived. He spent several months looking for his family members before learning of their deaths and returning to the annex to collect the things left behind. There, he was given Anne's diary. Knowing of her dream to publish a book on her time in the annex, Otto had Anne's diary and a selection of her stories published, to share with the world the beautiful things Anne had to say about the terrible things happening to her world.

The sad part about Anne's story, was that she died only a month before the liberation of her camp. Believing she was the only member of her family still alive, she would have perhaps had more hope and will for survival had she known her father was still alive. Instead she believed she was alone, and after losing her family to various camps and ultimately death, Anne herself died in March of 1945.

We left the house in a quiet haze and found dinner at a little Italian restaurant along the canal. The next morning we got up early and made our way to the museum plaza of Amsterdam, where we spent hours in the biggest museum in the city, staring at awe at the exhibit on Rembrandt (with over 100 paintings from the various times in his life) and tracing along the ridges of ancient Dutch armor and carvings. We went to the Van Gogh museum as well, which I was particularly excited about, and got to see his famous Sunflowers painting in person. Van Gogh's life had a rather tragic end, but he corresponded very closely with his brother Theo and made many artist friends in his lifetime. Deciding at 27 to become an artist, he seemed happy in the beginning, and it wasn't until later in life that he succumbed to his mental instability, ultimately dying from a self-inflicted shot wound with his brother at his side.

After we were finished at the museums we hopped onto a boat and got a tour of the canals from two humorous Dutch men. We passed beautiful houses, arching bridges, and even some crooked buildings. Quite a few of the houses in Amsterdam tilt to one side or another, simply because when the city was built the houses were built on stilts. Sometimes, the stilts weren't quite long enough, and after some time the houses began to dip to one side or another. The city used to tear down the tilting houses, but now they simple make sure the house is safe and level out the floors, leaving the windows and the house itself at an angle along the canal.

Some of the houses also have the date they were built set on the front, dates like 1853, 1642, and even 1613. Many of them have hooks on the top as well, to haul goods and things up to the top level.

As a city, Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful, and I only wish we had more time here. But things happen, and our time in Amsterdam was wonderful. Our adventures will continue in Berlin from here, and then onto Paris and Normandy. If we can ever get out of this train station that is.

So until next time, good afternoon Amsterdam, and good morning California.

Sam

Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster

Liam Payne (the reason I almost died)

Olly Murs

Olly Murs concert in Leeds

The Railway station in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Canal

The Anne Frank House

Amsterdam tulips along the canal

There were tulips everywhere and it was beautiful

The Late Rembrandt Exhibition--the only painting Rembrandt did with a horse in it

The Late Rembrandt Exhibition

Rembrandt's last painting; it remained unfinished at the time of his death

More tulips

I amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum

Ancient jewelry rom the Rijksmuseum

Shields and carvings from the Rijksmuseum

A carved antler from the Rijksmuseum

Painting from the Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum

Canal in Amsterdam

This building was put up in the 80's, much to the chagrin of the city dwellers, so bar was built underneath, and every day it is lined with people along the canal