Gettin Lost with lostgirl..trip report..
 

It's 5pm Wed..2/13..The horn blows...Yabadabadooo!!!!
I say my goodbyes and I'll miss yous to the people at work and get the F*&! out of there! Exactly 24 hours from now, I will be on my way to EUROPE! AMSTERDAM.PARIS.ROME (against the suggestion of the wonderful fodorites..sorry guys..but after much debate just couldn't let it go)

Me: 26, lives with boyfriend in Los Angeles, technically a young professional but far from actually feeling professional..haha..
My first ever vacation alone to a foreign country. The first and only time I've traveled to Europe was 10 years ago with my high school.

Him: 26, same as above, crossed the pond once when he was 8.

So, I get home and realize there's a lot that needs to be done!!!
Laundry, Packing, Clean the apt, go to Target to buy TSA locks and other toiletries, Finish loading up ipod, charge my Nintendo DS's and camera.

By the time all of these tasks get done, It's 4am, Our flight leaves the next day 2/14 5:30pm LAX to AMS via KLM.

Of course, excitement prevents me from getting any sort of sleep.
Eventually I knock out at 6am and wake up the following day at 2pm! We need to get to the airport at least by 3!! After a quick shower we hop in the car and start driving. Realizing I left my backpack with my ipod, itinerary, passport at home, we turn back and zoom back to the apartment.
After that fiasco, we get to the 405 fwy..and of course..bumper to bumper traffic. Ahh you gotta love it..
The time ticks and ticks it's now 4:00pm..
4:30pm-We finally get to the airport and run to the ticket desk.
The plane has boarded and they were scheduled to leave early!!
After receiving our boarding passes we arrive to the security checkpoint which is moving extremely slow..and then we here a page over the loud speaker..something about KLM..something about boarding..something about if we dont get on within the next 5 minutes we they are leaving with or without us..
Luckily we find an airport worker who is scanning the security line for KLM passengers...
She leads us straight to the machines and metal detectors..
After the check, we start running for our lives, holding my shoes in one hand, and my belt in the other, backpack sliding down one arm, sweating and out of breath..WE FINALLY BOARD!
Our prearranged agreement...BF takes the window seat and I agree to take the middle as long as I get the aisle on the way back to LA..
I was in for a long long long long long flight..
Don't you hate it when everyone around is sleeping..and you're stuck in the middle.. wide awake.

And then..you land...
and it' all good...

AMSTERDAM 3/15 12:30pm..

I finally made it..

Official Day One on my next post...
hazy days..missed trains..a new shiny blister..

Wow, you made the flight!? I hope your luck continues. :)

lostgirl,

I can already tell this is going to be a very entertaining trip report. Nothing like getting off to a great start. Sure you don't want to audition for The Amazing Race? I think you'd do well!

The mental picture of you running to the plane with your belt in one hand and your shoes in the other is priceless!

Looking forward to more . . .

ttt

I'll be visiting all three cities in roughly 6 weeks.

Please, continue!

Looking forward to hearing of your adventures. But you have already stressed me out. You sound like my daughter...always late, but always gets there in the nick of time. I am shaking my motherly finger at you at this moment. Don't scare me like that! ;)

Great start to your report! Looking forward to the rest.

yikes that OP gives me an anxiety attack just reading it. lostgirl, you sound like you'd be a lot of fun to travel with! please come back and tell us more when you have a chance!!!

Ah, it's going to be a good one. More, please!

Cant wait to hear the rest...

Great start! Keep it coming, lostgirl.

Ok, I'm hooked too.

Ditto.

Day 1:

We arrive with a gleam in our eyes and a bounce to our step! Alas, I'm here!
Our first mission is to find our friend who was waiting for us at the gate. A little about our friend...also from LA, a seasoned Euro traveller, Amsterdam expert (esp. in Coffeeshops), on a vacation of his own, flew in from Prague to Amsterdam about 2 hours before we did..

We find our friend waiting for us with a big backpack on and smile! It's so great to meet a familiar face in an unfamiliar place!
We hop the train to Amsterdam Central and 15 minutes later we walk out to the most beautiful weather one could ask for.
Crisp, sobering, fresh AIR, bright sunshine and puffy white clouds!! Coming from a smog riddled city, it's quite a refreshing experience.

Mission 2 is to find our hotel.
Ibis Stopera.
Having no map and only our friend's outdated one we look for the street its on. We find the street and of course I suggest we walk it. Hey why not! It's a beautiful day and I was stuck on a plane for 10 hours! Plus I figured, couldn't be more than a 20 minute walk.
So, we start the trek. Following our guide, looking around, dodging oncoming bikes, going through different streets, and possibly in CIRCLES!! 45 minutes pass and I'm getting tired! Our leader suggests we sit down at a coffee shop to rest our feet.
Sure! why not!
First stop the Greenhouse! I order a cup of hot coco, a dub sack, and some hash. Surreal.
My first coffeeshop experience. All I could think about is 1. how freakin awesome this is and
2. my friends need to be here too.

After about an hour of laughter and dilly dallying bf suggests we should find our hotel before it gets dark.
What a great idea!
We leave and start walking again for another 45 minutes. It's getting much colder now.. About to give up and call a taxi, we find a local to lead us in the right direction. He says we're just 100 meters away! WE MADE IT!

Check in is fast and we finally get to the room! It's 5:00pm and laying down never felt better!
I was really planning on not napping but rather going through the day and sleeping early.
Nope. Not gonna happen. Lights out.

7:00pm we wake up and see a note on our table.
"Be back at 8:00"
Hm..1 hour to wander around until our friend comes back sounds good! Feeling very refreshed,
we leave the hotel, wander down the street.
Low and behold, our friend is walking down the very same street! We flag him down and decide to eat dinner at a small restaurant. After a wonderful meal of something greek, I realize I need to use the phone!
You see...Another friend of mine, K, just moved to Amsterdam and she wanted me to give her a call once I touched down.
Who would've thought finding a pay phone would be so hard to do! You really can't find any!
We took a stroll through the redlight district, which wasn't as raunchy as I thought it would be!
Actually, it was really entertaining and fun to smile and wave at the girls. We then realize...
The walk from where our hotel was to the center of the action was a good 20 minutes instead of the 2.5 hours it took from the beginning of the day. HAHA
Finally, a pay phone!!!
After trying to figure out how to use the phone I finally get in touch with my friend and decide to meet her at Barney's Coffeeshop- AWARD WINNING COFFEESHOP hehehe.
We smoked some more, chatted for a while, decided on an itinerary for the following day, and agreed it would be wise to head back to the room and call it a night.

Day 2
I automatically wake up at 7am. I don't know know why. Honestly, just wanted to do some sleeping in! I'm on vacation damn it! I wake up early everyday to go to work!!
Oh well, you really can't complain and what's the point of going back to sleep when there's a city to explore!
And the weather?! Forget about it..! It's the best weather anybody could ever ask for!
I wake up the BF, get dressed, and decide to search for breakfast.
The streets aren't as alive as the night before. Shops still closed, no cars on the road, no crowds of people.
Something amazing about a city that's slowly waking up. The rattles of a bike whizzing by, the sounds of heels on cobblestone, the wind slightly blowing through the trees. I wish I could have a CD with just these sounds!
We pass a bakery but decide to keep walking and come back for it later.
We buy a pass for the metro and ride it to Central Station. Re-tracing our steps, we walk through
Dam square again but this time, its more mellow.
It's just too amazing. We keep walking and walking while stores are opening up one by one. We've been away from the hotel for 3 hours by now doing nothing but wandering with our mouths open.
We circle around back to the bakery, buy some pastries, and go back to the hotel to wake our friend up. We planned on meeting K at the Van Gogh Museum by 1pm.
By the time everyone is ready to go, it's 1 and we hurry down to the tram stop. We're already late! Figuring out how to use the tram with a map our hotel gave us was not too difficult. We did, however, get onto a tram that was going the opposite direction twice, forgot that you needed to press a button to open then door, and I almost fell on a grandmother due to the abrupt movements of a moving tram..all in all..we figured it out..
and all in all was an hour late.
Since our friend was here before on prior trips he decides to hang out out in a coffee shop while we venture off to find K. K is nowhere to be found and it's pretty cold outside.
We figure she probably left or she was inside, so the bf and I go in and start soaking it all in.
Honestly, I wasn't too affected by the paintings. Maybe it's because the museum was a little crowded and it was really stuffy in there. But..
Hey! Who's that in the distance?! It's K! We Found HER! :)
What a relief! Turns out she's been in there for the past hour! We finish up the museum and meet our other friend outside. We decide to eat again and find this great little Italian place that serves pasta dishes for 5 euros! What a deal!
After that lunch, we walk over to Vondelpark. OMG its like stepping into the park where Mary Poppins took those kids! Enchanted, we stop by a lake to just hang out and smoke. "... It's really refreshing to know that there is a place like this...a place that's understands me...little by little bit..i'm falling in love.."

The sun is setting again and we start heading back.
Agreeing to meet back up at a club later, we part ways with K and make our way towards the Bluebird Coffeeshop. A quick Pow wow later, we head back to the room to chill out before partying Saturday away.

Maybe it was from all that walking and wandering I was doing..
but my feet is killing me by the time I get back. Even with good walking shoes!!
You know the the webby part between your big toe and the 2nd toe..?
Imagine a blister right there..
Yeah..I was pretty pissed...but thank god my mom packed my band aids...She's really good at that stuff.


A short nap later...

We decide the best route to Powerzone, club choice for the night, would be to take the metro and get off on Amstel. Walking to the metro is super hard due to my new found foot friend.. Oh little do I know, the last train doors close right when we get sight of the platform.
No amount of chasing, yelling, or flailing arms to stop the train. No no No...the trains have no mercy.
They stop for no one..

Whatever, I'll take a cab.

15 Euros later..

We walk into this big club with beautiful people everywhere..the music's okay, progressive clubby house music..
Finally found K, she was having problems getting in but somehow she tricked the bouncer and snuck in. CRAZY GIRL!
Danced for a while..got a little tipsy..overall had a decent time...couldn't feel blister anymore..
4:30am..

Hail a cab...

20 Euros later...

BEDTIME...

Day 3..
"Now that I got all that partying out of my system...on to some culture"

Where is everyone? All of you who commented on lostgirl's trip so far. Those wanting to travel with her or who admire her or love her writings. Is it because she's a party girl who smokes pot?
Good for you, lostgirl. Have fun while you're young and don't worry about what others will think. Vaporize a bud for me. I'll be there in four weeks to continue where you left off! Agile

Yahoo! You go, Girl! You get old too fast, party it up! We are older, will be there in a couple weeks, and will check out the coffeeshops at least once. When in Rome....We are excited to visit the mueseums, see the flower fields and Anne Frank House. We are tacking on Amsterdam after 9 days in London. We have signed up for the Friday night RLD tour, and hope it's hopping that night.

Thanks for the trip report, I will be waiting to hear more!

lostgirl

Sounds like a great Amsterdam visit so far. I'm quite a bit older than you and couldn't do a club that late, but I appreciate the coffee shops!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

lostgirl,
this is a blast...i''m really enjoying it...and recall the bluebird very well (tho we bought cupcakes and took them back to the room 'cause i was afraid we'd never find the hotel again if we ate them there) :D (and we're not so young...just young at heart :D)

I just found this and I'm enjoying the ride -- looking foward to more!