It's a Small World Afterall!

Once we'd had our fill of Carnaval, we decided to make sure the rest of our vacation didn't go to waste. So we shoved some things in a backpack and hopped on the next train to Amsterdam.
Erin, Cam, Fenna, and I arrived in Venice of the North at around 3:30 where we were met by the usual dutch rain and consequently were immediately ripped off by a cabbie, but hey, thanks for the tour. *bird*. Between the four of us, we were loaded with contacts and therefore, by extension, things to do, so we brushed off that small setback and immediately got down to business. tea and cookies with Fenna's mom!! Fenna is half dutch and half american. Both her parents come from Holland and recently, they purchased an apartment right by the vondelpark and leidseplein which is a very good place to be! We were very lucky girls, and a huge thanks to Fenna and her mother for being such good hosts! Once we'd had enough snacks and chatting in a real living room (funny the things you miss), we decided to get ourselves ready for dinner.
Erin's world: episode 1.
Erin's best friend is currently on exchange in Leeds. Her best friend from university, Elisa, is currently on exchange in Amsterdam. Although Erin and Elisa had never met, we were assured it would be fine to give her a call. so we did. and it was fine, and we had some very strange ethnic food of a spicey variety.
Erin's world: episode 2.
Following a lovely dinner with just us 5 girls, we went to a student pub to meet with Erin's childhood friend Remy, who is on exchange in Amsterdam. Remy's roommate's best friend was Rick, one of the oompa loompa's pictured in the Carnaval album. Rick had spoken of the Cdns he'd met in Maastricht and eventually, over a heiniken or two, it all came together at "Lux", the student pub. I also met a few other u of t exchange students and here we got a lead to another party.
Erin's world: episode 3.
Following the Lux night, we received instructions from Erin's dad on how to meet up with Barry, another one of Erin's childhood friends flying into Schiphol THAT DAY. We buggered it all up and weren't where we were supposed to be, but it didn't matter because we ended up running into Barry in the street (!!) while shopping that afternoon. He had a friend with him, also from ontario, going to Queen's, Sam, also a friend of Erin's and we agreed to meet up later for the party lead we'd acquired at Lux.
I am pretty sure that's all the Erin connections, but surely that's enough.
WHile I am thinking of it, one more "small world" annecdote: Fenna's mom's cousins used to live nextdoor to the Anne Frank hideout during the war (ie while Anne Frank was hiding.) The children Anne describes playing outside, are Fenna's relatives!! We didn't go to the house this time. next time for sure.
Cultural things I did get to were mainly summed up in the Rijksmuseum. There were lots of paintings of Dutch children, dressed like dutch adults, which was apparently the style. It has never left! Dutch kids still look like miniature adults and often are dressed better for school than I am. for shame. I finally saw "the Nightwatch". and I found out it is not as original as an original can be...it has been CUT! i have a hard time just cropping my photos; i don't know what i would do if someone asked me to crop a rembrandt. anyway, it was too big for a wall in the amsterdam town hall, where it was once housed, so they just trimmed it. crazy. the revealing photos of the fake that gives away the doctoring are included in the Amsterdam album.
I should probably mention that the reason we went to Amsterdam in the first place was largley cultural. We heard G-love and Special Sauce were playing and decided to try and get tickets. also, Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, G-Love was sold out, and we totally forgot about New Year opting for Sushi instead. More on that later...
Other Amsterdam activities included walking through the Vondelpark (they play Hepburn movies there in the summer outside the archives and people get really into it...we're coming back), walking in redlight (and we didn't take photos, sorry martin), walking through markets, walking for shopping, walking, walking, walking....my shoes are ruined. should have done shoe shopping.
The last day we spent searching and enjoying the sushi. Cam met a nice boy called Tal, from New York city, and so we invited him to come along too. Then we got ice cream and called it a trip. Well, at least Erin and Cam did. They went back that afternoon on the train with Barry and Sam who then got a little taste of Maastricht. Fenna stayed to have high tea with her mom and I stayed to catch up with some rowing pals. I cut my visit short though and decided to catch up with the ladies in Maastricht. Now I am thinking it was a little 6th sense of me...
I caught the last train out of Amsterdam and took a seat in the middle of the car. At the front there were the usual drunks about my dad's age, singing and just being generally obnoxious. I started to read Condon's book....then all hell breaks loose. Women are screaming, men are yelling, everyone running....I look up and see some young guys swinging huge on the my drunk friends from the front. The older of the two men turns and it is the most gruesome thing i have ever seen! a gash from his left temple to below his right eye is pouring blood and his friend has a shiner swollen sbut and bloody to the size of a baseball. When it is all over, there is blood all over the train (including some on my bag. I got it off though...). Of course everything was in dutch, but I asked around and apparently it was a racial thing. I guess the old guys had made some comment to the young asian guys and they didn't like it...so they clocked men twice their age. nice. We were delayed one stop out of amsterdam for about half an hour before they finally took those involved and bloody off the train and we were on our way. They cleared out the train except for me and this guy from UA who were both too lazy too move our shit. so we chatted for awhile which suited me fine since I am now terrified of being on the wrong train given my adventures of the first day. I was determined not to fall asleep and miss my stop in holland in the middle of the night. Once he left, I was moved to first class for all my trouble of moving. Danku Wel!
I made it into Maastricht without any further excitement and caught up with Cam, Erin, Sam and Barry at Highlander (where else??) then finished the evening off at The Shamrock.
The next morning, I woke up urgently needing to vomit. I won't get into details, but no, it was not a hangover. My mother convinced me I was in fact dying of Meningitis, but it wasn't that either. I stayed in bed all day and felt generally miserable and feverish until the next morning. That's when I found out that Fenna too had shared my fate. It was death by sushi. FOOD POISONING! I feel so violated. To have paid so much to be poisoned by my favourite treat. I am not touching the stuff until I get home to Sushi Inn. And I also swear of conveyor belt sushi for life.