Excuse Me Miss, Your 'American' is Showing! - Day 43

   Oh Amsterdam, you are one crazy bitch. Yes, I can say that and I've only been here for a hot minute. I've got your number, Amsterdam. You ain't fooling anyone!
    Ok, so now you all know.
    I called her out.
    We should be good now - she won't be foolin' anyone else.
    The reason for this showdown is because at first glance, Amsterdam is a sweet, quiet, quaint little world full of wooden shoes and tulips. Bicycles and cheese. This can't be a land of partying and inexhaustible frivolity! Impossible. I'd never believe it.
     Well, believe it!
     She is a saucy minx who shows her true colors when the sun goes down. (Don't get dirty ideas - I'm not talking about the Red Light District, even though, I guess, I indirectly am. I'm just saying that if you want to party Amsterdam's your place!) With that being said, let's backup a second.

    After taking a cab from Pebbles in Southend at 5:30am, I got to the airport at 5:45 only to find out that I had to 'check' my small suitcase I had packed to go on the plane with me because you are only allowed ONE piece of hand-luagge. Are you serious?!? In the States, we get a carry on and a "personal item" - purse, laptop case, backpack, whatever. No. Not here. Just one. They almost charged me to bring on my pillow because that was considered another piece of hand-luggage. Whaaaaat?!? So annoying. Well, now I know.
    A 40 minute flight. We went up and then we went down. Best flight ever.

    Once I landed, I met up with Lisa and Kayla, who flew in from NYC and then we took the train and a cab to meet up at the apartment with the girls who came in from Oktoberfest in Munich.
    We settled in. The apartment is gorgeous. I'll post pictures of it as soon as I can. We have plenty of space for the seven of us. And the area is beautiful and is centrally located. It's just perfect.

Our block - 'Utrechtsedwarsstraat'. Holy crap, how do you pronounce that!?!

Is it weird that my first thought was that this apartment reminded me of the one in Taken? Hmm....

     First thing we did was eat. Of course. We headed to a small cafe around the block and enjoyed a couple of Heineken in true Amsterdam fashion.

Then we headed over to take an hour and a half canal tour, which we turned into a party cruise - beer and all!

World's smallest house! Located at Oude Hoogstraat.
The facade is a mere 2.02 meters (6'7.5") wide, and the house itself is 6 meters (19'8") deep. 

The Anne Frank House (from afar). The tallest building in the pic,  farthest on the right.

It's all about the (wooden) shoes baby!

Cloggin in style, y'all!

Beer in the boat! Woohoo!

    We disembarked and strolled through Vondel Park and then walked around the city to take in the local scenery.

    Fast forward to dinner at Stacey's (very yummy salmon dish!) and then we went back to the apartment to get ready to go out.

Once we were all dolled up, we headed to the city center to go to a dance club called Escape where there was, NO LIE, 85% men. We wade through a sea of men and thumping music to jump into the center of the dance floor and bounce around for awhile. Then, we were approached by a dapper dressed gentleman, hailing from Liverpool, who was there celebrating his friend's 30th birthday and asked our group to come to hangout with them in the VIP area.

We hung out up there awhile, danced some more, drank out of a bottle of vodka the size of Kayla, and then scooted back down to the main floor to join the mosh-pit-style-spastic-dancing. Everyone in the club was either wasted or stoned. Hence, we were forced, by sheer virtue of being smushed all together, to collectively jump around to the techo-rave style beats like crazy people. IN-SANE. Almost so much so that we couldn't hack it there for too long. A couple hours is about all one can handle of that madness!
     So we bounced to a few more pubs and bars to drink and dance some more and then stumbled on home about 4:00am. I can't say for sure, cause I don't remember much, but I'm fairly certain we all passed out pretty soon after walking in the door. Plus, early wake-up in the AM and lots still to do!

Night in Amsterdam on our walk home. 

P.S. - I just want to also state for the record how much I am LOVING the crew I am here with. Dana, my cousin, invited me to join her and her friends (Katie, Lisa, Liz, Kayla, and Sarah) for their trip to Amsterdam. I've met most of the girls before, but only maybe once, and it was brief. So for them to invite me to come was already super nice. But even better is how well we all get along and how much we are enjoying each other's company. No drama. No silly weirdness. Normally in a group this large, decisions are difficult, things get stressful, factions form, then the fun can be compromised because of all the nonsense. But not in this case - and I am really grateful for it!

     Once again, my case in point - now my cousin's friends are now my friends too! Everyone's a potential friend, remember? (If you don't know what I'm talking about and would like to, read my The Adventures of Diana and Stasy post.)

Southend-on-Sea - Day 42

Much to my (initial) dismay, I found out that there is NO easy way to get to "London's" Southend Airport at the crack of dawn. With the exception of a cab, which would cost close to 250 American dollars. No thanks. The alternative became for me to stay by the airport the night before, which led to me spending the day in Southend-on-Sea, a cute little beach town about an hour and twenty minutes outside of London.
    After sorting some London business (like paying my rent and packing and all that jazz), I made my way to Liverpool Street Station to catch the national rail to Southend. By the way, I love trains. Definitely my preferred way to travel. Just so much more relaxed!
    When arriving to Southend, I had a bit of stress trying to find the right bus to take to my bed and breakfast, but once that was sorted - smoooooth sailing. I stayed at Pebbles Beach House right on the water. IT WAS AMAZING. So cute. Family owned and run. Freakin' perfect.

I threw my crap down and went for an epic hike to Southend Pier, the longest pier in the UK (world?), I'm not sure. It was about a mile and a half out. And it was about a 1.5 to 2 miles to get to the Pier. So yeah, I was a walking fool. But the view was beautiful. It was incredibly windy. Like blow-me-over kinda windy. But that made the walk all the more enjoyable.

The start of my trek.

Just in case you get bored on your hike down the pier.

Still walking and so windy! 

Made it to the end!

I took a stroll around their little mall and then headed back to my b&b to watch the sunset and eat chinese food. I did some school work, did some blogging, Face Timed with my bestest friend Christina (SO HAPPY TO SEE HER BEAUTIFUL FACE!), and then made sure I had my shit in order for my early wake up. I shouldn't have worried. I didn't get a wink of sleep! I was terrified that my alarm wasn't going to sound and that I'd miss my flight, so instead I just watched the clock tick. Not cool. Especially since that was the most comfortable bed I've slept in a while. Oh well, just a sacrifice I have to make for Amsterdam.

On the walk home. (No filter)

View from my window! (No filter!)

A Thursday Fit for a King (or Queen!) - Day 41

     After a terrible night's sleep (thank you, Aspalls), I woke up at the crack of dawn to go do laundry. Yup, that's right. I procrastinated. Was supposed to do it Monday. Then Tuesday. It's now Thursday. I have a full day planned. I need to pack for Amsterdam before tomorrow and I have NO clean clothes. Brilliant. Man, I wish they gave medals for procrastination. I'd be one decorated young lady. Anyway, laundry. Crack of dawn. Check. Let's fast forward to the good stuff.
   I met up with Aileen at London Bridge tube so that we could have lunch at Borough Market. We split a "salt beef" sandwich - the SAME thing I had last time I went. It was just so good. Next time, I'l take a picture of it before I scarf it down. We meandered through the market - she'd never been there before. So of course, we had to stop for drinks.

Then we headed over to the Globe Theater (yes, AGAIN! YAY!) to see Midsummer Night's Dream (yes, AGAIN! YAY!). haha. It was my second time and Aileen's first. And it was JUST as awesome and hilarious as before, but this time, I had someone to laugh with, which made it even better!

Then, just when I thought things couldn't get any better, Aileen and I experienced the GREATEST DINNER I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE. Hellllooooooo Nobu. And my world was forever changed. Seriously, this was some of the greatest food I've ever eaten. Plus, Aileen and I chatted it up all night. Such fun.
Great food.
Even better conversation.
Awesome friend.
Man, what more could a girl ask for?
(Umm.... Chris Hemsworth? ::sigh:: I'll have to save that wish for another day.)


BONUS PIC JUST FOR AILEEN: (Excuse how heinous I look, but it's worth the laugh!)

"Oh nighhh" - ::clap, clap::

The Adventures of Diana and Stasy - Day 40

Clearly, our barista was hard of hearing.    

      Through my friend, Eric, I met Ashley - who I've mentioned before. Ashley's friend, Stacey, came to visit her from Saskatewan, Canada and in a wicked twist of Fate, Ashley got called to the States for a work conference that she just couldn't miss. Poor Stacey! (And poor Ashley!) So Ashley contacted me and said, "Hey, my awesome friend is here from Canada and maybe you guys wanna run around the city together."
And that's just what we did.
    Let me just tell you, Stacey is awesome. I mean, I should have expected as much, Ashley's pretty awesome too! I met up with Stacey at noon at the Embankment Pier and we took the Ferry to Greenwich, a few miles outside the city. It is the cutest little town and we took our time exploring its cool little nooks and crannies! (See photos below!)

London Eye from right underneath.

New best buds selfie!

Can't get enough of this bridge!

There it is again!

Finally in Greenwich at the Visitor's Center.

A prominent British clipper ship from yesteryear - The Cutty Sark

Queen Anne's Court at Royal Naval College

The Painted Hall, so aptly named. 

All I could think of was "HOLY CRAP THIS LOOKS LIKE THE GREAT HALL IN HOGWARTS!"
Yeah, I'm mature.

A pensive moment by the fire. 

At the Greenwich Craft Market

    We reboarded the Ferry and headed back to the city, walked around Tower of London, and then went to meet up with Dave (Ashley's fiancee) and his friends for dinner in Shoreditch. We went for Vietnamese food only AFTER we pub crawled all the way from the Aldgate tube station to the restaurant. Damn you Aspall's! So good, but soooooo bad.

On our stroll from the Ferry to meet Dave.

Look who we bumped into! (No, that's not Dave.)

The Ten Bells (Pub #1) - Notorious stalking ground for Jack the Ripper. Mwah ha ha!

At the pub! Aspalls in hand. Missing Chief.

      How did I not take any pictures of dinner?!?! Musta been too hungry or umm... drunk. Anyway, after dinner, we headed out to another pub and then managed to stumble our asses to the tube just before it closed. But long story short, Stacey was SO FUN. We really had a blast. And it just goes to show you that everyone is a potential friend! I know that's a little "kumbya-ish" but it's true. All of the people I know here are friends of friends of other friends. It's crazy.
      Here it comes - Life Lesson: it takes a little bravery to go out and meet people you don't know, but once you step out of that comfort zone for one minute, you can be instantly surprised by all the awesome things that come your way.  Trust me!

Gridiron at Wembley: Steelers vs. Vikings - Day 37

     It took me an extra day to write this up because I was a little broken-hearted after the game. I needed a day to recoop. Plus, with every crap play, fumble, interception, Eric and I decided that we needed to drink more. Yeah. So I was not only nursing a broken heart, but a wicked hangover to boot.

      Anyway, so Eric and I met up at the Shepherd's Bush Overground station about 3:00 to head over to the game that started at 6:00. Unfortunately, much to our surprise, there really isn't any easy way to get to Wembley. It took us a little time to get to our stop, but when we did there were fans everywhere! It kinda cracked me up that there were people wearing all kinda of jerseys the Dolphins, the Patriots, the Broncos. I didn't quite get it, but oh well, they don't see football but once a year so I'll give'em a break.

     From the tube stop, it was about a 15 minute walk to the stadium so we stopped for some drinks along the way - mini pub crawl style, since we had some time. As I said, I wish we would have won, but all in all I had a really great time. Great weather. All of the fans were in good spirits about the game and were kind to one another. The stadium was truly something to behold. Pretty awesome day of football! 

Thirsty Eddies! (Dive bar indeed - Pittsburgh woulda been proud!)

Beer en route! Pub crawlin - literally!

More beer at the Gold Wembley Members Club! 

Look at how gigantic this stadium is! We had a pretty impressive wave going on!

I tried to take a picture of us during every beer... I think I missed a few.