Amsterdam Excursion and First Day in Beijing

It’s funny to think that my first trip to Europe was more or less an accident, stroke of luck and a total surprise. Yes, since Monday I have been on three continents. Amsterdam was awesome! It was so cool to get to go there and it was a great break in between our two loooong flights. It was noon in Amsterdam when we got there or about 5am in Wisconsin. First stop was picking up our boarding passes for Beijing and trying to figure out how the lockers worked so that we could store our carry-ons. Then we got our passports stamped and bought train tickets to the Central Station in historic Amsterdam. The architecture there was so interesting. I would love to go back again for more than 4 hours. We thought about renting bikes but decided to walk and spent most of the afternoon wandering around taking pictures of the canals and houses. It’s a very pretty peaceful and quiet city. We ate lunch at a small café. I tried tradition Dutch food (or so said our waitress): vegetable croquettes. They were shaped like mozzarella sticks but filled with a very smooth cheesy potato blend and pieces of veggies. They didn’t look like much but were very filling. The only actual tourist site we tried to go to was the Anne Frank House. Unfortunately, we went too late to take a tour and to make our train back to the airport to make our flight on time but I saw the outside of it.

My flight from Amsterdam left at 8pm and arrived in China around noon. I think it’s about a 6 hour difference. It was another long flight. I got some sleep but not nearly enough. Flying over what might have been Mongolia or northern China was beautiful. The landscape was very rugged, dry, desolate mountains. Yeah for window seats.

When we finally arrived in Beijing, I was surprised at how hot and muggy it was. We all crowded onto a bus that took us from the plane to the airport. There was a sign in it apologizing for any inconvenience caused by the lack of air conditioning. Going through customs was no problem. The returners decided that it would be easier and cheaper to take shuttles from the airport instead of taxis. Oddly, the bus accidentally got in an exit lane and decided to back out of it and back on to the freeway. Even the locals seemed surprised about that. Sarah and I (the two newbies) took our suitcases, ect to the nearest apartment since we still weren’t sure who was living where. To save money, we decided to walk the “five minutes”. That estimate was made not considering carrying 150lbs of luggage, jetlag and hot muggy weather. We made but stopped to rest many times. We took our luggage up to the apartment (via elevator, thankfully) only to realize that no one was there and we didn’t have a key. Luckily Mike knew the neighbors, sort of, and spoke the same languages as them, sort of. They kindly let us leave our huge pile of suitcases in their apartment. Then we walked over to the other apartments and dorm to find someone with a key. I can safely say I have never been so gross and sweaty in my whole life especially considering it was Wednesday afternoon and I was still wearing the same clothes I had put on on Monday. Yuck!!! Eventually, we made it back to the apartment in a taxi with a key and got to shower. It was amazing…

We went out to eat for supper at a nice restaurant and had traditional Beijing food. All of it was delicious. Spicy green beans, hot celery and lily bulbs, eggplant something or another with garlic, candied apple slices and of course rice and tea (chrysanthemum with flowers floating in the pot). Eating with chopsticks wasn’t too hard. I’ll be a pro by July.

So far I haven’t seen much of Beijing but it seems like pretty much any other really big city except that there is lots of writing in Chinese, lots of Chinese people on bikes and Chinese restaurants on every block. Not that I’m too surprised. I will be living in an apartment with Hannah. We get to decorate and paint it. Fun! Unfortunately the lease doesn’t start until September 1st. Until then I’m staying at a different apartment and Hannah is in the dorm living room. At least I have a bed… first time I get to sleep in one for two nights…