Not Often Do You Guetta Chance Like This

This weekend, many of my friends and I headed to Amsterdam, because we had tickets to the Amsterdam Music Festival. We took trains for like 7 hours to finally get to Amsterdam. Immediately after getting off the train, I loved the style of the city. Its old architecture was perfectly contrasted and complemented by the modern-looking lights and signs. We walked around some on Friday night, and it blew my mind how crowded the city was. It made Barcelona seem deserted, which could've been due in part to the Music Festival or the fact that the Amsterdam Marathon was on Sunday. But there were just so many places to go, and the city was lively. We went back to the hostel to rest up for the night because we knew Saturday would be really long. Our hostel's steps were so steep and small that I thought I'd definitely meet my end that weekend. But we made it.

We woke up at 10 on Saturday to make our way to the Anne Frank house. Upon arrival, we realized the line was 2 hours long, so we decided to just take pictures in front of it and spend our time doing more things. We took a cool canal tour, which showed us even more about the city. Bikes lined the rails to the canal throughout the entire city, and the bike traffic was far heavier than that of motorized vehicles. Warning: neither the bikes nor the cars follow traffic instructions, so be cautious.

After the canal tour, we headed to the "I amsterdam" sign by the Rijksmuseum there. We took a bunch of pictures and climbed the giant letters, which was really cool, but also very crowded. Since we were nearby, we headed to the Heineken Brewery to take a tour of the place. Some of the technology there was awesome, from holograms to an interactive and educational "ride" that shook you, heated you up,  bottled you, and shipped you similar to beer. This was a great way of keeping my attention at least. But it was time to head back to the hostel to go to the concert. I was about to jump up and down for 9 hours.

The Festival was originally supposed to open it's doors at 9:00 and start at 11:00, but the times were changed to open at 8:00 and start at 9:00. It seemed like very very few were notified of the change: of our group of like 10, only 1 was notified of the change, so thankfully we had Kaushik haha. We showed up at 8:00 and were able to snag second-row standing spots and move our way to the first row (You can see the Miami flag in the bottom left). 

Keep in mind, this arena ended up being filled with 40,000 of standing room mostly. So we were really really really lucky. The group performing was amazing. Amsterdam is known for producing DJs and loving electronic music, so the best DJs in the world were there. In fact, the top 10 DJs of the year were announced at the event. The top 4 DJs in the world were there, in addition to four more in the top 20.

As Armin Van Buuren (Voted as top-3 DJ for 12 years straight) was giving a speech and the croud settled down, I had moved my way to the front row. I pointed enthusiastically at him with both hands for about 15 seconds, and he made solid eye contact with me. He then pointed back at me with both hands and gave me a thumbs up: it was awesome. I got to see Hardwell, Armin, Dmitri Vegas & Like Mike, Martin Garrix, David Guetta, and Deorro, and Dash Berlin. Each artist had about an hour-long setlist. By 4:30 am I was ready to get some rest, so I went to the stands and took it all in from farther away. It was truly scary. So much fire, chanting, and so many crazy people. I felt like I was at some type of angry mob event or rally. Definitely the craziest thing I have ever been to and probably the craziest thing I will ever go to, and thats fine with me.

It ended at 6:00 am, and we headed to the hostel to pick up our luggage and make an 8:25 train to Lux city. I was tired enough to sleep the whole 6 hours back, and it was much-needed. I'm still feeling knee pain from all the jumping. Glad I got to go though, and I loved how cool of a city Amsterdam was. 59/117.

(S)cool Bussin' through Lux

After such a long week for my Paris and Spain trip, my weekend to stay in Luxembourg could not have been better-scheduled. It was incredibly refreshing to not have to rush onto a train right after class ended on Friday. Instead, I spent an absurd amount of time in my room at home, specifically laying in bed. It was a very lazy weekend, but it was also very much needed and appreciated.

On Friday, I was able to go out with some friends before splitting up to go to go to a cool dinner. Due to a mistake made by the waiter, we got some free wine with our meal. On Saturday, we were to take a party bus around the City and do a brewery tour of Bofferding, which was all planned by an awesome host dad named Norby. Anyway, back to Friday: Norby happened to be at the same restaurant as us, and realized a mistake made by the waiter, thus getting us the free wine. By the time we got back to meet up with our friends, most had left, so we decided to go home.

Saturday, I spent most of my day in bed again. I had to get ready to hop on the "Cool Bus" at 5:30. I even wore a what t-shirt that I wrote "COOL BUS" on with Sharpie.

I met with my friends, and we hopped on the bus. After 5 seconds of being on the bus, the driver slammed the breaks, and people's beer spilled all over them. The first song, picked by Norby, was "Hot Ni**a," a new song that I would have never EVER imagined Norby to have known. The first 2 minutes served as a perfect foreshadowing of the rest of the night.

We stopped, after a while, at the Bofferding Brewery to take our tour. But after waiting for a while, we realize it was closed and we didn't have a booking. But we didn't care, because we could just get right back on the Cool Bus. I deemed myself the new DJ for the bus, setting up in the back.

My music had the people hyped because I had all the jams, and Lily and I were great at picking the best ones. The night got so fun, but people weren't able to control themselves. I got thrown up on--not gonna say by whom--but yeah. So at about 11:00 the night started to get messy.

About an hour later, we all left the bus to go to the bars. We wanted to go to a '90's-themed bar, but The Fray were actually playing there that night, and we didn't have tickets, so we had to find another spot. After realizing it was almost 12:30, I thought it was time to head home, so I headed home.

I woke up on Sunday, and was questioned by several friends about what happened that night. I told them about everything that happened, and they told me about everything they were missing. On friends was missing her purse and phone. One lost a wallet and sweater. One lost her phone. one lost his phone and jacket. I was happy to be in my position.

We got to school today, and tons of people missed their first class because of the crazy weekend. Teachers even asked if there was a big trip to a city that was far away that caused everyone to be so tired, and my one friend replied semi-sarcastically under his breath, "Yeah. Lux City." 51/117.

No Spain, No Gain

From last friday until yesterday, I we had a study tour and a small break. So I have a 9-day break to write about: forgive me if it's long. My study tour lasted from that Friday until Tuesday, and it was in Paris. We were all freaked out, because the Paris subway stations had just received terrorist threats, but our class was headed there nonetheless. Over those four days, we got to go to many museums, try many crepes and macarons, and take many train rides. Since I had already been to Paris, I didn't know if this trip would be as good, but it blew away my expectations. I think that during my first visit, I didn't exactly comprehend how much history lies within Paris. I took it at face value, but I didn't look any deeper. Our class took us to like 5 museums, each completely unique. The most renowned that we visited was the Louvre, within which we saw several of the paintings that we had learned about in class, including the Mona Lisa.

It really was amazing how big some of the paintings were, and how much time must've ben spent collectively creating the works in that museum. But the Louvre wasn't the most impressive to me, because the expectations were so high. My personal favorite was the Musee Rodin, a museum which is home to many works of the French-turned-American artist, Auguste Rodin-- including "The Thinker." This museum made such an impression on me because of the natural beauty that encompassed it. Most of the museum was outside, and the inside looked like a small castle. I could imagine a queen walking out onto her balcony to this sight:

The grass was perfectly cut , and the hedges seemed perfectly trimmed, but this did not take away from the completely natural feeling given off by the scenery. It seemed so real, but so perfect, which is why I was so amazed by this museum. I can only imagine what Versailles would be like to see in person.

Visiting Paris for the second time, I was set on seeing the Catacombs, which, becuase they hold 6 million bodies, are known to be the largest gravesite in the world. After an hour-and-a-half wait, some classmates and I ventured 20 meters below the streets of Paris, into tunnels that were lined with skulls and femurs. It was a creepy but amazing experience to see how each bone fit in just like a puzzle piece. I'm so happy I went to see the Catacombs.

Paris just has so much more to offer than I believed. I think that if I had another week in the city, I still couldn't see everything I'd like to. Paris is definitely somewhere I want to visit again.

The study tour ended at noon on Tuesday, so I could've gotten more time in Paris, but my dream as a kid was to go to Spain. So, for the remainder of my week, I stayed stayed in Barcelona and Valencia. Barcelona was crazy because almost everything for sale there can be haggled down to a lower price. There were awesome shops and restaurants tucked into the smallest corners and alleys in the city that my friends and I stumbled upon. I got to go to the Mediterranean for a little while, but I didn't swim. We did get to go to a bar that was -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). The bar, the walls, and the cups were all made of ice, so it was awesome to go to for the experience. We only stayed for one drink because it was cold, but then we headed to the other clubs that lined the beach. It blew my mind that the Spaniards don't go out until 1:00am and they stay out at the bars and clubs until 6:00am. I felt like a loser because I left at 4:00.

I couldn't handle the Barcelona culture for too long, so I went to Valencia to take a few days to rest. Valencia was so relaxing! We went to the beach on Friday for most of the day, and I got sunburnt in 90 degree weather, while back home in Cleveland it was 40 degrees. Then, while we were walking around toward the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, we saw these big clear balls floating on the water. YES, they were those things you float in and play around. YES, we got to go in them. And YES, it was freaking awesome. Valencia was so relaxing and care-free. But we had to head back to Barca Saturday night to fly back on Sunday.

We ended up going to a bar in Barcelona called BarDowJones. It's pricing methods were based off the variability of stock prices. The costs of drinks fluctuate based on consumer demand for the drink. So, if a Heineken is 2,65Euro when I purchase it, the price will likely rise to something like 2,90Euro immediately after the transaction. And every once in a while, the stock market will crash, making drinks very cheap for a few minutes. A bar based off of finance: every Miami student's dream.

We flew home yesterday morning, and It felt just like coming home to Cleveland from a vacation because the weather was so cold ing Lux compared to Spain. It'll be a great feeling when I do get the actual Cleveland weather stepping off that plane. I loved my week break, but I've never been so happy to be in Lux. 44/117.