“The Long and Winding Road” – Let It Be
Traffic Jams
The “Beast from the East” hit last week. London got hit with a few inches of snow. I thought that I was going to miss out on winter weather, so I’m glad that I got to experience it for a few days.
Last weekend, I went on a trip to Amsterdam and Bruges. The winter weather that hit the UK also affected the weekend trip. We left London early on Friday morning. I had to leave campus at 6 am to meet a larger group at Waterloo Station. I had an essay due the same Friday which I had to submit online before leaving, and I ended up staying up all night to finish the paper and finish packing for the trip. We got on a coach bus at Waterloo Station and drove to Dover. Once we were in Dover, we had to wait about an hour to get on the ferry that would take us to Calais, France. This was the first instance where the weather impacted our travel plans. The snow storms hitting Europe were causing the Channel waters to be really rough. Once we got on the ferry, I understood why we had to wait; the boat ride was not exactly the highlight of the journey. At first I thought that the boat wouldn’t be that bad, but the ship started rocking back and forth the instant we left the dock. I had to put my head on a table and sleep the whole 90 minutes so that I didn’t get sick. I was really wishing that I had Dramamine.
We FINALLY made it to Calais. We got back on the bus and headed toward Amsterdam. At this point it was close to 2 PM. We were supposed to reach Amsterdam around 6 or 7 that evening, and the rest of the night was initially set aside for us to explore the city. Unfortunately, the weather interfered again. It started snowing once we drove into Belgium. At first I didn’t think anything of it. It was very, very light snow, and it didn’t seem like it was settling on the roads. But then traffic started to slow down. Belgian drivers apparently have something in common with drivers in the South; they totally freak out when the slightest winter weather hits the streets. We ended up driving through these traffic jams in Belgium for almost seven hours. At one point, we had to stop at a very sketchy roadside diner for 45 minutes because our coach driver was about to hit his legal driving limit. Then we kept driving for a couple more hours. It took forever. We didn’t arrive in Amsterdam until about 11 PM. Although I napped a bit on the bus, I hadn’t really slept for almost two days, so while some people decided to go out into the city that late, I decided to sleep.
We left at 8:30 the next morning to head into the center of the city. I had bought tickets to visit the Anne Frank House and several of my friends joined me. I have read the Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank in school, so it was pretty fascinating to visit the actual house that the Frank family hid in. At one point of the tour, you walk from the business area of the building to the secret annex section by walking through the door behind the hidden bookcase. It was kind of eerie to enter this section of the house, I felt like I was intruding. The house felt haunted, not in like a creepy, scary movie type of way, but in more of a sad, “I know the fate of the people who lived here and their memory is lingering here” type of way.
Later in the day, the tour group we traveled with went to Edam and Volendam, two smaller towns about half an hour from Amsterdam. They were so cute! There were small Dutch shops and cafes everywhere. The canals in Edam were frozen over and it seemed like the entire population of the town decided to go ice skating that afternoon. Volendam had fishing boats all around the harbor, but that body of water was also starting to freeze over around the bank (y’all, it was COLD). We made the drive back to Amsterdam in the late afternoon, and while I was dying to get off of the coach the night before, I was thankful for the warmth it provided this day (I can not emphasize how cold I was guys).
Back in Amsterdam, me and three of my friends decided to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I’ve recently watched Doctor Who, and an episode in fifth season of the new series centered around Van Gogh. Since watching that episode, I’ve been more interested in Vincent van Gogh than I would’ve been in years past. The museum was fascinating, and while I didn’t see The Starry Night (because its in the Museum of Modern Art in NY), there were hundreds of Van Gogh’s works. If I had a “McKenzie’s Recommended Must See” list, this museum would be on it.
The rest of the evening was spent exploring the city. One of the girls I’m friends with here at Roehampton also went on the trip, and we got to go see the building where her great-great-grandparents used to live. While the city as a whole was wonderful, the weather was not, and by the end of the night I was very ready to defrost in the hotel.
The next day, we got back on the coach and headed to Bruges, a medieval city in Belgium. So far Bruges is my favorite place that I have been in Europe. It was beautiful! I ate a Belgian waffle in Belgium, and it was DELICIOUS. Literally the best waffle I’ve ever eaten. I got whipped cream and milk chocolate as my toppings, but the waffle was so good I could’ve eaten in by itself. Y’all, SO GOOD. I also bought Belgian chocolate from one of the many, many chocolate shops in the city. Also, SO GOOD. It started raining while we were sightseeing in Bruges, but it was no where near as cold as it was in Amsterdam the day before, so it barely bothered me. Overall a near perfect day in one of the cutest little cities I’ve ever visited. If I ever come back to Europe in the future, I will be going to Bruges again.
After visiting Bruges, we got back on the coach and took the much shorter, uninterrupted (by weather) drive back to Calais. We got back on the ferry, which was so much smoother the second time around, and arrived back in Dover. We drove back to London and headed to Roehampton. Although I probably ended up spending half of the weekend stuck on the highway in a coach, I had an amazing time!!!
The next couple of weeks will probably be my most stressful here at Roehampton. While the classes here don’t hold a candle to Hendrix, all of my major assessments (essays) are due within three weeks of each other. While I have plans to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with friends, I don’t have any trips planned until after all of my class work is due. But that gives me something super fun to look forward to in April: Spring Break!
-Kenz
She's Leaving Home 
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