Spring Break in Alabama means a calm week at home or a not so calm week at PCP; however, Spring Break abroad is a bit more adventurous. As if traveling itself was not exciting, I was fortunate to have two very great companions with me. We all are here from UA but in different cities across Europe (Glasgow, Barcelona, and Granada). By chance, we all had the same Spring Break and decided to start our adventure together in Amsterdam. Two of us arrived by plane and the third by bus. I was the last to arrive, just after midnight. We all met outside the airport and planned to take the metro to our hostel on the outskirts of the city. We quickly discovered that we had just missed the last metro for the night and were presented with two options: a $100 taxi ride or a much cheaper (and slower) bus ride. Like typical college students, we elected to take the night bus through Amsterdam to get to our hostel. The bus ride seemed to never end but we eventually got to our bus stop around 3am. We planned to take a very short taxi ride from here to our hostel, but not surprisingly, there were not any taxies to be found at 3am. We wandered the suburbs of Amsterdam until we eventually found a hospital and a receptionist who helped us phone a taxi. After hours of inefficient wandering, we finally made it to our hostel around 4am. We stayed in a camp resort/hostel mix that had tiny 3 person cabins. Because we missed check-in by 5 hours, the staff simply left a note saying our cabin had been left unlocked and we could check-in in the morning. Like typical Americans, we walked in, turned on all the lights in our little cabin, plugged in all our phones, and quickly blew the fuse–causing complete darkness at 4am. We decided to cut our losses for the night and feel our way around in the dark until we each found a bed and promptly passed out from the day’s travel. We must have gotten all of our travel problems out of our systems that night because the week of travels that followed passed flawlessly (with the exception of one delayed flight). After Amsterdam, we visited Prague and Berlin and had a wonderful time. Though our time in each city was transient, we were able to leave our mark on the Lennon Wall in Prague (attached image). Our mini UA reunion abroad was a success and I can honestly say this was the best Spring Break I have ever had!
