The Start of a Wild Ride

     I'll start this entry about my weekend with the hell we went through trying to get to Amsterdam. Sarah and I struggled with deciding where to go for the weekend up until the absolute last second. We decided on Amsterdam and finally booked our tickets and hostel on wednesday evening, to leave on friday morning. We booked our hostel no problem and then we found a flight that we "booked" in spanish. Friday morning comes, Sarah and I wake up at 4:30am in order to finish packing, get ready and get to the bus station to get on the 6:00am bus to the Asturias airport (a 40 minute nauseating drive). We got to the airport to find out that the website malfunctioned and did not in fact book us tickets, but seeing as how it was the day of the flight we needed, the tickets were like 5 million dollars. I called my dad in a panic and he checked my email and had me translate the email from the website telling me that the booking of the tickets was not successful. No shit. So after a minor stroke, a breakdown and an expensive doughnut, Sarah and I got on the nauseating bus ride back to Oviedo. So at this point we have a hostel booked that we cannot cancel, no way to get to Amsterdam, and 22 euro spent on a bus ride to the middle of no where simply to eat a mediocre doughnut. We got back to Oviedo and went to the train station where I was on and off the phone with my incredible parents who stayed up until 4 in the morning their time finding us a flight and booking it for us. I legitimately dont know how we would have gotten there without them. The Asturias airport and the Oviedo train station both do not have wifi which was incredibly unhelpful. So we got to the train station at about 9:45am and my parents were busy saving our asses and told us to get on the next train to Madrid. So alas, at 10:16 we bought our train tickets for the 10:30 train to Madrid and our return tickets from Madrid to Oviedo, meanwhile still having no idea if we could even get to Amsterdam. We arrived in Madrid at 3 something and my mom had texted me information for a flight she booked for both of us, the last flight leaving from Madrid to Amsterdam. My parents are angels. We got in a taxi and headed to the airport to get on the 6:30pm flight to Amsterdam. We arrived in Amsterdam, a miracle that at 8:00am we didnt think could possibly happen, around 9pm and got a taxi to our hostel. We checked into our hostel but needed to pay the full cost in cash which of course we didnt have enough of, so we went to find an atm then returned to pay and get our keys and drop off all of our things. Longest day of my life, but alas we had arrived in Amsterdam. 
        After we threw our things in our room, we went out to explore. We walked around the corner from our hostel and all of the streets were lit up with neon names of clubs and restaurants. We heard live music and we followed it until we ended up at a huge free live concert with a band playing Gavin DeGraw covers, my life was officially complete. We went into and checked out some of the coffee shops, the one my parents recommended from their trip 20 something years ago was the first one we went into, and it was alot of fun. We sat out on the terrace, got some food and listened to the quality dutch version of 90's american songs. I dragged her to the main area to drink beer and dance before we made our way home. 

the next day, but me in front of the Bulldog

        Amsterdam is full of bright lights, people everywhere and a general vibe of a good time. It definitely made up for the bitch of a day we had trying to get there. I was so happy to be in that environment and couldnt wait to see what the weekend had in store for us.