AMSTERDAM
Oh, how I love it. Megan and I actually came to the conclusion that, if you take away the canals and add balconies, Amsterdam would look quite similar to New Orleans. Well, without the red light district and cafes selling marijuana...
ANYways, of couse we loved Amsterdam despite the chilly weather, not-so-delicious kebabs, and creepy red light district go-ers. We found our hostel, The Globe, located literally 5 blocks away from the train station and perfectly in the middle of one of the most popular parts of the city. Walking around we played some pool in a coffeeshop where Megan ALMOST beat me (whew) and then found a Thai restaurant called Bird where we ate some scrumptious Thai food. Maura is so jealous right now :) Following this we met up with my friend (I LOVE YOU KINDLE!) Brian Walton from Rhodes! He is working in a small town in Germany this summer and happened to be in Amsterdam at the same time...not to mention randomly ALSO in the same hostel! Ah....karma. Didn't do much, but enjoyed listening to BWalt ramble on and on becaue he had been alone for the past week...never remembered him talking this much...haha kidding.
After a chilly chill night, we woke up to yet another chilly overcast day but excited to meet up with Nick who had taken the midnight train from Munich. His night was spent partying with randos in the bike storage car (he is definitely related to me, love it) -and then promptly had to loiter near the Anne Frank house waiting for us to show up...for an hour bc we got lost. Oops. Best part is that he didn't even want to go in because he heard it was too depressing haha.ANYways it was depressing but definitely worth seeing. Too bad I've never read the Diary of Anne Frank...minor oversight there, middle school teachers! I blame you. Learning of the diary by seeing the actual one, along with where her family hid behind a fake bookcase for 2 years, was the way to do it though. Quite chilling and ominous--for others of you whose lower school teachers forgot to add the diary to summer reading lists, it does NOT have a happy ending. BWalt had joined us for the museum and upon my mentioning that the Netherlanders must not like to waste room on stairs (SO steep! I thought the old people museum-goers were going to tumble down and break their hips!), he told us that his first day in town he fell down an entire flight of stairs in a coffeeshop!!! One step, two step, curplunk. Gosh darn 'Merican tourists...but I would have loved to see that happen ;)BWalt departed when Megs and I met up with Nick, drinking a few bronsons before I went to my canal hash that afternoon and they continued on their city-wide beer crawl. I think they actually had destinations in mind but got horibbly lost without my top notch navigation skills, of course, and instead drank a beer in essentially every bar in the city.I, on the other hand, hashed along the streets and canals and boats of Amsterdam with many of my fellow Eurohashers! We began in the south and made our way even further south, running just about 10k, 60 of us (me the youngest, but that's a given) running and on-on-ing and laughing. I was finally thankful for the cold weather and didn't even mind the light rain as we ran except when we had our beer stop (well, shot stop...tasted like Christmas jeager) on a boat crossing a river, brrr, and when we had circle bc it started actually raining. Then pouring. Then lightning. Wind gusting like a hurricane, we huddled behind a big abandoned train car while I shoveled paprika chips into my mouth and gulped down more beer. Can't say it was a bad experience really. Our on-after was AWESOME though, and we crammed into 2 canal boats and toured the city by water...although sadly I don't remember much, other than eatig an entire plateful of cheese, bc 1. As the youngest the hashers love to make me drink so I never had an empty glass, they were sure of that, and 2. I challenged the Estonians to a drinking contest. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but a good time! Fortunately they were nice enough to see me back to my hostel and I lost yet another contest, this time a pool game. Megan found me in her bottom bunk bed at 10pm, half sitting half laying down, fully clothed and snoring bc I couldn't make my way up to my top bunk. Successful night I'd say!
Last day in Amsterdam before Eurohash, Nick joined us for the Heineken Experience. Waste. Of. Money! I mean, when you're touring a brewery you at least hope to see them actually making beer...and if not at least to DRINK the beer throughout the tour! Instead we found ourselves in essentially a Heineken commercial with only 3 mini beers at the end of the tour and I can honestly say I learned nothing. Boo! Fortunately for me and Megs, we would not be wanting for beer AT ALL during the next 3 days as we were to experience the total ridiculousness that is EUROHASH!
Castle De Berkt, May 27-30, Baarlo-Netherlands, EUROHASH
Where do I even begin?! Three days with 10 open bars, in a castle and the surrounding, well, trailerpark (apparently this is how the Dutch "camp")...600 crazy hashers from around the world, bands, themed parties, and hashes in Baarlo and the surrounding cities. We scored some free stuff (backpack, fanny pack, tshirt and polo) and fortunately for Megan, Nick went back to the US early so she didn't even have to pay!
First night consisted of a "pub crawl" of sorts as some of the hashes set up home bases at the bars...of course the American "Honky Tonk" bar was our fave...and each bar could be checked off on the back of our shirts. I am proud to say we dominated the crawl, even getting more secret bars written onto the shirt! Everyone was so jolly and friendly--I've learned that there really is a hashing personality. Open-minded, enthusiastic, welcoming and goofy...I mean you have to be when youre running 12k through random parts of cities and drinking the whole time, and some have been doing this for 20, 30 years! I can't wait to hash in my grey-haired days...I'll probably still be challenging Estonians to drinking contests.
Woke up to sounds of British children whispering "Whats that lady doing in here?!" and throwing small items at my sleeping form. Somehow I had passed out in the children's room, dedicated nanny that I am. Turns out I had put my stuff in the wrong room, and the hashers had a good laugh when I was called out in circle later that day :)
The hash was AWEsome! We took a bus to the southernmost part of the Netherlands and ran about 15k through 3 different countries: Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium! Even though the Netherlands is typically flat, this area was hilly which to me felt like mountains...I learned my lesson after trying to run up the first hill--NOT repeated!
Got back in time for dinner where I found Megan eating with our new British friends, the only other ppl our age...I must have been ravenous bc Megs said I looked like I hadn't eaten in a week. Guess I was shovelling food into my mouth faster than usual. I think I ate 5 rolls globbed with the best garlic butter EVER, but HEY Zulu party was tonight so I needed a good drinking base! I luckily had a zebra dress which I thought was costume enough...but people went ALL OUT. I'm talking half naked middle aged people wearing loincloths and grass skirts, with spears and bodies covered in brown paint. When they ran out of brown some people got green-like one of the British blokes. He looked diseased and, even after showering the next day, remained a shade of puke green the rest of the weekend. But we're hashers so who cares! The guys especially loved pulling Megan on the dance floor and rubbing up against her in an attempt to make her brown and green as well bc she didn't have a costume...too bad they only succeeded in making her green sweater look GROSS! The rest of the night was spent similar to the first, drinking, making friends, and this time organizing beer pong in the American bar. Don't remember if I won or not...
Woke up NOT in the children's room, thank god, and made it just in time to catch the easygoing 4k hash around the city. We all were hurting from the night before so we just walked and upon finding the first bar sat down for beers. One crazy hasher, a 40s-ish Brit, particularly liked the live music and danced his buns off up and down the street...my abs were literally hurting from laughing so hard! The whole hash my Brit friends Lloyd and Webby (think his name is Daniel?) kept exclaiming "WAH-OW!" and "Ah-MAY-zing!" which I found hilarious...and even moreso when I learned they were doing this after partying with Megan last night. Apparently we say "wow" and "amazing" a lot?? They were essentially making fun of us :) aMAzing!
The rest of the weekend was honestly a blur...I got called out in circle, again, this time bc one random hasher had followed me onto the bus without realizing that his flight was that afternoon so when we arrived he had to hop out and into a taxi immediately...everyone made me turn around so they could see the "cute bum" he said he had followed. Drinking beer continued into the night, without Megan though who missed every hash and instead stayed in and finished The Hunger Games! I can't blame her though...those books are ADDICTIVE. Finally found her the next day and we hitched a ride with the organizer of Eurohash, Neptunus, to the train station where thank GOD this amazingly nice hashing family let us tag along with them to Belgium. SO nice not to have to be in charge of directions for a change, not having to make sure we were on the right train or going the right direction or getting off at the right stop...I was in NO shape to do this. After 3 days of hashing my body was slowly shutting down...thank you Tuna Melt and family for being lifesavers!! I'm just jealous we didn't get to tag along to Disneyland in France...
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