Germany & Amsterdam

So last week I left Haifa, first to go to Tel Aviv to see Mindy, who was finishing her Birthright trip. We slept at Dara's apartment and went to the shook and did some random Tel Aviv shit before she and her brother left for Amsterdam and I left for Germany. Germany was so cool! Except we didn't spend that much time in actual Germany because Lisa and I decided to go to Amsterdam. I really wanted to see Berlin and get more of a feel for Germany, but I also REALLY wanted to go to Amsterdam, and Lisa has never been there, so I'm really glad we got to share that.

When I first got in at Frankfurt, I couldn't believe how quiet the airport was, which is when I realized that Israel is really loud. We ended up missing the last train from Frankfurt to Marburg (where her university is), which meant we had to pay a lot of money for a cab or stay in Frankfurt all night until the trains started again. Fortunately we're young and excitable so we decided to stay and after being scolded by some German police officers for being where we weren't supposed to be in the train station, we left and found a 24-hour bar. In the bar, there were a bunch of legit weirdos (it was the middle of the night) included two Americans who I ended up sitting between while they screamed to each other about Obama bowing for the King of Saudi Arabia, and something about business taxes. Sure makes you miss home, right? Also, there was this German 70-year-old whoasked one of Lisa's friends in German if I was Jewish when she told him I was visiting for Israel and then came over to me and produced a copy of "Goethe und die Juden" (or something... Goethe and the Jew) and told me I should read it. Which kind of freaked me out. Also, I don't exactly speak German, which he couldn'tunderstand.

So anyway, we spent the next day hanging around in Marburg (actually I slept most of the day) and then it was one of Lisa's friend's birthday parties so we went to that and then went out. And then at like 4 in the morning that night we bought some train tickets to Amsterdam and the next day was spent traveling to/arriving in Amsterdam. As soon as we got off the train in Amsterdam I had these really intense positive associations. It's such a beautiful city, everyone is there just to chill out and have fun and relax and everyone is in a good mood all the time and it's just such a relaxing environment. I really think everyone should go there at some point. We met up with Mindy and Ben and went to dinner with them/hung out with them a little. The next day we went to the Anne Frank House which was really well done and touching.

I had a lot of fun, but I'm sad we had to spend so much time traveling because it meant we didn't get to see as much of Amsterdam as we would have wanted. But it was definitely worth it and I was really glad I got to do it with Lisa.

I might post more later about actually being in Germany and what that meant for me as Jew when I go back and write about this whole experience after. This is more just a record of my travels.

My family is coming here on the 3rd and then we're touring Israel until the 15th, when I go home. This semester has gone by so incredibly fast. I really can't believe it's over.