Au Revoir Lille, Hallo Amsterdam

The teachers at my school described French educational system as: working the kids to the bone for a month or so, and then giving them two weeks break to recover. Then starting all over again. I got a hint of this method from talking with the students. When I would ask what they liked to do for fun, they of course had varied responses, but each one ended with the fact that they never had time for leisure activities because they were too busy with studies and homework. I'm guessing that this vacation for All Saints Day was a little more deserved for the students than for Kathryn and I, but I'm definitely not complaining. Therefore, after approximately 20 or so hours of actual classroom work, it was time for our very first European vacation.

We had been discussing plans for our first vacation as far back as, well, probably June when we first found out that we would be getting a break at this time. We had kicked around a couple of ideas (Ireland, Spain, Italy etc...), but as it became more apparent that we would not be receiving our first paycheck before the break we decided on something a little closer to our home base. Amsterdam it is!

This was a rather last minute decision; we got our hotel and train tickets booked just two days before leaving. We had, total, about a four hour trip from Lille to Amsterdam, and we transferred trains in Antwerpen (it could have been quicker, but we got the cheap regular trains rather than the super-fast TGV). We got up early on Monday morning to eat some breakfast and pack because we needed to be at Gare Lille-Flandres at 10am to catch our first train. Public transportation in France is some of the most efficient I have ever seen anywhere in the world. If there is a posted time announcing the arrival of a tram or metro or train, there will be no more than a 1 min difference between the posting and the actual arrival. This was extremely important when it came to our train transfer in Antwerpen. We did not realize until about 3/4th of the way there that our train was scheduled to arrive in Antwerpen at 12:00pm, and the departure time for our train to Amsterdam was 12:04pm. Luckily, as I said, everything runs perfectly on time, and even though we only had 4min to get to the other tracks, we made it with about 45seconds to spare. Other than that slight complication (and the fact that we originally sat down in the 1st class cabin instead of the 2nd class, and were forced to move to a different car), the journey went very smooth, and we pulled into Amsterdam Centraal Station just after 2pm.

When we left Lille the weather was brisk but sunny. We were able to see, as we chugged across the Belgium countryside, the clouds rolling in and the rain beginning to fall as we got closer to our destination. When we finally got off the train there was a pretty consistent rain coming down, and as exemplified by the inordinate amount of windmills in the surrounding villages, the wind was blowing hard. We had brought our umbrellas with, but they were quickly put out of commission by the storm. Kathryn opened hers up only to have it instantly flip inside-out and snap a couple of the supports (this was not too unexpected as we only paid 2euors for them). Living in Eugene for four years, and for Kathryn in Oregon her whole life, there was no way a little rain was going to slow us down. The hotel we stayed at did not begin check-ins until 3pm. Our original plan was to wander around enjoying the sights until our room would be ready. The weather quickly changed our minds, and our number one goal now was to successfully navigate down the winding streets with unusual names, through the crowds of people, to our hotel, staying as dry as possible because we only brought one change of clothes each.

The reservation was at a hotel named the Rembrandt Centrum/Classic Hotel, and it was right in the very center of the downtown district. Even stopping at each street corner to try and find the street names and get our bearings, we made it from the train station to the hotel in about 15min give or take. That was a big relief. Also, as luck would have it, our room was ready and we were able to check in without a wait. The room we were given was up on the top floor of the hotel, it was very clean and we had our own bathroom (I know this sounds pretty normal to many of you, but if you had seen pictures and the reviews of some of the other hotels and hostels we were considering, this was much better than expected). The combination of the luxurious accommodations, with the location, and especially the price, I highly doubt we could have found anywhere better in the whole city.

We were both chomping at the bit to get out and do a little exploring regardless of the rain so we spent as little time as possible in the room. Kathryn had to fix her makeup, and I changed into dry clothes and put my contacts in so I could see while walking around in the rain; then we were back out the door. The rain slowed up while we were in the hotel and stopped soon after we left. We hadn’t really eaten anything all day except at croissant at the Lille-Flandres before we left, and Kathryn had some chips on the train, so our first stop was at a little bar/café just around the corner from the hotel. Kathryn was feeling pretty fatigued from not eating so we split a club sandwich with smoked salmon, which was good enough to hold us over while we searched for our dinner.

Our number two goal for the beginning of our trip was to get some Thai food for dinner. Now this was not just any Thai food that we were looking for either. For those of you that don’t know, this was my second trip to Amsterdam. When I was studying in Athens I had a 10 day spring vacation and I spent my time traveling between Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. It was an amazing trip, but I only had about a day and a half there. The highlight of my trip in 2007 was my reintroduction to the world of Asian cuisine. I had been walking around with one of the girls from my program in Greece when she suggested we stop for lunch at this little Thai restaurant we passed. I was hesitant, but she convinced me. Now before this trip I never was a big fan of Asian food. It had probably been 10 years or so since I had last tasted Thai and my memory told me I didn’t like it. My perception changed instantly when the food was delivered. Not only was it the very best Asian food I had ever eaten, but it was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. Therefore, I was determined on this trip to take Kathryn.

Now there were a couple of major obstacles standing in our way. I could not remember the name of the restaurant nor could I remember the location. The only details I remembered were what I had eaten, that we had eaten in the upstairs section, and that the servers wore bright-yellow, Asian print silky shirts. To say we had our work cut out for us was an understatement.


Our first couple of hours consisted of weaving in and out of different canals, looking in shops and stopping for coffee to perk up. Amsterdam is absolutely beautiful. Each street or canal is distinctly Amsterdam, and at the same time each has its own kind of personality. After wandering around for a couple of hours and getting a good bearing on the city and how to get around, we stumbled upon the Asian district. By this time we had burned off all the energy we picked with the sandwich earlier, and we were ready for dinner. Along the way we had been keeping our eyes peeled for any signs of Thai restaurants, but had been unsuccessful. I was pretty pessimistic about us actually finding the same restaurant I ate at before, and we decided that we would just walk until we found a Thai place that looked good.


Strictly by chance and a couple of random turns down interesting looking streets we came upon a Thai place. We had seen maybe three other Thai restaurants all day…Kathryn called me over to check out the menu…it looked slightly familiar…I looked closer, then peered in the window…there was a staircase in the back…then…a flash of yellow! We had found it!! I was beside myself, it was unbelievable.

The name of the restaurant is Bird Thais; there’s a yellow sign out front and it’s located about two blocks past the Red-light District in what is called Zeedijk. I had the Kai Pad Ped aka, chicken in red curry sauce with bamboo and long beans (same as two years ago), and Kathryn got the Pad Thai. They were both delicious, but the chicken and curry we voted was the best. The portions were huge, and being so hungry we left very little on our plates.


It was already pretty late so we decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest. The plan was to discuss if we would be going out any more that night, and what we planned to do the next day. We concluded it would be best to just get a beer at the hotel bar, and save up our energy for Tuesday.


Now seeing as this is starting to get a little lengthy, and we’re only through our first day in Amsterdam I will stop here, and leave you wanting. Stay tuned for Part Deux (I’ll probably post it tomorrow) which includes beer, museums, museums about beer, and a whole lot more pictures!

À Demain,

Jor and Kathryn