Something Sensational to Read In the Train: Part 1: Amsterdam, Harry Potter Studios and Portsmouth

Yes, it's been more than a month since my last blog-post, which only goes to show how terrible I am at sticking to the plans I make. But hopefully this post will make up for it.

The last month of the university semester wasn't all that exciting really, as I had four major deadlines for the same day. I did do a couple of exciting things though. Firstly, Laura, Anna, Christina and I took a trip to Portsmouth for the Victorian Christmas Festival. It was quite nice. Very Christmassy. We ate fudge. Then we felt sick because we ate too much fudge. But it was worth it of course. We also rode on a very cute carousel. So, altogether a successful day.

The following day saw the four of us visit the Harry Potter Studios with other international students. Even though I'd seen some of the objects before at the Harry Potter exhibition that was in Sydney nearly two years ago, it was still super exciting. I think my favourite part of the tour was Diagon Alley - I think that section of the tour really brought to life the magic of the series. And yes, we did try butterbeer. It was odd. I guess the closest thing I've ever had to it before was a Spider (you know - soft drink and ice cream). It's a shame it wasn't warm, but it was still tasty. I've stolen Anna's photos here, as I have none from that weekend.

Overjoyed at riding on the carousel

Tiny beds at the Harry Potter Studios

Gryffindor Common Room

Dumbledore's Office

Seen it before…but yay again...

Diagon Alley! Which I only recently realised is like 'diagonally'…wow

Fun times

Miniature (although still quite large) Hogwarts

So, following the great stress of November/early-December 2013 whereby all of my assignments for uni (bar one) were due on the same day (not to mention the fact that as I am an exchange student for only the autumn term, and therefore not doing exams, I had to do extra work to make up for it), I had a week free. Whilst in my head I was imagining sleep-ins every day, watching shitloads of TV and just generally doing a whole lot of nothing, it wasn't exactly like that. I spent my last week at uni packing up my room, which was an awful lot harder than I thought. I had no idea one person could accumulate so much shit in just four months. But hey, that's me and I have a habit of keeping useless 'souvenirs' from places I've visited, such as brochures, and on some occasions even receipts, because I automatically form a sort of sentimental attachment to the object, and can't bear to throw it away (even though it will sit on my shelf, or in a box or wherever, for months and I will never look at it again and forget about it).

But yes, I managed to clean out my room, return all thirty two library books that I had on loan, and send two boxes of clothes, shoes and books back to Australia. I actually felt kind of sad to see my room so bare. I'd grown attached to the place, and felt like I'd made it 'my own'. It was a home away from home, so much so that it no longer felt like my second bedroom, but rather it just felt normal to be there - like I'd been there for a lot longer than I actually had. But enough of that…

On Thursday December 12th, I made my way to Heathrow Terminal 5 to meet up with Vicci. After finally ditching my heavy-arse suitcase, we boarded a plane to Amsterdam. We arrived early in the evening, and were greeted at the airport by a friendly face and a packet of stroopwafels.

The next day we made our way into Amsterdam. I first visited Amsterdam four and a half years ago. I loved it then, and I love it now. The place is full of charm - canals, wobbly looking brick houses, bridges, bikes everywhere. We first went on a canal tour, which gave us a very-welcomed escape from the freezing temperatures outside, as the canal-boat was enclosed and heated.

Our first stop was at the newly re-opened, and highly anticipated, Rijksmuseum. The outside is awe-inspiring enough as it is, let alone when you finally get into the place. It's quite modern when you first walk in - but not in a ghastly way. I quite liked the Christmas tree hologram thing they had going on. Unfortunately it was quite expensive! But it was worth the price, in my opinion.

Obviously everyone who visits the Rijksmuseum goes to see Rembrandt's The Night Watch (or De Nachtwacht in Dutch, according to Wikipedia), and rightfully so. It's pretty bloody wonderful. Enormous. There were also a lot of other wonderful p

aintings by other Dutch Masters - such as Vermeer's The Milkmaid (which always reminds me of year 10 when we studied Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, which I hated, but that's beside the point, really).

We did a lot of walking, and eating, and also a lot of trying to stay warm - which was basically impossible.

That was a lot of text, so I'll show you some photos now to break it up:

Amsterdam Centraal Station

Rijksmuseum!

And once again from further away...

Rembrandt's The Night Watch

Vermeer's The Milkmaid

Lovely Amsterdam

Nieuwe Kerk

De Bijenkorf (so bloody expensive)

Royal Palace

We visited Amsterdam again the next day, the Saturday, because it was decided that one day was not really enough to see the city. We visited the Anne Frank Museum, which was quite different to what I expected. It was un-furnished for starters, so required a bit of imagination to understand how it would have been during WWII. I think most visitors find it quite heavy emotionally, but also fascinating, and perhaps they leave feeling as though they sort of know her.

The sign says it all

Same place as above

We also visited the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. I'm not really a monarchist - but I do love this sort of thing. I love palaces. Huge, old, historically important buildings with lots of sparky, shiny things to catch your eye - what's not to like? The Royal Palace in Amsterdam was no exception to this rule. It wasn't the grandest Palace I've ever seen (whether that be in real life, or on TV), but it was still wonderful to see. It was largely white marble, but I particularly enjoyed the carving of Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders above the door on the opposite end of the central hall when you first walk in. Perhaps it was the contrast between white and blue that I found most lovely. I found it quite hard to look at anything else, because I enjoyed the colour so much (is that weird?)