Well, here I am again. This time I have a really funny story to tell you. Actually, I have a trip that consisted of so many laughable mishaps that I am ashamed to attach my name to the following events, some of which were entirely my fault. Before I continue, I must make this one disclaimer: for those of you who know me, the events of this trip will not surprise you in the least…it’s just the way I am, and for those of you who do not know me…ya, I really can be this naive…but I promise, it is totally unintentional…I really don’t know how I got this way.

Last Saturday, my friend Lauren and I left for a four day weekend trip to Amsterdam and Brussels. We started at 5 in the a.m. with a cab ride to the Waterloo station to catch the Eurostar. Right off, nothing makes sense that early in the morning, however, we made it to the station and on our train without any glitches…well, we came close to almost missing our train (if that makes sense). We realized that we were waiting in the wrong area about 30 minutes before the train left…we made it with about five minutes to spare…

After several moves from seat to seat, we finally got comfortable on the train headed to Brussels. We went through the “chunnel” and frankly, I was disappointed. I was looking forward to going through the “chunnel” and seeing the aquatic life of the English Channel…you know, like in an aquarium where you walk through and the fish are swimming all around you…but no, all I got was uninteresting darkness. Oh well. The trip continued without any major occurrences…until we reached Brussels…

The way we organized our trip was to go to Brussels and right away get a train to Amsterdam, spend two and half days there and then go back to Brussels for another day and a half…then back to London. So we got on our train to Brussels. Neither Lauren nor I had any idea how many stops the train would make until we reached Brussels…that mixed with how tired we both were was a formula for disaster. Going in and out of sleep, I woke up suddenly hearing “Amsterdam Central” over the intercom. My eyes bugged out of my head and I woke Lauren. We had to hurry and get off. We were there. We stumbled off the train. It was cold. The train station was smaller than I expected…first clue that went unheeded.

In order to get to our hostel, we needed to take tram No. 1,2, or 5. When we went to buy tickets, our stop wasn’t listed on the map…second clue that went unheeded. We got on the No. 2 tram anyway. We went a couple stops and weren’t recognizing any of the street names, so I asked the driver where our stop was…she had no idea what stop I was talking about…third clue…I was starting to get worried. We showed her the map…she started laughing…not a good sign. In a big toothy grin she said “Dis map ees off Amsterdam. You are een Rotterdam!” I looked at Lauren who was as confused as I was. There was no way we could be in Rotterdam…the woman on the train intercom said “Amsterdam Central.”

We got off the tram and tried to gather our muddled thoughts, another tram came by. Poor Lauren by this point was completely flustered so she looked at the newly arrived tram’s driver and said very slowly and deliberately “Is this Amsterdam?” Again, we got laughed at. He threw his head back and said, rather lovingly, “No, dis ees Rotterdam!”

We only had to be told…well, twice. We booked it back to the train station. There was another train leaving for Amsterdam in four minutes…we made it, but just barely. Obviously, in my half awakeness, I misheard “Rotterdam Central” for “Amsterdam Central.” But the whole thing turned out to be somewhat of a serendipitous nature…the new train was nicer…it was purple and warmer. I told Lauren, who, bless her, was ready to either scream or cry, that my whole intention for getting off in Rotterdam was to get a nicer train…she laughed.

Goodness, I have written a lot…and only covered the first several hours of our trip. I’ll stop here and continue my story later. But just so you know, we got to Amsterdam Central finally…and in one piece…we triple-checked to make sure it was the right station. Unfortunately, our mishaps didn’t end that day. So, tune in tomorrow for another installment of “Clueless: The Travel Adventures of an American College Student in Europe.”

Word of the day: serendipity: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for
(Courtesy of www.m-w.com)

Spoonerisms: none of distinction