AmsterDAM U FINE

The week after Christmas was very low key for me. I had never felt so hungover in my life, and it was a much needed recovery week. I worked and laid pretty low for the most part. That was, until the day before we were leaving to Amsterdam came and I realized that I only had one day left in Prague before we left cities. (a group of us decided to change our flights to visit Amsterdam for a few days before transition day since our layover was there anyway; it was a good idea.) So most of the week I did nothing until I realized that there was a lot more of Prague I wanted to see that I hadn’t. So I ventured out and in one day hit a bunch of stuff (in the pouring rain and freezing weather, I might add.) This week I:

• Visited the Invisible Exhibition. Suuuuuuper weird. You’re essentially a blind person for an hour, led around by a blind person. Literally, the blind are leading the blind here. You walk through a series of exhibits in complete and total darkness. It includes things like the forest, different rooms in a house, crossing a river, crossing the STREET (where I would have gotten hit by a car), and going to a pub. It was very strange and really makes you think about how the blind get around. I used to say, “I can’t even imagine,” but now, I totally can.
• Said goodbye to more remotes. Our resident couple in love, Robby and Lorien, had to leave suddenly after Robby’s mom suffered an accident while she was visiting us in Prague. It was super sad and hard to see them leave, but hey, at least they found love and stuff. We had dinner at this awesome place where everything was spicy. Shown below: spicy mango drink that I could barely drink because it was so hot. But with the lack of spice in my life lately, I embraced it and gladly welcomed it to mess with my digestive system. (We didn't take any pics - they were too sad. :( )

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Mango habanero nomz.

• Had a crazy day alone exploring the things that I wanted to see. Like I said, I was in recovery mode and also felt like I needed to catch up on work. But this day, I went out and saw so many things!

Lauren day 2016, I guess? (Well, one of them.) I:

• Documented where I lived, which was right next to the dancing house. It’s a sight in and of itself, but I never really looked at it much until the day before I left. It’s pretty neat.

Dancing House had moves. I lived to the left and up the street. 

• Visited this amazing exhibition in the public library. It’s free and mind-boggling to look at. Plus, a lot of people don’t seem to know it’s there, so it’s not crowded (because who visits the library on holiday?)

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• Hid from the rain in a museum. Luckily, I had been eyeing the exhibit for a while: WARHOL! One of my favorites. And Dali and Mucha. The Dali stuff was trippy and the Warhol stuff was awesome. The Mucha stuff was okay, but since seeing Slav Epic, I wasn't super impressed. I recognized so many things from advertisements that they were used in, as well as so many works of art that I had to memorize back in the good ol’ art history days.

• Documented my creepy room. I got the crappy (and creepy) room this month. It was even creepier before I removed the bedsheets that matched the wall, but this is what it looked like every day after I took them off. *shudder*

• Flew to Amsterdam! 

Mmm...weird plane sandwiches. 

• Found poop under the table at a café in Amsterdam. Not joking. This was the weirdest thing that happened there. We promptly left.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL. 

• Played pool (and won!) at a bar there. And watched Sami wear this odd mannequin thing under his shirt because I guess that's where you keep these things when you own a bar. 

Werk it. 

• Took a walking tour of the city, again, in the freezing cold. But it was super informative and I was glad we did it.

• Visited the Van Gogh Museum. Holy moly, it’s huge. Didn’t expect that. But it was fascinating, aside from the fact that it was jam packed. It was a Friday night special event – “night at the museum”, if you will. So there was music and a bar and a LOT of people. But it was still v cool.

• Had the best brunch I’ve had on Remote Year. And that’s saying a lot. It was at this awesome café where we had a table that looked like we were in a forest.

Lava dis group. 

• Ate a lot of BITTERBALLEN! (and other weird Dutch stuff.)

No one's bitter about bitterballen. 

• Moved to Valencia! And woah, IT’S NO LONGER 2016.

The Amsterdam side trip was probably my favorite one so far. Our group just seemed to click super well and it was very laid back – no one forced anyone to do anything and nothing was planned. If it didn’t work out, then we just moved on to the next thing. And those things are crucial on a side trip, especially when you’re staying in a tiny AirBnB with these peeps. YAY FRIENDS.

Coming up: my first week in Valencia, my second visitor from the states, Ireland, and how I suck at planning travel but it’s okay because somehow it always works out in the best way.