The weekend that went not good.

The plan: Weekend in Paris.

Actual events:

Left Saturday morning with my coworker Adrienne for Paris. Got to Cologne where we planned to transfer trains. The train from Cologne to Paris was reservation only and we got into Cologne too late to make the reservation. We now had the decision on whether to wait 2 hours for the next train to Paris or jump on another train somewhere else. After looking at the schedule, we decided on Amsterdam.

Before catching the Amsterdam train, I came across the worst pizza ever. Salami, mushrooms, and tuna fish. This is just more proof that if it isn't pork, the Germans don't know how to make it edible...

We got to Amsterdam early afternoon, did some sight seeing, ate excellent Mexican food (run by supposedly the only Mexicans in town), then caught a comedy show (blogged earlier). After the show, it was time to grab our stuff from a locker in the train station and find a hotel.

We got to the train station to find a large metal door in between us and the lockers.... About three feet above eye level, there's a sign showing the hours the locker room is accessible. Stupid important signs not being in plain view...

No stuff, but at least we'll have a bed to sleep in. We go across the street to a hotel. They just rented out their last room to the people that walked in ahead of us. We try the next hotel. No rooms. About 5 hotels later, we catch a bus to a different part of town. After about 10 more hotels giving us the answer: "There are no rooms available anywhere in town", we start to see the writing on the wall, this is going to be an all-nighter...

We start at an Irish pub. I'm talking to the bartender, who can't believe there are no rooms available. It's the middle of the off season and the city wasn't busy. He says he may be able to the help us though. He knows a guy. Umm… Is this help that I want? He goes off to make a phone call. He comes back. "Sorry, I can't help. My buddy works at a hotel, but he's on his couch sleeping". Well, at least I know he was actually trying to help.

Irish Pub closes up at 3am. Next up, Burger King. A Norwegian girl behind us in line decided to explain to me that drunken Dutch people are not nearly rowdy enough and that they should be louder like Norwegians. I told her she was too loud. She didn’t take me seriously and only got louder...

Burger King closed at 4. Walked 40 minutes back to the train station where we hung out until the 6am train that went back.

Not being able to sleep Saturday night caused me to miss out on two very important things on Sunday: Falafel for lunch and Heineken brewery tour. Very unfortunate.

Went to sleep around 3pm and slept straight till the next morning. Good times.