Day 1-3: The flight to Israel, with a 14 hr layover in Amsterdam

I wasn't sure what to expect because this was the first time I am traveling alone to a place outside my city. The day started off with a 3 hr bus ride to New York City. I arrived at about 11:30 am and the flight was at 6 pm in JFK airport, so I decided to walk a bit in NYC. My goal was to find a cap or a hat to help with the sun in the Middle East. However, after an hour of walking, I wasn't impressed and went into the subway to head to the airport.

NYC Subway. So dirty and ancient.

The first lesson I learned was time. I had expected a quick 30 minute trip to the airport via the subway, and didn't know why I didn't just eat lunch first before heading to the airport. I was very wrong. The "E" train ride took about 45 minutes to the Air Train station. At the Air Train station, it took me about 20 minutes to buy the ticket and then learn that it is a one way train to the airport. The ride to the airport took another 30 minutes. By the time I arrived, it was about 2:30 pm. Checking in was easy, but ever since September 11, 2001, airport security has been very strict and so I waited for about an hour in line before I was checked and went to the gate of my flight. Basically, I was on time with an hour to spare. Had I decided to start my journey to the airport at 2:30 pm like I had planned, I would have missed the flight.

The plane took off at around 6:30 pm. The flight was announced to be 7 hrs long, which means that I'd arrive at 1:30 am New York time. The second lesson I learned was to check the itinerary and consider convenience before booking the flight. When I booked the flight to Israel, I was surprised that there was a flight with a 14 hr layover in Amsterdam. The layover starts at 8:30 am in Amsterdam, and so I was thinking that it would be perfect to spend a day in Amsterdam. However, I didn't know why I didn't notice that 8:30 am was in Amsterdam time.  Thus, at 9 pm NY time (after on flight dinner and 3 hrs of flying), I tried to forced myself to sleep, but I simply couldn't. I was sitting in the back of the plane next to a group of high school students who are taking a class trip to Italy. They did not shut up. Miraculously, after an hour of forcing myself to sleep in the midst of chatters, I slept. Unfortunately, it only lasted 1 hr because the whole plane was woken up by the flight attendants for "breakfast", because now it is an hour from landing (7 am Amsterdam time, 12 am NY time).

Amsterdam Centraal at around 1 pm

Art on the Central Station

The plane landed in Schipol at around 8 am. I took the train to Amsterdam City Center and the ride took only about 20 minutes. I walked out of the station and straight onwards, without any sense of direction whatsoever. The first cool building I saw was, as I later learned, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, which is in the Dam Square. They said that the Dam Square used to have other buildings, but they were all demolished so that the only thing people see is the Palace. I continued my walk, hoping to find a cafe to sit down, drink coffee, and use the wifi. I couldn't find a single one however, since most of the places were closed and apparently Amsterdam doesn't start until noon. I was very surprised that they were cleaning the streets at 9:30 am. In the US, they would clean the street at 7 am and by 9 am, the sidewalks will be full of people. Culture shock!

The Royal Palace

I walked all the way to the Rijk Museum, but it was closed, so I just took a few quick pics. I also snapped the famous "I Amsterdam" thing. I should have taken a better picture, but at that time, I was thinking that I would return to the museum because after all, it is the largest and most famous museum the Netherlands have to offer.

"I amsterdam" with the Rijk behind it

The time was now 10 am, and I knew that there would be a free tour of city at 11 am, although I have no clue where it was located. The most logical place would be the central station, so that was where I walked to. However, I was lost and stumbled upon the Red Light District, which was still closed. Now I see the big fuzz about it: they have real girls and even live porn shows. However, taking pictures of the place is prohibited to help protect the privacy of the girls. At 10:45 am, I arrived back at the central station and looked furiously for people with red shirts. I found none and walked about the place and back and fourth for half an hour before giving up. I had no access to the internet so I have no way of knowing the exact location.

Houses and boat houses. Some people still live on boats.

Instead, I went onto the canal tour at 11:30 am. The tour took 1.5 hour and it was quite nice, although a bit too touristic for my liking. The tour showed Amsterdam's buildings, boats, bikes (okay, there are more bikes than people in Amsterdam and they have a bike parking lot that is two stories high and probably had over 100,000 bikes parked), and the dam itself. Turns out Dutch people are not very creative with names. Amsterdam is just a combination of the Amstel River and the Dam. 

When the tour ended at 1pm, I walked over to the tourist information booth (what a revolutionary way to find out answers) and asked about the free tour. It was literally, just in front of the booth. I waited for the 2 pm tour and was surprised that the tour guide was an American expat in her 20s. What was way more surprising was that one of the person on the free tour was the tour guide's high school classmate. Small world isn't it.

Weed museum for "higher" education.

Anne Frank's House.

The tour was very nice and the guide was very informative. The tour was mainly just walking around Amsterdam and getting to see and hear stories about particular buildings. Two interesting things that I learned:

1. Anne Frank was in Amsterdam. I never read her book so I didn't know.

2. Weed is not legal but also not criminalized so that's why people use it. Surprisingly, Netherlands has one of the lowest weed usage percentage in Europe.

Dam Square with a WWII monument.

 The tour ended at 5:30 pm and I gave the guide a decent tip. It was 3 hours long and very good (and at that point, I was limping and cramping because I haven't ate since 7 am on the plane and I had already been walking for the entire day). I also felt like pushing some of the guys who just gave spare change to the guide into the canals.

One of the many canals of Amsterdam

At this time, I had three things to do before I depart to the airport to catch the 9 pm flight. The first thing is to buy post cards, which was easy because souvenir shops were everywhere. The second thing was a challenge: find an Ajax Amsterdam (big fan of Christian Eriksen) cap so that I can keep as a souvenir and use in the Middle East. I walked around the city for about an hour (try navigating in a city without internet to find a certain shop) before I stumbled upon a shopping district and found an Ajax souvenir shop. By the time I walked out of the store, it was 6:30 pm so I didn't get to do the last thing on my list: EAT.

I limped my way to the train station, learned to read a bit of Dutch to figure out which train to take, went to the airport and then ate at McDonald's there. So satisfying. At the airport, I was basically trying very very hard not to sleep because I might miss the flight if I do. Remember, I had only 1 hour of sleep coming into Amsterdam plus an exhausting walk around the city. I got on the plane at 8pm and since the flight to Israel is only 4 hours longs, I immediately slept, even before the plane took off. I even skipped the plane dinner to sleep more. I woke up after 2.5 hrs of sleep because my right leg went dead. I couldn't get up and walk it off because the lady next to me was sleeping soundly. I tried doing everything I could, but I just couldn't stop that feeling. Sigh, only about 3.5 hr of sleep for the past two days.

The plane landed in Tel Aviv, Israel at 2 am Israel time. I was greeted by an undercover airport police who demanded a passport from me. After a 5 minute interview, I walked to grab my luggage and then went to the passport control booth, where once again, I was asked a bunch of questions. Then, I went out of the airport, looking for "Sheruts", which are shared taxis, to Jerusalem. Luckily, this was a wise mistake because even though trains are cheaper, the train station is 3 km away from my hotel since I was staying in the Old City of Jerusalem. I didn't know what sheruts looked like so I asked one of the airport security personal and before they answered, I was asked to show them my passport and they questioned me yet again. Very secured country indeed.

The bad thing about sheruts is that you have to wait for it to be full or the driver wont go. I waited until 4 am, staying wide awake because the thought that I was actually in the Middle East scared the crap out of me. It took an hour to reach Jerusalem and I walked to my hotel at 5:30 am. Apparently I woke the receptionist up (He was staring at the security video screen. He slept with his eyes open.) and he told me that I can't check in my room because check in time is 11 am. The manager came in and confirm this, and told me that there's a bathroom and shower in the lobby and that I can grab tea and go onto the rooftop to see a beautiful the view of Jerusalem. But then I told him that I was nearing my demise after only sleeping 3.5 hrs in the last 48 hours and I don't care if the room is dirty, I just need to sleep. Luckily, there was a guy checking out at 7 am and I was told that I can crash in that guy's room. I slept until 2 pm and woke up with legs that pretty much can't move because of excessive walking. I went into the street and had hummus with meat at a random shop for a ridiculous price ($13) and so I learned another lesson: know the real price before you accept anything in the Middle East. I tried to do some exploring, but my legs hurt and I kept getting lost so I decided to call it a day at 5 pm. I went back to the hotel and slept at 8pm, woke up at 10 pm due to jet lag, slept at 12 pm, and then woke up at 3 am and couldn't sleep anymore.