Rotterdam, The Netherlands

I was back in the country where I started my whole trip. Only one sleep away from going home. I was really excited to be in the city, it was a really cool place. I was also going to get to meet up with some friends too, also cool. At this point, I seriously don’t think I can walk anymore. I’m going to need to be carried through the airport. The train ride was really short and I got in around lunch to the central station. I took the very pricey “public transit” metro to my hostel. It wasn’t hard to miss the building, I was staying in the famous cube houses.

I’m glad the kind of architecture here is more modern, because as much as I loved it, I was getting a little tired of seeing lots of old buildings and churches. Rotterdam is an awesome modern city. Most of the old buildings and churches were destroyed during the war, now it is rebuilt and ultra modern. I had seen it from train before on my way out of Amsterdam and I was interested in checking it out. Most of the buildings weird shapes, weird angles and colours, and out of place in a good way, almost futuristic.

I went to meet Emily and Carolyn, who were friends from AIESEC now working for AIESEC International. They were just starting their terms, but it was awesome to see them again. Emily, past president of AIESEC in Canada, is the Regional Director for Western Europe and North America and Carolyn is the VP Communications. None of the pay phones worked so I randomly asked a stranger to use their phone to call Emily, she met me at the hostel. We walked around the main streets and squares and she showed me the AI head office and the old AI house they were moving out of. She had just got to the city too, so she was using my map to find our way around. I got to meet some of the incoming and outgoing teams too.

They had a couple meetings for their transition, so I headed back to the hostel to relax. Inside the cube houses it was really modern and all orange. It was hard to find the door to the hostel but really cool inside, with weird angles and rooms. It was expensive but impressive. It had more of a hotel feel than a hostel. The internet, beer, and lockers were all a lot. The lockers were really tiny too. It had just opened, so maybe they don’t know a lot about how to cater to backpackers.

I explored the city a bit more on own before dinner. I walked along part of the waterfront and wharf. I saw the main famous bridge and all the modern buildings. I walked all through the shopping street again, looking for some last minute bargains before I left Europe for awhile. There were lots of modern office towers and condo buildings around to stare at.

I met Emily and Carolyn for dinner. We went to one of their favourite places, pretty good food for cheap. It was cool to catch up on some old friends and get all the latest AIESEC scoop from them. They were asking about my internship and stuff and telling me about the upcoming International Congress in Malaysia. After eating we went back to the AI office so I could check out the inside. Even the head office has AIESEC spelled wrong, right on the building door buzzer. I saw the archives with the Canada binder, all the AI desks and where the President sits. Some of the others were there working because the next day was their first day on their own. I headed back to the hostel for my last sleep before taking the really short train to the Amsterdam airport to go home.