I AMsterdam

(awesome sign)

Hello, hello!

This past weekend was spent in Amsterdam, which I must say, far exceeded my expectations.  I would assume that people have a variety of associations with Amsterdam: weed, coffee shop, legalization, Red Light District, prostitute, etc.  Yes, all of that exists, but it is honestly such a beautiful city!  It might be my favorite (non-UK) European city thus far?  It was also beautiful weather over the weekend, even though I was definitely told that it was going to rain.  The weather was sunny and cool, but not cold.  I also absolutely loved the stunning architecture and canals.  Finally, I have to say that it didn't hurt that most of my closest friends were on the trip with me :)  It made for a fantastic weekend indeed.

Me with 'a' for Allison :)

So, I might as well start by explaining the crazy trip of how we got to Amsterdam.  We left Fulton House on Swansea Uni's campus at 7pm.  By the way, this was a school-planned trip so, for a nice fee, transportation and accommodation was taken care of.  Therefore, we took a coach/bus & ferry to get there, rather than planes.  We drove until about 1am, where we reached Dover Dock in England.  This took us across the English Channel, where we arrived in France and drove through Belgium to finally get to our Amsterdam hostel around 9am Friday morning.  We couldn't actually check into our hostel, so we dropped off our luggage in storage and immediately began to explore.    

The picture above is one of the canals with nice houses all around.  The two pictures below are from this stunning park.  Most of Friday was spent exploring, which ranged from simply walking around to shopping to seeing a famous flower market (Amsterdam is known for their tulips - maybe all of Holland or the Netherlands is too?).  We got breakfast at this restaurant called Pancake Corner, which was delicious.  We then went wild with souvenir shopping.  I haven't been inspired to buy so many gifts since being abroad.  I won't share what I bought, so that the family can be surprised when I get home!  My friends & I also went back to the hostel Friday afternoon and took a nap.  I barely slept from Thursday to Friday on the bus because I was actually in severe pain.  I think I ate something bad on Thursday, and my stomach really did not appreciate it.  So, basically, we decided that we were not going to make it through Friday night without a nap.  After our snooze, my friends - and by friends, I mean Caleb, Nick, Melissa, Courtney, Katie, and Cristen - went to an Irish Pub called Hole in the Wall, which was delicious!  I got a traditional Dutch meal and enjoyed it very much.  We then got desert at this outdoor desert food stand.  My favorite was this funnel-cake-like-thing, which was a fried ball of Heavenly goodness with powdered sugar.  I think some of my friends ate at least 3 in one day?  AMAZING!  Then the group split up, and some of us decided to go to a notorious Amsterdam coffee shop & the Red Light District.  I won't be going into detail about that, but I mean, when in Rome, right?  ;)  I will say, however, that I wasn't scandalized by the Red Light District, as I totally thought I would be.  I think my expectations were far too extreme.  

Then came along Saturday.  We woke up pretty early, as we didn't want to wait in a super long line to get into the Anne Frank House.  I was honestly so incredibly impressed.  I think it might have been my favorite museum of all time.  I feel like whenever I go to a museum, I get sad because I'm not looking at  the real thing.  Portions have been redone, something isn't real, etc. etc.  Or like when you go see an old building, but they've had to rebuild it... it's not the real building, then!  But this just seemed to be the real deal.  You walk through the house next to the actual house before you actually get to the bookcase that hid the opening to Anne Frank's family's hiding place.  The hiding place was actually so much bigger than I expected.  I'm kind of confused as to how it took so long for people to realize that they were there. Although you can't actually see their area from the front - as you can tell by the picture immediately below - I imagine you can definitely see this massive part of the house from the back?  No one knows who eventually ratted out Anne Frank's family, but I wonder if it was a neighbor.  Once you entered through the bookcase opening, you then walk up the ridiculously steep stairs and are able to walk through the entire house.  The windows were still completely boarded up, and everything that Anne Frank had put on her wall was still there.  There was no furniture, which I liked.  Nobody's fake furniture was in there!  It also allowed people to walk around the room.  Honestly, I was clearly so incredibly pleased.  An excellent choice for the morning.        

After the Anne Frank House, we went to this famous market and then went out to lunch at this DELICIOUS Turkish restaurant.  I think they were so happy that we gave them business (it was kind of a hole in the wall) that they gave us some stuff for free.  Then we decided to do a canal boat tour.  The pictures didn't turn out incredibly well, but here are some pictures of my awesome friends.  :)  After the boat tour, we made our way back to the hostel for another nap. hahaha.  We knew we needed a nap because during the boat tour, there was a good 10 min. in which all 6 of us may have fallen asleep?  It was so beautiful, but we were just too tired to fully appreciate it.  After our nap, we then went out for Italian food and walked around town.  We decided to return back to the hostel a little early, watched TV, and went to bed.  

Left to Right:

Allison, Melissa, Courtney, Cristen, Katie, nick

Me and Cristen

Sunday morning came along, and we actually didn't have much time before we had to be at the bus pick-up area at 9:30.  There was some passport drama that happened along the way with a couple of girls, which was so so so sad.  (WORD OF ADVICE: NEVER EVER FORGET YOUR PASSPORT!)  On a brighter note, though, we stopped at a Belgian Chocolate  Factory in Belgium on our way back.  IT WAS GREAT!  Naturally, I bought sour gummies, in addition to chocolate.  Melissa & I (below) appreciated it thoroughly.

So, overall, it was a fantastic weekend.  It was more relaxed than other trips, but I still feel like I saw a lot and totally had a worthwhile weekend.

Excited for a weekend of non-traveling coming up, though.  Actually, that's a lie.  But papers need to be written, and Swansea needs to be enjoyed.  So, that's it for now!

xoxo