On Friday morning we left our apartment in Firenze at 3:45am and arrived in Amsterdam a little before 11. It was such a long morning, but once we settled into our hostel we decided to walk around and grab some lunch. We were able to stay in the same hostel room as Danielle's friends Megan and Tori who are studying in Spain, so it was good to stay in a room with people that we knew.The rest of the hostel was shady with a capital S, but we survived the one sink in our room and the mold by the window and ceiling ( we are true backpackers).
We ate at a small cafe and then walked through the flower market and around the squares. Amsterdam has such cute houses along the canal in the middle of the city. There are also a ton of bikes everywhere-it's the number one way of transportation in the city. They have their own roads and they aren't afraid of running you over. After shopping around we went back for a short nap and then got ready to go out and see the night life. We met a bunch of people from all over the place in the hostel lobby, which is always really fun I think. We walked around to find some bars and we also ended up walking through the red light district. Interesting sight to see to say the least...I don't think I'm mature enough for that place lol.
The next morning we woke up and went to Anne Franks hiding place/museum. Having just been to Dachau concentration camp, it was both interesting an surreal to see connections. Even though many renovations were made to the building, we still were able to stand in all of the rooms in the secret annex. Anne's diary is also there, along with the original bookcase that hid the staircase. I thought the most interesting/sad part was the last of the museum where it talks about her father, Otto, and all of the work he did to preserve his daughters diary. We could not take pictures of anything inside but the pamphlets we received offer a lot of information. After we left the museum, we went out for pancakes, which are kind of like crepes in Amsterdam. I was surprised to find that Amsterdam does not really have it's own type of food. There were lots of breakfast options as well as cafes. There were also lots of Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Spanish grill places. Anther thing that stick out to me was that everyone speaks English there. I hardy heard any Dutch and I was expecting to ace quite the language barrier but we had no trouble at all.
Once we were done with breakfast, we walked to one of the 4" I Amsterdam" signs. The sign was like a jungle gym with everyone climbing on it. I could have people watched there all day. We continued to walk around and check out some shops, including a huge shopping center, and then we went to our wine and cheese tasting class. It was so much cheese! We had 6 different types of cheeses and 3 different wines. Our teacher told us how the aging process works and we watched a short video on how cheese is made. The 6 of us were bad luck there I believe. The teacher tried showing Danielle how to cut her cheese correctly and ended up knocking over a wine glass instead. Then out of no where, water started pouring out from the ceiling onto Angela's seat (I think someone upstairs spilt something and it ran through the floor crack). I think our teacher was happy when the lesson was finally over because things kept happening to us. I am really glad we took the class because it was really interesting and something different to do. Now I have a professional cheese tasting certificate!
After our class we went back and napped for a little while. At this point, my roommates and I had only gotten about 10 hours of sleep in two days, so we were kind of like zombies. We had some drinks in the hostel lobby again and intended to go out, but we were delirious so we grabbed a little food and ended up staying in for the night. It was probably a goo decision because unlike the night before, it was just us girls on the street, and we. It's just girls in a group the creepers can come out. It looked like Mardi Gras in New Orleans or something... There were just so many people everywhere! But that was a typical Saturday night for them. Amsterdam is so much more relaxed on everything from drinking and smoking to j-walking and I think both tourists and locals take that to their full advantage.
On Sunday we all had different flight times but Angela and I were the last to leave. It would have been a perfectly good ending to a great trip had I not lost my wallet on the bus. I realized it wasn't in my purse when I tried to buy something at the airport and by then it was too late. I don't even get pick pocketed, it was my own fault! And I was doing so good at keeping track of my stuff! I always lose things at home but I made a promise to myself before I left that I wouldn't lose anything important... but so far I've left something in every country! I lost a glove in Paris, a glove in Munich, my sunglasses in the French Riviera, and now my wallet in Amsterdam. Good thing I am staying in Italy for awhile! Maybe ill be more lucky and less forgetful!
Pictures:
1-7: Shops and the flower market from the first day. The woman in the window was at a store the was all dedicated to Christmas and it had a big clock in the front with a countdown until next Christmas. The sandwich I had was eggs, ham, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cheese with some type of mustard/mayo mix. Loved it!
8-9: There were giant wooden shoes everywhere.
10-20: Pictures through out the city. The houses along the water lean forward slightly and some have a hook at the top to make moving furniture easier. The city houses are so cute and they remind me of old dutch fairytale stories like Hansel and Grettle. The last picture is of a very unique store..
21-24: Out on Friday night. You can not take pictures in the Red Light District ( not that I needed to) because they will come out of their window, chase you, grab your camera, and break it in in half!
25-28: The Anne Frank Museum. The hiding place is next door and the museum is connected.
29: Giant pancake breakfast! Ate it all.
30-38: This is the "I Amsterdam" sign. There are a few placed around the city and the one we are on is in Museum Square, which is by the Vangough Museum. The place was like a zoo for awhile...there were a lot of funny poses from people from all over the place. I think we stayed there for 20 minuets. The big building is the shopping center and we also found a shoe store that had really futuristic looking shoes (it reminded me of the Capitol people from the Hunger Games).
39-45: Our cheese tasting class. It was so much fun! The company is called Reypenaer Cheeses. I liked it because it was something different to do. I preferred the younger cheeses over the aged cheeses. Gouda and Goat cheese were my favorite. They also had very unique old cheese. Their most award winning cheese tasted like chocolate! It was weird. The last picture is from our last night in Amsterdam and we are all zombies from lack of sleep.
I will definitely be resting up this week because 5 of our friends are arriving to visit on Saturday!
