AMSTERDAM

Now that I've been back for almost a week, I figured it was time to post about Amsterdam. I had a great time, despite the weather. The city is so incredibly beautiful, and I could definitely see myself living there.


The day started with me going to the Brussels-Nord station to catch the Eurolines bus. I met up with Claire around 11 or so to catch our bus at 12, but it ended up being late... by an hour and fifteen minutes. It came all the way from Barcelona, so that was excusable. We didn't get the best seats on the bus (we were by the toilet) but we were able to sit next to each other. We made a stop halfway through at a restaurant for 30 minutes, and then we started on our last leg of the journey. We were supposed to get there at four, but we ended up getting there around 7:30pm, and not even to Amsterdam Central, but to Amstel. That was okay though, because it was closer to our hostel anyway. We ended up getting to our hostel just after 8, but it was really easy to find. The only bad part was that because we were on the bus the entire time, we didn't have a chance to eat. And because Europe is Europe, all grocery stores closed at 8, if not before. So after putting our stuff in our room, we decided to head to the center of the city to grab something to eat.

"Have a good trip in the country of tulips"

My host mom can be so cute

We headed to a pizza/pasta place, and we (surprisingly) got a good amount for our money. I also realized for the first time that people weren't actually joking about the bicycles here. They really don't stop, and there are so many of them. It was also the first time I was able to appreciate how beautiful Amsterdam is. It has such a cool vibe. After dinner Claire and I headed back to the hostel, because she wasn't feeling very good. I stayed up a little late that night to feel out the hostel because it was awesome, and then I went to bed so we could wake up early the next day.

(Panorama of my hostel..... click to see the full size) 

For the next two days, Claire and I walked around the entire city, looking at the beautiful houses, the canals, the bikes, all of the different shops, and more. We went to cafés and had an excellent time. The weather was in the 50s and it was cloudy/rainy the entire time, but I've gotten used to that by now. All of the beautiful black houses near the canals had gold signs next to the doors that said "advocaten", and because I want to be a lawyer, this was especially cool for me. I'd give you a detail of everything we did, but I think pictures will suffice. One thing we did in particular was go to a whole bunch of cheese shops. I didn't believe Claire at first, but they are amazing! Some of them have factories in the US, so I will definitely be ordering online. I wanted to buy some but I couldn't eat it all myself and I want my family back home to try it.

Pesto cheese! 

This is Claire. 

As an extra treat, watch me go from enjoying the canals to being shocked at how cold my hands got!

After just a short time, our trip was over. We had a little trouble getting on the bus because Claire forgot her ticket at the hostel, but the bus was much nicer! I was able to sleep a little bit, but I also got to see some nice clouds, which meant the end to all gray skies (the only reason why I took pictures)! 

When I got home, I was really tired. I unpacked, put away all of the souvenirs I got everyone, and was greeted to this outside. It was a really nice way to end the trip.

I'm back in school now, but it's much better because the weather has improved. My first week went by really quickly, and on Wednesday I went to Louvain-La-Neuve and met up with Madeleine from Kansas. It was nice just being able to talk and shop, it felt more normal because LLN has a shopping mall. We got amazing waffles and just relaxed in the nice weather. I think I'll go there more often to meet up with her, there's only a short amount of time left and I want to make the most of it. Speaking of making the most of it, going to Amsterdam has made me want to go to Paris, so I'm going to try to go in June.