Amsterdam

I've been in three different countries in the past week; I'm exhausted.

I took a bus with a friend for a short weekend trip to Amsterdam. A fun surprise was that we drove through Belgium and stopped in Brussels!
My friend has some friends in Amsterdam, and other friends of hers were also visiting Amsterdam from Germany, so there was this whole group who knew each other and then me (I played it cool, guys). It was really nice because instead of wandering around the city, they were able to show us some cool things and hang out. On Friday night, one of them hosted the whole group at his apartment for a little dinner party and it was so fun! He made homemade garlic bread and homemade pizzas.

In the two days we were there, we walked about 10 million miles (like usual) and saw about 3,000 rivers,. the saying that Amsterdam is the Venice of northern Europe is correct because every single block is a new river. 

  my favorite picture that I took!

 We also saw about 50,000 bikes, (my friend's friend told us before we arrived that he'd lend us a bike so it'd be easy to get around..we laughed, not getting why he'd lend us a bike..but then we soon figured it out upon arrival) literally everyone in Amsterdam BIKES EVERYWHERE. There are bike lanes and sidewalks, it's really intense. Bike racks hold like 100 bikes, and the bikers are super aggressive. They will honk at you if you get in their way. I only saw about 10 cars. I was even asked twice if I wanted to buy a bike. 

We went to the Anne Frank house. I feel stupid because I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the house.  Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so maybe that's why I didn't take one outside either. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect of it, but I definitely wasn't expecting what it was. They had built a new building around the entire house, and on the inside of the house is no furniture at all. They kept it empty to give the lasting impression of houses being raided during WWII, which is effective because I could feel the emptiness and loss that the family experienced just by being in the empty rooms. They had some original objects like the walls in Anne Frank's room still had her posters and pictures hanging up. The whole thing was very a moving and emotional experience, I'm really glad I got to go there, even after waiting almost 2 hours to get in. We wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum but that was another 2 hour wait :(

part of the line to get in 

On a way different, note.. my friend's friends walked us through the Red Light District. I didn't really know what this was before being in Amsterdam so it was shocking, to say the least. The red light district is a concentrated area of legal prostitution, strip clubs, etc. Apparently, there are Red Light Districts in lots of capital cities in Europe, who knew. Her friends were shocked that we had never seen prostitutes before, so there's another huge difference between European vs. American laws..Hah. It didn't seem real.

It's kinda pretty in a weird way

This area of town was definitely the central area for nightlife. I couldn't take one step without someone running into me and mumbling "excuse me" in random languages. So walking by a million bars, LOOK WHAT I FOUND

Cafe Wiener. no big deal

I heard a huge variety of languages in Amsterdam, more than in Paris. Mostly Dutch obviously, which is not cute at all. I missed french :( After Dutch, there was a lot of German. That was hilarious because I've never heard anyone speak german other than my family, so it suddenly was like real-life german. 

And also, like every other place I've been to so far, everyone speaks English. At this point, I'm just becoming amazed by how many people speak English fluently. It also makes me feel like I'm missing out on something. All these people probably learn English from when they're little, why don't Americans learn a second language as if they need it to survive in life? It makes me wish I could have started french at a younger age so it would come easier to me, as English probably does to Europeans.

 

My favorite part of Amsterdam was definitely the intricate architecture.

 

An observation is that all the dutch people looked very "northern;" big beards, big coats, heavy accent. I imagine this is how southern states view us midwesterners. Other than the cold and windy weather to remind me it's still winter, it was another fantastic weekend abroad! After two weekends of traveling though, I'm pretty excited to be able to stay in Paris this coming weekend and soak up the sun next to the Eiffel tower :)

One last thing… I finally found Dr. Pepper! Only at the train station though, nowhere else in the city. This is the only time I've seen it since I've been abroad; thank you Amsterdam!