Amsterdam

Amsterdam was interesting to say the least! After hearing about the Red Light District and coffeeshops how can one not be a little nervous about going?  Overall, it’s really a great city and one of a kind.

We stayed at St. Christopher’s Hostel near the Red Light District down a little side street. Don’t worry, it was safe. The hostel was so nice… free towels, comfortable beds, free breakfast, drink specials, and heated towel racks! Bed #8 actually told Madison she hated us a little bit which is not surprising because we couldn't help but being kind of loud and obnoxious, oops!

Apparently everyone in Amsterdam had 2 bikes

 

A small part of the Red Light District

 

After wandering around we decided on Mexican for dinner which was delicious. We had all been craving it because people in Ireland don’t even know what a quesadilla is. To take advantage of the nightlife we went on a pubcrawl and got tshirts with the few euro that it cost. We all had so much fun except it cost 50 cents every time you wanted to use the bathroom.. Afterward two friends and I went and got some food.  Katie had a waffle and apparently L.E. and I ate 2 week old pizza, gross! The man did put hearts on it though so I guess that was nice?

 

On Saturday we ate our free breakfast at the hostel and headed into town to look for the Ann Franks House where she went into hiding. It was so interesting and cool to see that historical place and her actual diary. One interesting thing that I heard from an interview with her father was that after he read her diary he realized how many feelings she had. She was always a bright girl and talkative but she did not talk about or show her feelings. This was one of my favorite parts!

We all went to the Pancake Bakery after in which most of the menu is all types of pancakes (chicken and cheese was one of them). I ordered the banana and bacon pancakes… so good.

Then we went on a canal tour where we all took a little nippy nap that kept us up and running for the rest of the day. We learned a lot about Amsterdam from this except when they took time to speak in 5 other languages... They pointed out that there are hooks on the tops of every house/building (whatever it may be) because they use them to move in and out. Also, there are so many houseboats and they cost millions of dollars! Then we went to the cheese museum and we ate a lot of samples before I bought some pesto cheese.

We wandered the rest of the day and walked around by our hostel and had some tea and coffee alongside of the canals. We needed to leave though because some creepy man kept taking pictures of us with the flash on!! We had some Indian cuisine for dinner and then some gelato (I got lemon) and headed to the airport! On the train there a man asked if we were American and said he LOVED America! He started showing us pictures of how he has a life sized statue of the statue of liberty and pillows and sheets that are of the American flag and his background on his phone is the eagle with an American flag across its face. We were all laughing. It’s crazy how much people love/hate Americans.

The flights were great, I slept the whole way there and back!

My family always asks what everyone’s favorite part of vacations are so from Amsterdam I would have to say that walking through the Red Light District would be it. It was just so different from anything else in the world and Amsterdam is just something great to experience while you’re still young!

When we landed in Dublin it was one of the nicest days we had seen since we had been in Ireland so Madison, Charlie, and I decided to take advantage of it and go to Howth.

We met the nicest old man on the train and he brought us to a pub and bought us all a pint of Guinness (the best one we’ve had so far). He also gave us all his information to contact him if we come back. While waiting for fish and chips a bird decided to poop right in the hood of my coat! We all think it’s cursed now.. We hiked a path along the cliffs by the ocean, it was absolutely gorgeous. We ended up on the beach picking up rocks and sea glass. Such a great day! If you’re not spontaneous I don’t know how you live…