My last travel with my best friends for my time abroad! Still crazy to think how long ago we planned this and now its all over! We walked a lot but ate a lot more! Amsterdam, you were everything and more!
Thursday, November 30
I took a late plane for this trip so I could meet Erin and Madeline at the airport and we could all travel to our airbnb together, and have a full day starting on Friday! So, we took a cab (what our airbnb host Ellen later said was a huge mistake because Uber is a much cheaper option) next time!
Our airbnb was a little out side of the city center, but was just down the street from the bus stop that took us right in for just 2.50 euro-it was super cute and nice! On the plane ride to Amsterdam I also listened to a great podcast (which I’ve gotten really into since abroad) called How I Built This with Guy Raz. It was on airbnb and how it was started which seemed quite fitting-highly recommend!
Friday, December 1st
We started our first day in Amsterdam by taking bus 392 into the city where we walked to Omelegg and had some yummy omelets. The place was pretty busy since its so popular, so the waitress forgot to take our orders for a while so we got our drinks for free which was so nice and a great start to the day! I got an omelette with pesto and tomatoes!
From here we went to see the famous letters (I Amsterdam) and got lots of fun pictures!
Very close to this was the Van Gogh Museum which was a beautiful building with even more beautiful pieces inside. Van Gogh was quite an interesting guy, and I never knew his work really didn’t take off until after his death where his sister in law looked to make his art work live on.
Next to this museum was the Moco Museum which had Banksy and Roy Lichtenstein exhibits which were awesome, and quite a contrast coming from the Van Gogh museum.
We then walked to the Albert Cuyp Market, which is a long street with different vendors selling clothing, food, and knick knacks. BY FAR the highlight of this trip happened here, where we ate stroopwaffles (a waffle made from two thin layers of baked dough with a caramel-like syrup filling in the middle). We had them at a very authentic spot, and with the long line we knew that this place was legit. We got ours with chocolate on half of it, and as the guy making them said after we fell in love after one bite, ‘time to immigrate ladies!’ We didn’t disagree.
We then walked around a bit seeing the canals and found a local bar that we stopped in to get away from the cold and enjoyed some cider. We then had dinner at a place called Cafe Luden where we had some very large burgers and walked around this area for a bit afterward. The city really came to life at night and there were people everywhere out and about. We decided to uber home this night which was quite the process since I called it first but then my phone died. Then Erin called one and we got in but then her phone died and the driver said he didn’t have our information anymore, so once more we called an uber and Madeline’s phone did not die and we were able to return to our little home!
Saturday, December 2nd
We got a little later start to our day, but headed to Cafe du Paris-Metropolitan for breakfast where I had some french toast! We then walked around this area and made our way back to the market for a stroopwaffle. It of course was delicious and we ate them as a tour group came to visit the stand and overheard just how good this place was. Also the guy remembered us from the day before which made us feel really good.
We walked some more and found a canal tour that we went on. This was nice because we got to see more of the canals from the water and hear a bit of the city’s history.
We then went to The 9 Streets which have christmas lights hanging from above with little boutique shops and restaurants everywhere. We stopped in a place for some snacks and drinks before we went to the Heineken Factory for a tour.
This tour was really cool and super interactive. It started with a bit of the history and the founders, and then went to a more interactive part with photos and games. Bonus, you got three drinks throughout the tour! There were also some people from SJU there which was fun to run into them at the end of the tour.
After, we went to a place for Dim Sum which Erin and Madeline really enjoy in Florence, then took the bus back home!
Sunday, December 3rd
We woke up pretty early this morning and once again took good ole bus 392 to the central station so we could lock up our bags and we wanted to make sure there would be some open. Once we dropped off our bags here, we walked to Pancake Bakery, which serves massive pancakes that are super yummy, I had banana and nutella!
We stayed around this area since that’s where the Anne Frank house was, so we stopped in a coffee shop before our time slot for the tour.
The Anne frank house was really great and definitely made all of us want to read her diary again! Going through the house there was parts of the wall where she had placed different magazines clippings which was really awesome to see all of these things of her life that are still intact.
Afterward we walked back to central station to get our bags and take the train to the airport which was just about 15 min and really easy.
We all went through security and then met up again where we all had met on Thursday night. Both Madeline and Erin had a lot of work to get done, so they planned to stay in the airport to get that done until their later flight, while I headed on my plane back to Cope! Turns out Madeline and Erin’s flight was delayed by over an hour so they had a pretty long night in the airport. Travel woohoo!
