Amsterdam was the start to my amazing spring break! I had a two week long Spring break so I left Thursday March 29th and got back in Leeds on Friday April 13th. I was in Amsterdam with my friends Stasia and Rose, and we met up with Rose's friend Lam! We took a quick 45 minute flight to Amsterdam on jet2, which is the best budget airline I have flown on so far! They were playing the beach boys and happy music, the flight attendants were really helpful, and it arrived on time! We took a train to Amsterdam City Centre and found our hostel, then set off to explore for the night!
We found a cute little Greek Resturaunt to go to! I was very excited about it all
Nom! Gyros...and lots of other greek stuff that I cannot remember the names or spellings of. It was all delicious, including the french fries!
What a tiny car! We saw this in the same area every time we walked past it, just moved a little bit
On Friday Stasia and I woke up early to go to the Anne Frank House! The hostel we were staying at had a free Breakfast which was really nice. It was all you could eat bread, meat, cereal, fruit, yogurt, coffee, and water. You weren't suposed to take anything with you, but we did to save money later on.
Stasia loves free Breakfasts
Me too!! yummy!!
We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the Anne Frank house, but it was incredible. I would really recommend it to anyone that goes to Amsterdam, it is totally worth the lines. We got there right when it opened at 9AM and only had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. In some parts of the house they recreated it as how it was when the 8 Jewish people were hiding there. I personally find WWII to be one of my favorite times during history, so I really enjoyed walking through this and learning about the hardships Jews had to go through. I also found it very interesting to learn about Anne Frank as a girl. She was so young when she wrote her diary, but is really eloquent with her words. In many areas of the house they have quotes of her describing rooms, and activities that the family took part in while they were in hiding. There is also a section focusing on Otto Frank, the sole member of the Frank member who survived the holocaust. The one quote that stuck with me from him was "I have lost absolutely everything but my life" That really put the whole holocaust into perspective for me, and made me think about how lucky we are to live in a time and place where there is not persecution or fear.
After going to the Anne Frank house we stopped by the hostel to pick up Rose from the hostel and headed to Dam Square for a free guided tour. It was absolutely freezing out; cold, wind, and occasional rain. However the guide was very interesting and was able to answer all of the questions that we had. The introduction on Dutch history he gave us was more than enough history to cover a tour in itself! He took us weaving through the different areas of Amsterdam. His one rule for us: If you hear a bell, run like hell! There are TONS of bikers around Amsterdam and they will run you over if you do not move out of the way, so we learned quickly to only walk on the sidewalks and stay away from bikers!
CLOGS!
MORE CLOGS!
And yes....even more clogs
Clogging around in a giant clog
Stasia and Rose in Dam Square
A church situated right in the heart of the Red Light District. When Amsterdam was a shipping village and indulgences were popular with the church, sailors would come to the church first, pay for the sins they were about to commit then head straight to the Red Light District.
Outskirts of the red light district. Apparently if you take pictures of any of the girls in the windows they will come out and throw pee at you.
One of the many canals. In Amsterdam the houses used to be taxed on how wide the house was, so the richer you were the wider of a house you had! Another interesting fact is that a lot of the houses had hooks on the top of them. When moving in or out of a house, people would just attach the goods to the hook and bring them up to the window they wanted to put the stuff into! They had to do this because the staircases inside were too narrow to move things.
Where autopsies used to be performed! Stasia and I called it 'our castle' because we knew we were on the right canal for our hostel if we saw it shining at the end of the canal
Dam Square. Lots of people dressed up as different characters come here and stand all day.
They had french frie stands all over Amsterdam! For about $4 you could get fresh delicious fries with the sauce of your choice. I got a garlic one that was AMAZING! Stasia stuck with ketchup, but enjoyed hers as well!
Soo many french fries!
They were very popular!
On a break during the guided tour warming up in a little cafe with Rose!
Our lovely tour guide Tom
Begijnhof, where nuns used to live to avoid persecution. Now you must be a single woman under the age of 35 and in good moral standing to apply to live there. You are only able to move in once one of the current residents dies, so once you live here you are stuck for life!. They were adorable houses and had a really pretty green area by them!
Begijnhof
Rose was so cold her lips started to turn blue!
One of the many canals
After our walking tour we were tired, hungry, and cold, so we headed to a pancake restaurant called Pancakes! to get some delicious Dutch pancakes we had heard so much about. Rose got an AMAZING one with goat cheese, spinach, and pine nuts. Stasia and I both had sweet tooths so we got chocolate on ours! They were some of the best pancakes I have ever had.
After our delicious lunch we wandered down to one of Amsterdam's parks and walked around. It was so green and peaceful
One of the bridges! After wandering and exploring Amsterdam some more we went to a local bar and hung out there for the night. The next morning we got up nice and early to explore flower markets and the different parts of Amsterdam we didn't see the day before!
In one of the flower gardens they had a whole section devoted to cactus! It made me miss all of my cactus at home
We were told that the big Iam sterdam sign was taken down (later we found out this wasn't true), but since we knew where this little one was we went and took pictures with it! This is Stasia in front of it
Myself
Myself
Some of the cooler graffiti lining the streets
It was finally sunny out! I was really upset because the two weeks leading up to my spring break it was sunny and 70-80 degrees every day, and as soon as we landed in Amsterdam it was rainy, cold, and windy. I was mostly upset because the wardrobe I brought was very spring oriented with tank tops, sundresses and sandals. So I ended up spending the majority of my break rotating my warm clothes!
I loved the Amsterdam canals, they were so gorgeous
Stasia loves the sun as well!
The Apple store in Amsterdam was INCREDIBLE! One of the coolest Apple stores I have seen, they had the only free drinking fountains that we could find in Amsterdam!
Stasia decided to try on some of the clogs
Rose did as well
And I did too! Mine were a little bigger
It was rainy and cold so Stasia pulled out her $1 umbrella
That umbrella didn't do too much once the wind picked up
We found a Flagstaff PD badge at a flea market! What a small world it is!
One of the gift shops had cows on the roof..we are unsure why
Another one of the canals!
We found a Flagstaff Jacket in a vintage store! I would have bought it but it was 20 Euro
Some of the cool buildings!
On Saturday afternoon we caught our overnight train to Prague! We left Rose and Lam in Amsterdam and Stasia and I went off by ourselves. I'll tell my overnight train adventures on the Prague blog!
-G