Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was a great time! This weekend we travelled with another couple, N & C. They turned out to be great travel buddies and were a lot of fun! 

Our journey started right after class on Friday per usual. It was a ~7-hour journey to Amsterdam with lots of train switches and running around in the train stations. 

First thing was first: we waited in the train station for my friend (who I wrote about last week) to meet us there. We only had to wait about 20 minutes and then she appeared! It's been interesting coordinating all of these things without phones...it's probably good for us!

We met her and then quickly checked into our hotel (all 6 of us) before heading out for an evening of dancing! Amsterdam (for obvious reasons) had the potential to have a sort of intimidating nightlife but the place we found was pretty low-key at the hour we were there. 

One of my first views in Amsterdam.

The next morning we headed off early to see the Anne Frank house! We'd tried earlier in the week to get ticket reservations, but they'd been sold out already so we knew we'd just have to wait. Even though we got there not long after opening, there was a huge line down the street and around the corner. None of us minded the wait too much. 

Seeing the house was one of the most interesting experiences I've had in Europe so far. When I first read Anne's diary, I was only 8 years old - third grade. I've read it periodically ever since then, and each time I read it I take away something new and relate to Anne in a different way. Seeing the house felt strangely personal, like seeing the experience of a friend. The markings on the wall where they measured Anne and her sister were still there, and I stood next to the markings and found that I would've stood at eye-level with Anne around the time of the last mark. The posters in her bedroom were still there, too...it was almost an odd experience. Throughout the museum, it was mentioned many times that Anne had died only a month before the liberation. She represented so many, and was an example of everything that was lost. 

At the end of the museum, Alex and I were waiting for N&C to finish up and I suddenly saw...an old friend from high school! I couldn't believe my eyes at first, but yelled out her name. She responded (so it wasn't just me seeing things!) and was equally as shocked. What were the odds of meeting in Amsterdam one Saturday morning??? She was traveling with her school soccer team (she plays for Carnegie Melon) and just happened to be doing the same thing as us that morning. Couldn't have been weirder. As another strange coincidence we actually also learned that our friend that we were traveling with, C, went to high school with my best friend who moved down to Atlanta for 11th/12th grade. A weekend of scary coincidences!

After Anne Frank we walked around and found a park, where we meandered for the afternoon. We adore parks and getting to relax people-watch in them. 

We climbed this cool tree

The boys of our little group really wanted to do the tour of the Heineken Brewery, so we did that later in the afternoon and evening. Not really my thing, but Alex always does activities that I pick so it's only fair!

Learning about the brand's history and about the longgg process it takes to brew the perfect beer was actually sort of interesting.

The big kettles used for brewing. Check out the stained glass windows!

At the end we were sent on a scavenger hunt (aka just to another one of their outlet stores) for a "free gift" that came with the tour. It turned out to be small Heineken glasses with the first Heineken logo on them. It looks sort of like this.

Just without our faces in it.

On the way to the Heineken outlet we saw one of the "Iamsterdam" signs! We didn't get a picture with that one though.

Dinner that night was CREPES! 

Per Alex's request, the 4 of us then took a tour through the Red Light District. I dug my heels in and did not support this trip...but when we got there I saw that I'd been wrong with my presumptions about this place. First of all, it's just a normal place. Not sketchy. It looked just like any other Amsterdam street at night. We jumped onto a walking tour and learned that the Red Light District is actually a very high-demand place to live and is very expensive. It's one of the oldest parts of Amsterdam. It was actually beautiful along the water the homes had doors that opened right into the canal! I loved that (and imagined jumping right into a rowing shell out of my front door :). After about 4 minutes, Alex was satisfied that he'd been in the Red Light District and we headed back to the hotel. We played cards and fell asleep early.

In the morning we stopped at the grocery store to stock up on lunch. I got some stroopwaffles to bring back for friends as a souvenir, and then I found this Oreo chocolate bar! Oreos inside chocolate. Brilliant.

I was feeling green food for lunch. Apples and salad!

This is what Alex got for lunch.

Then we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. It was really great to be able to see some of the famous artwork that I grew up seeing in textbooks. Seeing the evolution of his artwork was also really interesting...it changed so much over time!

We had a long journey home. 4 trains home! We had a long layover in Rosendaal so we found a park and hung out in the sunshine for awhile. We also had a layover in Brussels so I went BACK to this chocolate shop and I got more chocolates from there, just like I did 6 weeks ago! I still have some leftover from that first trip...now I'm confident I'll have Belgian chocolate to bring home to Cleveland.

We also saw this hot air balloon during one of our train rides. It was so pretty along the sunset! I wonder who was up there...

We finally arrived home at about 9PM. Weekend:successful!