AMSTERDAM

i took my first study-abroad-side-trip last weekend to the netherlands! christine, keiran, lauren, and i hit up amsterdam for the weekend. we had GORGEOUS weather. like, totally blue skies, no coats on, sitting in the grass kind of weather. i was in love. and sunny amsterdam is beautiful- with the little canals and all the bikes (it's a TOTAL bike city. so many bikers and bike lanes. and babies riding on bikes! so cute.) and the cute little shops and flowers on boats- it was a serious adorable overload. our hostel was a little sketch (we got separated into different rooms so we were each crashing with seven strangers) but we got free breakfast and we didn't even spend that much time there.

friday night was spent getting our bearings and gorging ourselves on food (amsterdam is like the capital of junk food- fries with mayo, ice cream, candy shops, pancakes, falafel, those dispenser-places where you put in your money and a little door opens and you get a hamburger. and stroop waffles! can't forget the stroop waffles! thin little waffle like cookies with syrup in the middle! so. good. i could eat 100 of them.). saturday we hit up the van gogh museum (art = good, museum layout = meh.) then got lost walking to the anne frank house, eventually made it to the anne frank house (very cool), got pancakes, sat along the canal, got lost going to meet up with friends (it's kind of a confusing city layout- it looks like a spider web cut in half), didn't find out friends, checked out the red light district, got creeped out by the red light district, got more junk food, crashed at home. we literally walked so much on saturday, that by sunday all we wanted to do was sit. we did some people watching in dam square and explored a different area of town before retiring to the park. we watched babies climbing trees and saw these awesome green parrot things. then we ate more junk food (naturally) and went to sleep.

i took an earlier flight home on monday and it was the first time i flew by myself in a foreign country. very strange, but it went rather smoothly. i sat next to an older canadian couple on the plane and the man told me all about his motorcycle adventures and airports he's been to. i think i almost preferring traveling alone- it's just simpler and almost relaxing in a sense. now that the first trip has gone down without a hitch, i'm gearing up for BIG FALL BREAK trip in about a week. ahhhh- so much to plan! but all in a good way of course. very excited.