Amigas. Cheetas. Friends for life.

Barcelona was a trip with lots of ups and downs for me. We flew this time with an airline called Vueling. I slept through the whole flight so I dont' remember anything about it. When we arrived, it didn't take us too long to find our hostel, and then we went to dinner at a Tapas restaurant down the road before calling it a night.

The next day we had arranged for a bike tour of the city, so we spent the majority of our day seeing the city via bike. This included the Sagrada Familia, the zoo, the beach, and a few other stops. We even ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach. When the tour was over, we headed back to the beach for a bit and put our feet in the water. We also went into town and bought tickets to an FC Barcelona game for the next day! We walked back along the beach until we reached the movie theater so we could go see Catching Fire. Wow, such a good movie and we were all so happy we saw it. Thankfully, it was in English and just had Spanish subtitles.

The next day we slept in a little and went to the beach once again. We sat by the water and relaxed for awhile. Our afternoon consisted of another beachside restaurant for lunch and then some souvenir shopping. Then it was time to go the game! We were on our way in the subway, and I was sitting next to Kristen, animatedly telling some story. Well, I guess since this was our last weekend trip, I had let my guard down more than usual. So, when a guy pressed into me to let people pass behind him, I was completely unaware when he stole my phone out of my pocket. I didn't noticed until we got off and my pockets were empty. I screamed "my phone!" and turned around to get back on, only to have the doors close right in my face. I have good friends though, and they calmed me down and made a few calls to the subway system. I had pretty much figured it out though, and knew there was no way I was getting my phone back. We continued to the game, and I called my dad in tears on the way. He put things in perspective for me since he was in Gifford cleaning up tornado damage for people who had lost a lot more than a phone.

The game was still fun, nonetheless, and we went out for dinner afterwards. To be honest, the food wasn't that great, our server wasn't exceptional, nothing about the place was too exciting. But this dinner, was probably my favorite of the whole trip. It's crazy the difference not having a phone can make. We sat and talked for over three hours at dinner, laughing and crying and sharing stories. As we left, someone pointed out there was a "free wifi" sign outside the door, and yet not one of us had pulled out phones the entire time. That was honestly unheard of for us because we jumped on every opportunity for wifi we could get.

There was a huge (like the size of a room) vending machine in the subway stop right by our hostel, and every time we walked by, I always stopped and looked at it saying how good the sunny D and chips ahoy looked because I hadn't had them in months. My friends, who are the sweetest, knew I was upset about losing my phone, and when I wasn't looking bought me both of those things from the giant vending machine and surprised me that night with them. They're the best.

I had suggested that before our flight the next morning, we should try to go see the sunrise on the beach. We woke up bright and early and raced to the beach, afraid we were gonna miss it. Well, we didn't miss it, but the sky was covered with clouds so we couldn't see anything anways. It was a bittersweet moment because we knew it was our last travel weekend of the semester. We got to the airport on time, and headed home. This weekend made me realize how great each and every person on this trip is, and I'm so blessed to have had these once in a lifetime experiences with all of them.

Amsterdam, the city of weed and bikes.

This past weekend, I travelled with six awesome girls to Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was one of the best weekends I've had on this trip. We took another night train leaving Thursday night and nothing really went wrong this time which was super impressive since there were so many of us. Showed up in Amsterdam around 10 in the morning on Friday and hit up Starbucks first thing. We must have looked rough, because most of us just ordered water and after Moriah ordered hers, the lady was all “Let me guess, bad hangover?” LOL. Besides this, the first thing to welcome us in the city of Amsterdam was the very overwhelming smell of marijuana. Literally Amsterdam has weed for daysssss.

We stayed at a Christian hostel nestled literally one street over from the Red Light District. It was a nice hostel though, and had free breakfast! Before coming, Leah had researched Amsterdam on Trip Advisor which told us the Red Light District was a “must see!” and during the day, it’s super safe and you’ll see grandmothers and children walking through the streets. So, first thing we decide to do is check it out! HA. So many sex shops. So many prostitutes in windows. So many creepy guys. No grandmothers. No children.  We were obviously very out of place and left REAL quick.



Our hostel

The Red Light District was at least pretty.

 

We hopped on a free regional train that took us to Haarlem, where the home of Corrie Ten Boom is. Haarlem is possibly maybe my favorite city I’ve been to in Europe. SO cute. We went to Corrie’s house and got an AWESOME free tour and heard her story. I had read The Hiding Place in high school, and it was an unreal experience to actually be in the places where everything happened. After that, we just wandered through Haarlem stopping in cute shops and restaurants along the way. We went to an adorable tearoom and stayed until it closed. The owner and employees were super friendly and it seemed like a place out of a movie. 

 

Inside "the hiding place"

 

The clock shop

 

yummy gourmet mini burgers in a cute restaurant in Haarlem

We headed back to Amsterdam and enjoyed the city at night. More weed smells. Everwhere. We found ourselves at a square with an ice rink in the middle. We got to watch a concert here with amazing figure skaters dancing around the singers. I love finding random unexpected events like this. Called it a night and headed back to our hostel.

 

Saturday was one of my favorite days of this entire semester. We slept in a little, enjoyed the hostel’s complimentary breakfast, and started our day by renting bikes. You have to understand that bikes are a VERY popular form of transportation in Amsterdam. Like probably at least 50% of the population travels by bike. This meant we were going to be biking on busy streets with I guess you could say “biking pros” all day. And, the seven of us were by far the farthest thing from pros at biking. Needless to say it was terrifying, and I almost died twice (not an exaggeration, I biked in front of a moving tram and missed it by inches. Woops), but funny, so very very funny.

We found the neighborhood with Anne Frank’s house and also found the massive line to get in and decided to pass on paying and waiting in line to visit it. Instead, I said I was craving a milkshake, and literally right behind us was an adorable little restaurant advertising milkshakes on their sign. Those milkshakes were SO good. We sat and talked here for so long the owners pretty much had to kick us out so other customers could come in, but I loved getting to know the girls I was sitting with.

We got back on our bikes and rode to this HUGE beautiful park with bike trails and ponds with little islands in them. A few of us came across an industrial looking playground. Sydney and I climbed to the top of the slide, and it was literally so hard for us. We kept saying there was no way kids would be able to do it. Right after we said that, a few little boys climbed in and made their way up in like 30 seconds. OK. Well, guess I’m out of shape, or maybe too big for playgrounds, or both. We explored and enjoyed the park some more, took some pics, and tried riding a bike with two people on it (I fell and broke Sarah’s bike doing this, of course).

 

the things we do for a picture

 

When it started getting dark, we knew we had to get our bikes back soon, soo we hit the busiest streets of Amsterdam at rush hour. Ok I loved biking in Amsterdam, but I won’t lie, it was terrifying at times. For example, when we were biking in about a two foot space between a giant bus and the curb. We all made it back alive and we were seriously amazed that none of us crashed even once. I would definitely, definitely recommend renting bikes if you’re ever in Amsterdam. It’s a fun and cheap way to see the city!

Nothing really eventful happened the rest of the trip except the usual running to catch trains, missing trains, and then looking homeless on trains the next morning. It's crazy that the semester is almost over!