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!