Amsterdam, Netherlands

Oh Amsterdam!

      While the ship was docked in Antwerp, Belgium for a week the students were allowed to travel to neighboring countries like the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Me and a friend decided to see what Amsterdam was all about. So we decided to spend three days/nights there. It was definitely a sight to see. I never thought it would be such a beautiful area. There were so many wonderful buildings as well as monuments and palaces. Just like all the other European cities I have been to on this adventure the architecture of this building was amazing. The train we took to get there was similar to the one in the movie Eurotrip.. It had cabins which held six passengers and were enclosed... it reminded me of trains shown is some of the older movies. While we were traveling there we met a man from Sydney, Australia who had us laughing the whole two hour ride... which made it go by super fast! The minute we got there we were on a hunt for a place to sleep.. we eventually found a hotel in our price range. So we booked it, went to the room to set our backpacks down then went to walk around the town. There were so many people on the streets it was difficult to get from one place to the other. One thing that stuck out to me was the main mode of transportation was bicycles. So when crossing the street not only did you have to look both ways to see oncoming cars, you had to watch out for bikes, scooters and trollies which all had their own lane to drive in.. but thank the lord they drive on the correct side of the street or else I would have been in major trouble!

    On the second day we ventured around until we ran into the Anne Frank house. For those that don't know or don't remember her and her family went into hiding during the Holocaust in the attic of a home in Amsterdam. This home was turned into a museum which people are able to see how they lived and read their stories. It was a really emotional tour. I have never read the Anne Frank diary, so it was all new to me, but while I was walking through the house it amazed me how they lived. One room contained a bedroom, living room, kitchen and study. The whole time I was thinking how much I take for granted back home. After the museum we decided to get lost in the city and see life like a local. So we rented bikes and cruised through the city.. Once we decided we were done being lost.. my excellent map reading skills got us back to where we started.  On the third day we took a city tour which showed us all the major buildings which was nice, ate lunch in a local park and hung out the rest of the day. That evening we decided to be brave and go to the red light district. That was interesting. Pretty different from what we see at home. Needless to say we didn't spend much time there.  All in all Amsterdam was a beautiful place to hang out. I would definitely love to visit again!