Last weekend I travelled to Amsterdam for a quick trip from Friday night to Sunday night. This trip was my first time traveling outside of Paris while abroad and it was also my first time really traveling alone. This trip was very important in my personal growth of learning to be more independent. Many people that know me know I really don't like being alone or being independent. It's not that I can't go to the grocery store alone, I would just rather have someone with me. Same thing goes for traveling. This weekend I wasn't completely alone because I was meeting two of my friends from Iowa State, Madeline and Adri. However, they didn't arrive in Amsterdam until Saturday morning and I arrived Friday night.
Friday Night:
Shortly after I got out of class I headed to the train station to catch my train to Amsterdam. Being my first time every taking an actual train, it was a little confusing to figure out where I needed to go, but I eventually found it and boarded my train. By the time I got off the train it was 11:45pm so I ordered an Uber to take me to the hostel. The Uber driver was very nice but he was having trouble getting to my hostel. Eventually he told me that he was as close as he could get and that I would have to walk a couple minutes to my hostel. I should mention that my hostel was, in the website's words "walking distance from the red light district" but in my words "in the red light district." I was pretty nervous to walk there but he assured me it was safe and close by. I managed to navigate to my hostel and was very relieved to find it. My relief suddenly went away when I entered the hostel. It was very dark; the walls were all painted black. I checked in, got my keys and then went to my room. Again, the room was very dark (this time with no lights on as it was 12:30am at this point), with about 6-8 bunk beds. I tried to quietly find my bed and go to sleep right away. None of this really worked. I made lots of noise and I was not able to fall asleep for a long time.
Saturday:
I made it through my night alone in the hostel. Madeline and Adri arrived around 10am and were just as surprised about the hostel as I was. They said it was nothing like the others they had stayed in. Once we were all settled in we started to make our way to the Van Gogh museum. On our way we stopped to take in all of the beauty of Amsterdam. The canals, flower markets, cheese shops, etc. It was fun exploring this city without a map or a time schedule.
We also stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Vegan Junk Food. All of the food was vegan (of course) and super fun and funky. Madeline and I shared the PINKY SHAWARMA which had vegan shawarma (how that's made I have no idea), and pink aioli, on a pink bun. It was delicious! We eventually arrived at the Van Gogh museum. It was so cool to see all of his amazing paintings all in one place (they didn't have many of his really famous paintings though). I had always learned so much about Van Gogh so actually seeing his paintings in person was kind of surreal. It was very interesting to learn even more about his life and how his paintings reflected his life. After the museum we started to make our way back to our hostel but we also stopped to get stroopwafels on our way. These were two thin and kind of crunchy waffles heated up with caramel in the middle. I got the hazelnut one so it also had chocolate and hazelnut bits on the outside. Biting into this was like heaven. Sweet, but not too sweet, gooey and crunchy all at the same time, and warm.
Later that night we went on a canal cruise. It was beautiful to see Amsterdam at night with all of the lights illuminating the bridges. The ride also had some history about Amsterdam and drinks and snacks to order. After the canal tour we walked around the red light district just to see what it was like. It really didn't seem as dangerous as it may appear. It was just filled with tourist doing exactly what we were doing, wandering around with much curiosity.
Sunday:
Today was a very relaxed day. We got up and got brunch. I had Challah French Toast which was AMAZING! After we walked along the canal and around the city and stopped at a cafe to sit outside and take in the beauty of the water and the warm sunny day.
Later that afternoon we went to the Anne Frank House. I tried to by tickets the week before and they were sold out but the website said they would sell some the day of at 9am. I had gone on the website on Saturday to try and get tickets and it wouldn't even let me on the website because it was so busy. So today I got up every 10 minutes for an hour to ensure that I could get on the page in time. So... if you're planning on traveling to Amsterdam make sure you buy tickets for the Anne Frank house more than a week in advance. The museum was very impactful and very well done. I was very glad that I got to experience it. Shortly after the museum we made our way back to the hostel and I headed back for Paris.
Amsterdam was the perfect place to go for a short weekend trip. There was a lot to do, but only being there for 2 days I felt like I did enough to experience Amsterdam. It was also very nice being able to walk everywhere and get to and from places pretty quickly. Amsterdam was also a great place for me to find my independence.