Sisterhood of the Traveling Clogs

I just want to start this blog post by dispelling any notions that you, dear reader, may have about Amsterdam being a city shrouded in a cloud of marijuana smoke. Yes, weed is legal in this city, but that does not mean that everyone in the city is standing on street corners, smoking pot. In fact, it’s pretty much completely confined to the coffee shops where it’s sold and maybe people’s private homes as well.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you that Amsterdam was one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to. Seriously, I was extremely close to refusing to leave the city ever. The whole city looks like a movie set or the setting of a storybook. The city is built on a system of canals, with all of these funky, skinny, tall houses. These houses look like they may fall over at any time, but in the mean time, they make for one of the most picturesque places I’ve ever been.

On Friday, I waited for Andrea at the airport and then we took the train into the city center. This was the only public transportation we would take all weekend before getting back on that train on Sunday. We met Jordan and Annie at our airbnb, squealing about how beautiful the canals were on our way there. This was the nicest airbnb we have stayed in yet and it was in the perfect area. Our neighborhood was called Jordaan, and I would highly recommend staying in this area, if and when you take advantage of the chance to visit this magical city. Because you should. As soon as you possibly can.

Then we began to explore our beautiful neighborhood, continuously surprised about how every single street looks like this (see below). Also, sorry Abby, but Amsterdam is definitely the bike capital of the world. There are so many bikes; it’s overwhelming and awesome. I’m going to move to Amsterdam and get a bike and a basket and a dog and put the dog in the basket of my bike and cruise around the canals.

That afternoon, we visited the Anne Frank house. It was a really interesting experience and definitely brought to light for me how cramped and dark it would have been, living up there for four years. They also have the original diary on display. It is well worth the visit, to walk through the rooms that she actually lived in when she wrote those diary entries that would later become world famous.

We finished the day by just wandering the little shopping streets and boutique stores along the canals. Amsterdam also has an amazing thrift store contingent. Filled with wonderful things, an 80s prom queen would be very happy shopping here. That night, for dinner, we went to Haesje Claes and had traditional Dutch food, which was a very enjoyable experience.

Saturday was jam-packed with activities. We started at the Noodermarkt, where I picked up a few prints of covers from a famous Dutch crime series. We then walked along the canals for a while, on our way to the Van Gogh Museum. We grabbed an apple pastry, covered in cinnamon sugar for breakfast. This museum is awesome. It does an amazing job of telling you the story of what Van Gogh was actually like, focusing on the man, not the myth. They also had informational plaques that did a great job of explaining what it was that you were looking at.

While we were in the area, we headed over to the iamsterdam sign to take some quintessential Amsterdam photos. Some of these pictures were ruined by the warning sign telling tourists to beware of the white heroin being told by street dealers as cocaine? Which is a bummer. And those letters are taller than you think! And scary to get to the top of. But worth it for the photos.

Then the wandering continued! We happened upon another market, where I bought a mug that has a cow in it. For lunch, we decided on the Thrill Grill, for some delicious burgers and fries. After that, it was off to the Heineken experience. The Heineken brewery/museum while a bit hokey, was awesome. We had a great time, tasting the beer, stirring the barley, and smelling the hops. The experience actually includes a lot of beer as well.

That night, we tried to go across town to a fondue restaurant but they didn’t have any room for us, so we ended up at A Taste of Vietnam, which was recommended to us by some bikers as they were passing us on the street.

Sunday morning was started off right with pancakes! Amsterdam is world renowned for its pancakes, so we went straight to the source, to the Pancake Bakery. We met up there with Jessie, who is one of Carolyn’s best friends from high school, and made the awesome decision to study abroad in Amsterdam.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day so we took advantage of it and strolled down the canals. We headed to Vondelpark, the biggest park in the center of Amsterdam. It was a beautiful morning, but it was sad because we had to say goodbye to Andrea too soon L However, I will see her in less than a month at DUKE! So it was ok.

Annie and I wandered back to the iamsterdam sign and happened upon one of the most entertaining groups of street performers that I’ve ever seen. What they lacked in talent, they made up for in charisma.

The two of us have killed it in terms of food since we’ve been abroad, and we put the icing on the cake with a warm stroopwafel: two thin waffles that are stuck together with warm caramel. DELICIOUS.

We ambled back up to our airbnb, stopping in a ton of cute stores along the way, and before we knew it, we had to leave this beautiful city. Getting home was painless; we are expert travelers at this point.

Amsterdam was the perfect city on which to end our adventures. It took my breath away; it is magical. Amsterdam and I clicked, just like I clicked with Vienna.   I loved it. OH Another thing that struck me about Amsterdam: all of the windows are made to be looked through.  The first floor apartments all have these huge, storefront windows and living rooms worth looking at.  And all of the offices visible from the streets have huge, communal desks.  There are also art galleries on every corner.  It’s beautiful.

In 5 days, my parents and Jack will be here! Last week, I finished my classes at UPF and this week my class at CEA ends. Abroad is coming to a close. I have one week left in Barcelona, four days in Paris, and then this is all over. It blows my mind that this semester of my life, which I’ve been looking forward to for at least 15 years, is almost over. It’s been everything that I expected and more. Abroad was not perfect, parts of it were more challenging than I had expected and I hope to never be separated from my family at Thanksgiving again, but I would not change one second of it.