Amsterdam

Over the last week of winter break, myself and three other people went to Amsterdam for four days as a send off to our vacation. Of all of the amazing places I have gotten to see, I think that Amsterdam has by far been my favorite. You could tell just by being in the airport that Holland is still doing alright by itself, and that fact was reinforced by the beautiful city that I got to stay in. Our hostel was situated in what I can only assume must have been little Italy. I think I counted upwards of 20 Italian restaurants in the area surrounding it. Our hostel was an interesting place. While no one was supposed to light up inside of it, the entire place smelled like weed (as did much of the city) and there were like entire murals of dudes smoking joints on the walls. And we got to see all of these murals because our room was on the very top floor, which meant walking up four sets of the most treacherous stairways I have ever seen in my life. It is a miracle that none of us died. Especially me.

Amsterdam has canals running through it all, which meant that every block or so you got a view. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. On our first full day there, we toured throughout the city and went to the Anne Frank house. I was surprised by this experience. While I cannot imagine going through what she did, I also cannot image how they hid that entire place for so long. The annex was much much larger than I had ever assumed it could be, which I'm sure just made the whole process that much harder when they were trying to hide them. It was kind of incredible to be walking through the annex of a story I had to read so many times in middle school. Now that I think about it, it was probably a lot cooler of a thing to do than it seemed like at the time. We also walked through one of the main squares and saw the national monument and Madame Toussoud's wax museum. I really really love those and was super bummed that we didn't get to go in. I was also super bummed that I lost my wallet and had like no cash though, so my options were limited to say the least. I did get to sit in a giant "wooden" shoe though, so it was all good.

The next day we went and saw the I AM STERDAM statue thing. I don't know why I wanted to see it so bad, but I had been saying that nonstop for like days before we went there so I was really excited. We really had no idea what to do at that point, so we took a gamble and went to see the Heineken building. The gamble payed off. We went on the Heineken experience (it really was an experience) and it forever changed the way I will look at museums. And beer. And Dutch people. Amongst other things, some of the entertainment in the Heineken experience included foosball, napping, making your own music videos, putting your heads on other peoples bodies, making labels with your names on them, and at one point I believe they even made the four of us into beers on a 4D "ride." It was... one the most interesting and entertaining places I have ever been. I highly recommend it.

Unfortunately we did have to leave at some point, so on Friday morning we took what I'm sure is the shortest flight I have ever been on back to England. I was sad to go. While I may not totally understand how everyone in that city doesn't have a faint buzz all the time just from the smell, it was one of the most beautiful and interesting places I have ever been. I can only hope I get to go back some day.

On an unrelated note, it snowed in Worcester today! At one point at least half of the Americans on my trip with me all came outside and had a giant snowball fight in the courtyard. It was one of the best days I have had since being here. When it gets to snowing, the Minnesotans get to throwing. It was soooo much fun.