Amsterdam Day 4: Last day, diamond museum

Sunday marked our last full day in Amsterdam. We as usually didn’t really have any plans except to hit up a few museums. We wanted to go to this diamond museum that was free (a rarity here, they also don’t have any students discounts here )

            We got up later, like 10 and left the hostel. It was Sunday, so our breakfast place wasn’t even open. We decided we would just go to the area where the diamond museum was and find some place to eat over there.

            

Some pretty little square 

  We ended up going to this adorable, cozy little place and we both got bagels. I got a goat cheese, with alfalfa sprouts and walnuts bagel and this beer called Texels Scuumkoppe that the waitress recommended. It was actually the best beer I’ve ever had in my life. I usually don’t like beer because of the kind of gross, wheat-y after-taste, but this didn’t even have that. It was delicious all the way through.

It was a perfect day for Amsterdam for the first time we  were there. The sun was out, it was only a little bit windy and no rain. We were also in kind of a cool area and the buildings were really pretty. We actually walked by the Rembrandt House which I would have liked to go in, but I think it was another museum close to 20 euros so I’ll just save that for later in life when I’m rich and successful.

The diamond museum was great for being free. First of all, I didn’t even know Amsterdam was the city of diamonds but it was a nice surprise. Anyways, this museum offered free tours and they also taught you about clarity, shape and different cuts of diamonds. We also go to try on real diamond rings, necklaces and earrings. I was thoroughly impressed. It would be great to come back later in life when I’m rich and actually pick out a diamond there. I actually found a great ring that I would love to have as my engagement ring, the only problem is it was 31,000 euros.

Just Posing by a canal

Someone buy me this ring

loved the Gassan Factory Diamond Tour!

After the diamond museum we just wander around Amsterdam and shopped a bit. We found this amazing boot store near the Red Light District the other day but it was closed so we went back there and Samantha tried on these amazing cowgirl boots. They were unfortunately like 300 euros even on sale so we had to leave without them. The man working there was really selling them though. He was super adorable.

cute building

fancy bike

That night we went back and had a classy dinner of Burger King and then just watched a bunch of movies with the girls. We watched Hitch, Crossroads (with Britney Spears, id never seen it before but It was actually a real winner) and Coyote Ugly. I overall had a great trip and it was very relaxing. I definitely want to come back to Amsterdam later in life too. Sometimes going on these international trips is just a tease because you see most of the great things but 4 days in a foreign country/city just isn’t long enough.

My conclusion and thoughts from this trips:

-Dutch people are also so nice. And they all pretty much speak English. Which is so nice because there is no way I could speak or understand Dutch.

-Amsterdam is very pretty and home-y. I like the Netherlands.

-I must come back to Amsterdam when I am old and rich so I can:

            -have my fiancé come with me so we can pick out my diamond wedding ring

            -go on a romantic canal boat tour

            -go to the Van Gogh Museum (since it will hopefully be all renovated by that time)

            -go to the Rijk Museum

            -go to Madame Tussand Wax Museum

            -bike around the city (will have to come in a warmer time of year)

            -do one of those cliché Holland windmill tours

            -shop at all the awesome thrift stores

Amsterdam Day 3: Heineken Brewery Tour and Hermitage/Van Gogh Museum

We decided today would be the day we would go on the Heineken Brewery Tour. It was something both Samantha and I really wanted to do. The factory doesn’t open until 11 am so we got to sleep in a little again (so nice) and then we bought tickets from our hostel because they sold tickets that were reduced or line skipping. We got breakfast at a new place, right down the street from our hostel and I got an egg sandwich on wheat bread with tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, and some salt and pepper. It was delicious. I also got my daily coffee; can’t live without it.

We took the metro to Central Station and then the tram to the Heineken factory. Buying the tickets ahead of time was so nice because we got right in. The tour was self-guided too so that was also nice. Heineken had their factory all decorated with Christmas stuff so it was a great time to go.  The first part of the tour was just kind of a Heineken family history lesson about the company.

            The next part was the brewery room where you got to taste the beer in the first step of the process. It tasted really sweet and wheat-y, kind of like soggy cereal after its been sitting in milk for a while. After the brewery room there was this interesting simulation thing were “you were the beer” and they put us in this room and made us stand on this platform that moved and we went through the whole process that the beer would go through, and we felt everything (they turned a heater on when the beer was being pasteurized, they sprayed water on us when we were being brewed, ect, ect). It was interesting and creative. I was not expecting that.

            There were also a bunch of random parts of the tour like a DJ booth thing, and all these photos and digital postcards you could send. It was fun.

            At the end of the tour you got two free beers and you could also have a bartender teach you how to pour the perfect beer. There were a bunch of annoying Spanish men in front of us so we ended up not doing the beer pouring. The drinks were so good though; being factory fresh and they served them ice cold. I had a Heineken a week earlier and it was so bad I was asked Samantha if she actually wanted to do the tour but I think it ended up being one of the best things we did when we were in Amsterdam so I was really glad we did it.

          

Heineken Experience

Merry Christmas!

Me and Samantha, posing

more posing

Spanish!

The four ingredients in Heineken

DJ-ing with my Spanish boyfriend, can't even escape Spain in a foreign country

Canal boat ride?

Some cool new heineken cans that change in black lights

Proost! That's cheers in Dutch

In Love with Vincent 

Christmas at the Heineken Factory

  When the Heineken Tour was over I really wanted to go to the Hermitage Museum, which is already supposed to be a good museum, but it was also housing most of the painting from the Van Gogh Museum as it undergoes renovations. It was kind of expensive (about 18 euros) but I think it was worth it. I think I’ve seen a few Van Gogh’s before but this collection was amazing. His use of paint and colors is astounding. He puts so much paint on the canvas in so many layers, it made me really want to touch the paintings just to feel the texture. I felt kind of bad dragging Samantha there because I know she doesn’t really care that much about art and it was a really expensive museum but I think (hope) she liked it too. 

Classy seating area in the Hermitage Museum

After the long day at the Heineken and then going straight to the Hermitage we were both worn out and really hungry since we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. We both wanted to try a dutch pancake because they are sopposed to be a delicacy there so Samantha asked the lady working at the Hermitage if there was any local place she recommended. She happened to be the perfect person to ask because she used to work at a pancake place and gave us direction there. We kind of took our time walking there, when in a few shops, walked in a vintage store and I got an 8 euro 80's giraffe tunic and Samantha got this amazing sequin jacket and then when we finally made it there it was full. We were really sad but we decided to just find another place because they were everywhere. We ended up going to this place near the Anne Frank Huis called Sara's pancakes. They had an amazing menu, we both labored over our decision of what to get. I ended up with a banana, caramel and whipped cream pancake and Samantha got a banana, chocolate sauce and whipped cream pancake. We were both in heaven.

Coffee with Whipped cream

My pancake, what a beaut

me with my giant pancake, I still ate the whole thing

After the pancake we went back to our hostel to get ready to go out. However, once both of us got back to the hostel we realized that neither of us actually wanted to go out but we also didn't want to let the other person down so we both pretended like we did. When we both realized we were fine staying in I think we were both relieved. We ended up just watching a few movies with the girls at our hostel. It was like a GNI (girl's night in) everynight we were there but I thought it was awesome. All the girls were really nice and almost all of them were study abroad students from the states. One of the best things about studying abroad is just meeting new and interesting people. You have to be a little bit adventureous to spend at least a whole semester (or more) in a foreign country without friends or family so all the girls were really cool.

Amsterdam Day 2: Anne Frank Huis, Bagels, Fries and the Red Light District

When we went to bed the night before we decided that we deserved to sleep in so we set our alarms for 9 am. This was a nice change from my Rome trip where we got up super early everyday and were going non-stop on site-seeing adventures. Today we decided we would go see the Anne Frank House museum, which is where Anne Frank and her family were in hiding when Jews were being persecuted during WWII and before.

            We made the mistake of paying for breakfast at the hostel. It cost 5 Euros and was basically assorted dinner rolls with jam or butter, which is pretty standard for a European breakfast but neither of us like eating just simple carbs for breakfast. There are really no good breakfasts in Europe I’ve decided. America definitely does breakfast the best in the world and I’ve been missing scrambled eggs the entire time I’ve been here. Europeans seem to eat and use eggs for every meal except breakfast. They don’t know what they are missing.

            So, after an unsatisfying breakfast we headed to the train/metro station and got tickets to take us into Central Station in the middle of Amsterdam. This would be our first day exploring Amsterdam and we were both excited. On the metro we were speaking English and just talking about school and random things and these two other girls our age asked where we were from and where we were going today. Apparently they were also staying at our hostel and they were also study abroad students studying in Paris. They also were headed to the Anne Frank house so we decided to stick together.

            Getting off the metro and seeing Amsterdam for the first time made my homesickness really go away. It looked and felt just like Christmas; they had Christmas lights in all different colors and shapes and sizes everywhere and it was freezing cold again. It also had just a dark, home-y kind of feel about it that I liked immediately. It wasn’t as stunningly beautiful of a city as Rome or Paris but it was comforting and it had charm. Trams were everywhere and so were people on bikes. Everyone had those cute one speed comfort bikes too and little bells which just added to the “big(ish) city with small town charm” appeal.     

          

Canals Amsterdam is famous for

  We found the Anne Frank house pretty easily and the line wasn’t too long. It was one of the cheaper attractions in Amsterdam (only 9 euros, it seemed like all the other museums were closer 20 euros or more). I thought the house would be really sad but after going through it, I felt like it was more sentimental than sad. I felt like I knew Anne Frank after. You couldn’t take pictures inside but you got to walk through the whole house and in every room there would be a quote from her diary. None of the rooms of the house were decorated (by the request of Otto Frank, Anne’s dad) but they all had pictures of what it would have looked like. They also did video interviews of her friends about what Anne was like and her dad, who is the one that got her diary published and made the house a museum. In the interview with her dad he said something like how long it took him to read the diary and when he did it shocked him because Anne was so much deeper and more thoughtful than he ever knew. It said it made him realize that most parents probably don’t know their own children nearly as well as they think they do.

            The last part of the museum had actual pages from her original diary and then a big display of the diary in all the different languages and publications.  I thought it was really well done and really moving. It was very personal.

           

Anne Frank House (Huis in dutch)

More Amsterdam scenery

 After the museum we were really hungry and we wanted bagels so we found this organic/healthy bagel place and got hot drinks and bagels. We both got cinnamon raisin bagels with hazelnut, walnut cream cheese. They were fabulous.

Samantha's drink: Hot chocolate with real chocolate chips that melt into the milk and a plate of whipped cream, amazing

Yum!

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel with Hazelnut Walnut Cream Cheese

  Samantha had to get a lot of gifts for her friends so we just random souvenir shopped after that while also making our way back to Central Station. After a little bit of shopping we decided to get Holland French fries because this really interesting, worldly girl in my art history and painting class told me it was a must. The way to eat them in Holland is with a glob of mayo, but mayo kind of disgusts me so I got cheese. They were super good but after eating the entire thing (size small, but there were a ton of them!) I felt like I was gonna die of sodium and grease overload. 

Trying on some wooden shoes

Cheese fries

After the fries we went back to the Hostel to rest. We were both so tired. We actually ended up watching a movie instead of napping. The hostel had a really good selection and I picked “10 Things I Hate About You” with Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and JGL. It’s such a classic.

            That night we went out again to do more souvenir shopping and to just see Amsterdam at night. We accidently wandered into the Red Light District at night, which I guess you aren’t supposed to do but it didn’t seem unsafe it was just a little bit disturbing. In case you didn’t already guess, the lights in the RED Light District are all RED and girls literally just stand in full-length windows in bikinis/bras and panties. It is really just weird. I still can’t believe people do that.  

Red Light District, didn't take any pics of the people in the area for obvious reasons, and this pic obviously didn't turn out that well

Love the christmas lights

Dam Square

Trams and Lights 

          After all that we just headed back to the Hostel. It was a long day and really cold so we were happy to just hangout at the hostel. 

Thanksgiving in Amsterdam: First day

This past weekend my friend Samantha and I traveled to Amsterdam for a girl’s weekend. It wasn’t necessarily supposed to be a girl’s weekend, we tried to get our other bestie Tyler to go, but too many things came up so it turned out he couldn’t make it.

Anyways, it was Thanksgiving weekend, as all Americans reading this know, and I was feeling kind of homesick. I think the combination of multiple tests and big assignments, seeing friend’s facebook posts and pictures about going home for Thanksgiving (and being a little jealous), and Spain’s complete lack of festivity for the holiday season all contributed. Thanksgiving is also such a nice holiday because its just like Christmas but not as cold (usually, but you never know in the Chicagoland area), and there aren’t any presents to lead to animosity; you just get to see your whole family and eat food and relax. It’s perfect.

So we had an 8 pm flight and we both had class until 5 pm. I had already packed the night before so basically right after my class ended I ran home, checked over all my stuff and left for the metro to the airport.

The flight was sooo nice compared to what I am used to. Being a poor college student, most of my trips that I take I fly on budget airlines. I think these only exist in Europe but basically you get a really cheap ticket but you can’t check a bag and you get no free extras that we take for granted on normal flights (no snack, no drinks, NOTHING). Also on these budget airlines they come down the aisles and try and sell you stuff the whole time so you can never relax or sleep because someone is always coming down the aisles with perfume or maps or basically anything. 

This flight, however, was on a real airline (KLM Royal Dutch) and it was really nice. The flight was only 2.5 hours but we got a sandwich, a cookie, and two drinks, all for FREE! The first time they came down the aisles with the drinks I was so not used to it I asked if it was free. I’m sure they thought I was really tacky but I forgot what its like to be on a normal airline.    

So the flight was really great and we easily arrived in Amsterdam. We had to take the train to our Hostel, which was kind of confusing at first since the tickets kiosk was not simple but we ended up just buying tickets at the counter from a real person who spoke English. I have to say, Madrid by far has the best and easiest metro system from what I’ve experience in Europe. It goes everywhere and you can easily buy tickets and its cheap.

On the train we ended up accidently sitting in first class (we bought 2^nd class tickets but obviously didn’t know what we were doing) but the conductor was cool about it. We sat next to a native Amsterdam guy who was really nice. He actually pointed us in the direction of our hostel once we got off the train and definitely went out of his way to help us; Ahhh the perks of being two young, lost-looking girls.  

Amsterdam was freezing. I expected cold, but after being in 50-60 degree Madrid, getting to 30 something degree Amsterdam (since it was night) with wind and rain was a little shocking. Luckily I brought my hideous, Michelin man, white, puffy, crop-top-ish, down coat for the trip.  

I think we were both relieved when we finally made it to the hostel. It was actually pretty close to the train station, just a little tucked away. We got an all girls’ hostel, called Hostelle and it was decorated so cute and girly. From my research of my place, each room is themed and they also had themed bathrooms. Our room was the home-y theme and it had little birdhouses on the wall and a pretty flower light fixture. We also stalked the bathrooms and found a hello kitty, fashion, and royal toilet.

Hello Kitty Toliet! cutest thing ever

Fashion/NYC toliet

Royal toliet?

Hostel Room

Cute light fixture in our hostel room

Our Hostel Room, awkwardly decorated with bird houses, but still kind of cute

After chilling for a bit we decided to go to bed because we want to go out and explore the next day and we were exhausted. The next day we were going to the Anne Frank House!