I've been having a little bit of an issue trying to blog lately, so apologies for the lack of posts! My computer charger broke, which is a pretty standard thing for me these days since technology has decided it has a vendetta against me, so I wasn't able to get on it until my WONDERFUL mother sent me a new one in the mail from the states. Thanks Mom!
Spent last weekend in Amsterdam with two of my roommates, talk about an amazing place! We had the best time. We arrived late on Wednesday night. Huge bonus only having classes M-W, we get long weekends for travel. We went straight to our hostel, The Flying Pig, that a friend of mine suggested. It was a youth hostel so we were able to meet people our own age, unlike Berlin where we had a little bit of a more interesting group in our hostel. Very thankful for the recommendation because it was a great place! Thursday morning we headed out to explore! We made our way to the Van Gogh museum. When I was telling one of my friends the story about Amsterdam he got so mad at me for saying that we went to the Van Gogh museum so nonchalant, so let me make sure everyone is aware of how cool it was! Best part for me though was the stop in the museum gift shop where I found a cute little wooden shoe Pandora bead! I asked for my Pandora bracelet so I could have it while I was here to collect beads from the places I visit. Was unsuccessful to find one in Berlin so I was beyond thrilled when I found one in Holland. :) We got lost on our way there, and back but we've learned to just embrace being lost and use it as time to see more of everything these beautiful cities have to offer. The next day we went to the Heineken brewery tour. It was so fun! Very well done, although I don't have much to compare it to. We ended up meeting some boys from Manchester, England on Friday night who entertained me the entire night. They were all doing "American" accents (which includes a lot of "dude and awesome") and having me attempt my terrible British accent. They even brought up American Pie so I really got to impress them when I told them where I was from! Saturday was our last day so we woke up early and made our way to the Anne Frank house. Everyone told us to be careful of the long lines but thankfully we only ended up waiting about 15 minutes. It was so interesting and cool to see. I love all of the history that the places we visit have about the Holocaust because it has always been something that has interested me so much! Whenever I try and tell anyone about the weekend in Amsterdam I want to say that one of the things we did was my favorite but really I loved them all and they were all so different.
Amsterdam as a city itself is really cool. They have canals running through the entire city that are beautiful to walk through. Everyone bikes there which I think is just the coolest thing. I think that living in a big city and biking around seems so European and cool. If you can't tell by now, I think Europe is really cool. I feel like the younger kid who is impressed by everything the older kids do when I'm here. I am definitely putting Amsterdam on my list of places I want to return to!
Next week is spring break, YAY! We are headed to Barcelona and Portugal for the week. I am so excited. :) Hopefully I can communicate well, it's been a while since I've spoken Spanish!
Time is flying by here and I hate it! I keep having amazing things to look forward to but then I think about it and realize that's another week closer to going home! After spring break I will have less than 2 months left. :( I still have so much I want to do and see over here I've decided I'm just going to have to come back ASAP!
-MJ
