Amsterdam: The City of Bikes

After an incredible time in Istanbul, Eric and I woke up at 5am to get to the Sabiha Gocken Airport and board our Pegasus Airlines flight to Amsterdam, Holland. We arrived on a Friday afternoon, and made our way to our hotel, located right in Rembrandt Square. Our friend from Boston College, Dave, joined us for our 3 days in Amsterdam, and we all had a great time!

Upon our arrival, we decided to explore the neighborhood a bit. We made our way to  Dam Square,
one of the main squares of Amsterdam. During the weekend we were visiting, this carnival was going on!

I quickly stumbled upon a Dutch clog on our walk, so naturally I hopped in!

Amsterdam is a city of canals, and we saw beautiful swans nearly everywhere.

Loving the canals and Dutch houses!

Oude Kerk, the oldest church in Amsterdam, also located in the infamous Red Light District.

I thought the Dutch houses were really interesting and beautiful, and although many
of them looked similar, they were all very different.

Enjoying the city!

On our first full day, we stopped at the I Amsterdam sign to take some pictures.
Behind us is the Rijskmuseum, which I had hoped to visit during our stay, but unfortunately it does not officially
reopen until next week. 

I Amsterdam sign in its full glory!

Walking around, we stumbled upon the House of Bols, a "museum" dedicated to the Dutch gin distillery, Bols.
We took a fun tour and learned about all their different flavors, and at the end we were able to try a cocktail.
My cocktail was Vanilla Berry Crush, and was delicious! Eric got a Peach Cheesecake cocktail, which was
interesting as well. I went in not expecting much, but it was actually a fun and unique "museum" experience!

Because Amsterdam has a serious housing shortage, many people opt to live on houseboats like
the ones pictured here.

After grabbing a quick lunch, Dave, Eric and I went to Anne Frankhuis, which was a truly moving experience.
This here is the Anne Frank memorial located a few blocks away from the museum.

Anne Frankhuis: such an incredible experience. We were able to walk through each of the different
rooms in which Anne and her family hid for more than 2 years, and see some actual pages of her diary.
After being in Berlin the previous week and learning all about World War II and Nazi Germany, I think
this had a much stronger effect on me. It was definitely something I will never forget.

After Anne Frankhius, we took a Canal Boat Tour to get some alternative views of the city,
like this one! Amsterdam really is a beautiful city.

So many boats!

The oldest bridge in Amsterdam!

After the canal tour, we stumbled upon this Cheese Museum.
It was more a store than a museum, but we got to try all sorts of delicious cheeses.
It was easily one of the highlights of the trip, which sounds bad at first, but if you were there,
you would totally understand.

We then enjoyed a couple of beers and a snack at a cafe on the canal. I had a Leffe Blonde Beer, which
was easily my favorite beer I'd ever tried (I'm not a huge beer fan, but since being in Europe, it's been growing
on me!). I even bought that glass I'm holding there as a souvenir, because it was so beautiful!

In Amsterdam, bikes are everywhere. Tourists can rent them for a couple of hours, which is what
we decided to do! It was completely terrifying at times, but a lot of fun and a great way to see
the city!

Photo-op!

I'm pretty sure that both Dave and Eric wanted to kill me for the duration of  our bike-riding
experience, because I never knew where I was going or what I was doing, but we learned to laugh about it
by the end (I think). 

Rembrandt Square, one of the busiest squares in Amsterdam and also
where our hotel was located.

Rembrandt Square is home to a lot of restaurants, cafes, bars, and clubs, and even has this
big screen TV (if you can call it that) playing advertisements and music.

On our last night, we ventured out to Leiden Square, another busy square of Amsterdam
with lots of restaurants. We ate at a Dutch restaurant called The Pantry, where I had some delicious
beef and onion stew.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Amsterdam. The canals were beautiful, and I loved the homes and restaurants. Anne Frankhuis was an experience I will never forget, especially in light of all I learned about World War II and Nazi Germany during my trip to Berlin with my family a week earlier. 

However, for me, Amsterdam seemed like it was more about marijuana and the Red Light District than anything else, which got old very quickly. It was interesting to see at first because it is so different and unexpected, but I felt like you couldn't go more than a block without smelling pot or seeing a sex shop, which was very jarring at times. But, I had a great time exploring the city with Eric and Dave, and am very glad I visited!

On Monday morning, Eric and I were able to take a break from planes, and boarded a train from Amsterdam to Brussels, Belgium, our last stop of the trip!