Amsterdam!

On Thursday evening, Sarah and I made our way to Amsterdam for the weekend! We got on a plane with many GU students who were en route to Budapest, but we parted ways in Munich.  Once we landed in Amsterdam, we found our way to the train station that would take us to Central Station, so we could get a tram to our hotel.  I could have stayed in the Schipol Airport all weekend.  Weird, I know, but let me tell you why.  1) Outrageous amount of bulbs for sale and tulips everywhere- (tulips are one of my favorite flowers on Earth.  In the top 3 with plumerias and daffodils 2) Starbucks.  I feel like I am on the European tour of Starbucks and I am completely fine with it.  We map out every Starbucks in the cities we are going to and make sure to go as many times as possible. There is something so comforting about finding a place that looks, feels, and tastes the same no matter where you are in the world.  Whether it is a sip in Prague, Bern, Barcelona, or Amsterdam, Starbucks brings back all of the comforts of home.

Anyways, enough about Starbucks.   So once Sarah and I navigated the public transportation system (VERY easy once you know where you are and have a good map- too bad this wasn't the case at that point), we checked into our hotel, which was outside of the main downtown and in the more residential area.  It was very cute and quaint- the beds were SO comfortable and we watched TV (in ENGLISH!).  We ended up at a little Chinese restaurant called Happy Corner.  Guess that's what we get for not venturing out.

Friday morning, we woke up early(ish) and made our way to the Anne Frank House after getting off at the wrong tram station 3 times.  Whoops.  The line was long, the ticket was expensive, and the experience was absolutely incredible.  Actually no, incredible probably isn't the right word because there really is no words for something like that.  I've grown up hearing about Anne Frank and how her family hid, but I never really realized where it was and what the living situation was.  It was heart breaking and I have never felt more connected to history.  I'm no history buff and have had my fair share of history museums, but when you are inside the house that the Frank family hid in and preserved so well, there is really nothing quite like it.  We got some bagels (yum) and met up with Shane! He was fresh off the plane from LA and was ready to take on the day! We got to our hostel called International Budget Hostel.  It was nothing short of an international budget hostel. Our 4 person room included Shane, Sarah,  me, and one random man- this was my first experience staying in a room with a completely random person.  Luckily it was a very nice Dutch guy who was visiting from England.  Even with that said, we locked up every single thing we brought with us before heading out to Sara's Pancakes (SO GOOD.  banana and Nutella Dutch pancake that was out of this world!)  After that, we walked around the Flower  Market (SO MANY BULBS AND TULIPS!!) and made our way to the Heineken Brewery for the Heineken Experience, where we got to see how beer is made and get some "free" beer at the ideal temperature. I don't even like beer that much, but this was delicious!  We wandered back to the hostel, freshened up, and heading out to dinner- hellooo fajitas in the middle of Holland!

We slept in for the first time since I have been abroad on Saturday morning! It helped up get through a day of walking and sightseeing.  In the rain.  We saw the iamsterdam sign, Van Gough museum, got waffles in a cute little cafe, and explored the Red Light District before meeting up with Amelia and Annie at the Central Station.  The Red Light district was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life.  There were live sex shows (one guy tried to sell it to use by asking, "Do you want to see some real culture??"), endless "coffee" shops (aka places where they sell all sorts of weed), and prostitutes in the windows wearing nothing but bikinis and lingerie.  It was unreal and absurd.  It was so sad seeing the girls in these windows as we were just walking around going about our day.  We were so happy to see that Amelia and Annie made their way to Amsterdam successfully.  They got settled in at the hostel and we all freshened up before dinner at the Burger Bar (sort of like The Counter where you can build your own burger yummm) and a pub crawl through the Leidseplein area of Amsterdam.  The pub crawl took us to some bars and clubs in the area and we enjoyed meeting new people from London! Yay for foreign friends and fun times.

Also on a side note, today was the first time I went to the GIF gym.  Envision one room with 2 treadmills, 2 broken ellipticals, and one bike  with no foot petal straps or a working monitor along with another room with some room to place mats down along with some random fitness do dads.... you now have a mental picture of our gym!  Its small and nothing like the one in Spokane, but I will take it after this 6 week carbo load.  My class schedule made it virtually impossible to go to the gym before dinner, but now I finally can on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I have never appreciated Rudolph Fitness Center more and will be spending a lot of quality time with it this summer..