I AMsterdam

For the second half of my fall break, I traveled with Jordan, Ben, and Spencer to Amsterdam from London. Allaire and Chelsea were meeting us there later. We took a flight out of Londontown and headed to Holland! When we got there, we were greeted by Jordan's long time friend named Robert, who Jordan used to work with at a soccer camp in Maryland. We was nice enough to pick us up at the airport, and allow us to stay with him for the weekend. It couldn't have worked out better. When we got there, he surprised us with tickets to an Ajax soccer game. We stopped at his house to drop off our things, and then took the subway to the stadium. The fans are.. NUTS. They were all singing loud songs on the subway with Heinekens in hand. It helped that we were with someone who was from the area and spoke Dutch so no one would bother us. It is extremely difficult to get tickets to these games, especially for Americans, and you need to have a member card. We were extremely lucky to be able to go to this game. The quality of playing was outstanding, and the atmosphere was incredible. I loved being at the game, especially because Ajax walked away with a win. 2-0.


Robert's place was really cool. It was right on one of the canals in Amsterdam, and the place was about three stories tall with little winding stairs that were very scary to walk up. We had the top 2 floors of the place to ourselves. On Friday, we explored the city. It is such a unique and beautiful city. The buildings are all different colors and the canals running through the city were just really cool. The red light district was kind of shocking, and the descriptions I had heard before were definitely true! We also went to this outdoor market and a vintage shop. We also had Thai food for dinner. It was a relaxing day, and we were saving all the tourist attractions for the next day!

On Saturday, we all woke up early and got bagels and coffee. It was a rainy day, but we didn't let that stop us! We ventured to Rembrandt's house. We listened to an audio tour and the house was decorated as it would have been when he lived there. After that, we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was probably my favorite art museum. I am not a huge art person, but seeing his paintings in person was unbelievable. I had never seen any of Van Gogh's paintings in person before, and I did not realize how detailed and textured they were and I was mesmerized. I didn't want to leave!

Next, we went to the Heineken Factory. The whole place was interactive and included a ride and beer tasting. There was also a section where you could watch commercials that dated all the way back to the 1950s. We even created a video of all of us singing a song in Dutch. Here it is.. video. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time! We also accidentally found the sign that says "I AMsterdam" which is in a lot of commercials at home. It was HUGE.
The next day we went to the "Jordaan" part of the city, after we got another bagel since they are rare in Florence. It was really pretty and quaint, with nice shops and restaurants. We couldn't stay long because we had to catch our flight, but we did get some exploring in. It was a really fun weekend and I had a great time. I was sad to leave, but excited to get back to Florence for the last leg of my semester.