This weekend was one of the best so far! Julia (my friend from Waterloo who’s doing a semester abroad in England) came to visit!! It was so great to have her here! While we hung out it almost felt like we were back home again and not 50 million miles away.
So, she came in on Thursday night. Since I arrived, I had been thinking of things we could do together in Germany………but the morning of the day she was set to touch down this thought crossed my mind….”We could go to Amsterdam!” I mentioned this to Jules and it was followed by a HUGE smile and “LETS DO IT!”……WOOO HOOO! We had a plan, not it was time to put it into action! We set out booking our rides to and from, as well as finding a hostel close to the centre of town.
This is the first country outside of Germany that I’ve been to since I arrived and I think it will be my favourite! I LOVE AMSTERDAM!
Now, what do I love?
Mainly, all the canals, houseboats, cool architecture and beautiful city scenes…..oh and all the tall people! ☺
We drove there with a Mitfahren-basically if someone is driving to a city they can register with this company and then we can pay to drive with them. We spent about 3 and a half hours in the back of this super nice German man’s vehicle. He, was great! We even exchanged phone numbers cause he wished he had time to drive us around Amsterdam and show us the sites. He said the next time he was going, he’d give us a call lol.
So upon arrival we decided we needed apple fritters!......these were the BEST apple fritters I have ever tasted! We spent all day walking the streets. We toured the main market, the Floating Flower Market (mom you would have been in Heaven! If I was coming home soon, I would have bought you a million bulbs! ☺ ) the inner city, we went on a boat tour of the canals etc.
The streets are super narrow and there’s not a lot of parking cause the city is literally built on water! Because the lack of space on solid ground everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) drives bikes! I’ve never seen so many bikes in one place, and so many different kinds! People with young children have these crazy bikes that they cart their kids around in. Picture a bike with a wagon in front of it, …….but then take off the wheels of the wagon and just put a bike tire out front and you have the regular means of transportation used for moving your family around. Haha
Our hostel was great! So great I think I am going to try and volunteer there during my two month semester break! That way I can hopefully meet people with a houseboat and get to go on it! Haha
Me and Jules were a dynamite traveling team. I definitely learned that it pays to be super friendly when dealing with people, especially in places with heavy tourist traffic. I know what its like to work with stupid tourists and if you ask questions in a polite way and try and make people laugh, they’ll be MUCH more please to help you AND even cut you some sweet deals!!
OK, that’s all for now! Tchau!
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