Amsterdamn!

Bruxelles, Belgium - we passed through


A sweet building on a canal, just a typical image of Amsterdam


This was amazing to find - a whole bunch of swans coating this canal

I know I know it's been forever and a half since I've written, but I'm here now and I'll try and fill you in on some recent stuff I've been up to.
About a month ago me and my friend Neta took a little trip to the Netherlands. I was getting annoyed of Paris, and she was down for an adventure, so we made random plans to head outa town for the weekend, and in a few hours by train we were in Amsterdam. We went from France, through Belgium, and into Holland in the same time it takes to get from Champaign-Urbana to Chicago! Gotta love Europe.
Once we made it known to the world through Facebook that we were going to Amsterdam that weekend, it became evident that we'd chosen a perfect weekend. Loads of friends were going the same time, and we had an awesome crew to chill with. My friend Adam from U of I in the same program in Paris was planning on going, and had contacted about 6 other US friends also studying in Europe (in various places) to meet there. One friend turned out to be a girl named Beata who I actually went to middle school with and is studying in Barcelona this semester! I haven't hung out with her in forever, but we randomly ended up in the same hostel in Amsterdam hehe. It was a blast!
Neta's from Israel, and grew up half there and half in the States on the East coast. One of her friends from Israel, Jonathan, grew up in Amsterdam, and happened to be back in town that weekend as well, so we even had a local with awesome English to show us around aside from the US group of tourists. I stayed in the hostel the first 2 nights, but the 3rd night after the other Americans left I stayed at Jonathan's with Neta for free!
We went to a variety of museums, though they unfortunately charge for students in Amsterdam, be warned! I guess Lisbon, Madrid, and Paris just love their students more hehe. The Rijksmuseum was my favorite, it had a bunch of awesome classic artists - rembrandt, vermeer, etc. They didn't let me take pictures there :( but take my advice and definitely go if you have a chance. We didn't go to the Van Gogh museum because I heard it wasn't that worth it - expensive, and not that much cool stuff since most of his things have been sold off elsewhere. I guess I still wish I'd been anyway, but it's expensive to travel and it's probably best that I saved the money considering there's plenty of Van Gogh in the Musee D'Orsay.
The Anne Frank house was really moving. I've read the book, I've seen the movie, I've heard a lot about the holocaust, but it hits you a whole different way being there. Especially going with Neta it felt really important. She's doing an internship at the Holocaust memorial in Paris this semester, and she's met many people in Israel who survived it, so it's very real to her. It had a pretty hopeful end to the museum though, we can only hope the world will learn.
Ok, I guess I'll give a run down of some impressions of Amsterdam. The architecture is beautiful, but the city is confusing in terms of place names and concentric rings of canals. Bad signage, but not bad once you figure it out a bit. Best part: the people were soooo nice! Most everyone spoke English, which is kind of sad I guess and feels disrespectful that so many people come and can't speak Dutch, but it doesn't seem to bother them. I never thought of Parisians as assholes till I compared them to the Dutch. They're happy to speak English with you, happy to hear where you're from, happy to share their city with you, it was amazing. Me and Neta had a great time. We came to a couple of conclusions - that Amsterdam is a magical and sparkly city (especially at night with the reflections off the canals), and that we're citizens of the world now. hehe, I think I get that feeling from traveling in general, but it felt so welcome there. The other Americans we were with were sharing stories of their various study abroad places - spanish, english, french, dutch. There were kids in the hostel from all sorts of places - turkey, somalia, argentina, japan. It's an amazing world, and it's cool to meet the people who travel it :)
The last night we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D and Imax in the suburbs with Jonathan and a few of his friends. Me and another American girl took the train to meet up with Neta and the guys, and it was interesting to see just how big the city really is. We'd only stayed in the center so far all weekend and used the trams to get everywhere, but the metro goes a lot further, and the architecture gets a lot more modern and big. I guess the edges of all european cities are mostly really similar to the states.
We took a train back to Paris early Monday morning and got in with just enough time for me to run home, grab my books, and get to class by noon hehe. I love it when my travel plans work out :)


Capioera in Leidseplein in Amsterdam