Spring Break: City 3 of 6
Hostel
We took a bus to Amsterdam, which I will point out is my least favorite way of traveling. It is pretty uncomfortable especially if you are taking it overnight. The only way to make it more comfortable is if you snag the back seat and lay out across 3 seats. You can easily fit two people in this position comfortably. The downside to this is that if the bus starts to fill up, someone might wake you up for a seat. Put a sweatshirt over your face, it makes you less approachable.
Arriving in Amsterdam was a bit of a struggle. If I could give one piece of advice to anyone traveling it would be to make sure you have directions ready from the correct station to your hostel. To get to where we needed to be, we took a bus, a train, and a tram. I now know that the symbol of a bus with a diamond over it is a tram symbol. This would have been good to know ahead of time.
Allison and I finally made it to our hostel. We stayed at the StayOkay Vondelpark. This hostel was awesome and it is located right inside the park. The hostel had a bar with a great happy hour. It also served food and included free breakfast (!!!). The nights we were there, an older man named Mike would play guitar and everyone would sing along. This place had the coolest vibe going. The rooms here were spacious. There weren’t outlets next to all of the beds, which was frustrating. Luckily I had a spare battery, which I would charge during the day when there was room at the outlets and then I could charge my phone at night.
The best part about this hostel was the people we met. Our friend group included Allison, Henry, Blake (from Australia), Nicolai (from Germany), Astrid, Laura, and Susan (from Denmark), and this one guy who was an interpretive dancer whose name I forget.
Our hostel
Vondelpark
Activities
The first day in Amsterdam, we just walked around the city. It was just me and Allison because the rest of the group was still in Bruges. It was very cold in Amsterdam. The wind was bone-chilling. Allison and I bought some gloves and we spent a lot of time in and out of stores. I loved this city, though. I thought it was one of the prettiest places.
The first canal right across from our hostel
Allison enjoys the view
Houses in Amsterdam used to be taxed based on how much area they took up, so, to save money, people built them narrow and tall
Me, featuring new gloves
On the second day, we were joined by the rest of the Belgium crew. Henry and Jess were staying at our hostel while the others were at a different StayOkay (there are three in Amsterdam). It was kind of rainy this day so we decided to go to the Van Gough Museum. We waited in a pretty unorganized line for over an hour just to be cut in line by unknowing tourists who ignored us telling them to go to the back. The museum employees did nothing. The museum was interesting, though, and afterwords we visited the Amsterdam sign.
I'm that blurry figure in the middle
"M" for Maddie
After the Van Gough Museum we went to the Red Light District and saw the Sex Museum, which was odd but funny. My favorite thing was this list of ancient Chinese euphemisms.
Male genitals: weapon of love, warrior, jade scepter, crimson bird, yang pagode
Female genitals: grotto of pleasure, love anemone, valley of lust, golden groove, purple peony
The whole group, from left to right starting in the back: Allison, Henry, me, Grace, Stephanie, Maddie B., Sandy, Jess, Anistasia, Hannah, Nicole
On our third and final day, Allison and I went to the tulip gardens. We wanted to see full fields of tulips but those were all just harvested. The gardens were pretty though. Here are some pictures I took…
Food
There were a lot of different types of restaurants in Amsterdam. This added to the unique vibe of the city. There were a couple of places I went to that I would recommend.
The first was called Bagels & Beans, which was an adorable coffe and bagel shop. They have three different locations in Amsterdam. Allison and I went to the one near the Van Gough Mueseum. To drink, I ordered this deconstructed hot chocolate where you pour the chocolate chips into hot milk and stir then add the whipped cream. It was delicious, so creamy and satisfying. To eat, I ordered a bagel called Mozzarella Di Bufala, which came with tomato, pesto, pine nuts and basil. It was so yummy.
My deconstructed hot chocolate
Mozzarella Di Bufala bagel
The other place that I really liked was called Trust. It is a vegetarian restaurant recommended by Kristen. What’s really cool about this restaurant besides the food, is that you pay what you want. When you are done eating, you go up and put whatever amount of money you’d like in a box and that’s it! The menu changes everyday but I ordered this really yummy grilled cheese.
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