Amsterdam, My Favorite Trip So Far

One thing about me is that I am not well traveled. I have lived in a small town my entire life and the most I knew about cuisine was that Applebees was open for half apps. Flash forward to last weekend, I am sitting on a plane going to Amsterdam. What was Amsterdam? Not sure but everyone says to go so I booked a ticket. I had no clue I was going to the Netherlands until the day before we were leaving! Now as I sit here documenting my journey I just changed my computer background to the Amsterdam canals at night and have told everyone how amazing my experience was over the weekend. So let's dive into it!

The City

The city itself looked like it came straight out of a fairytale. When we walked out of the train-station for the first time, I noticed the unique design of every building, tall and narrow with a crest at the top, and the fact that every house was leaning to the right or the left. While it definitely did not appear structurally sound, the facade of the houses provoked a charm like no other that truly made Amsterdam such a unique place for me. Furthermore, this city runs on bikes, and we got our fair share of it. We rented bikes from an app called Donkey Republic that was only ten euros a day and allowed us to travel all the canals and bridges that we pleased. The bikes were faster than all public transport which made the experience even more fun and intriguing. 

The Food

Do not get me started on this one or I could talk for hours. I’ll just keep it short and sweet and give my favorite food and recs from my weekend in Amsterdam. 

• Fable Friets for the best and most crispy parmesan spicy mayo fries
• Vlaamse Friethouse for Oorlog sauce, peanut butter, onion, and mayo, on your friets, (TRUST ME)
• Krua Thai Classic for thai food, a little pricey but the chef comes out picks the dish he is going to make for you after you tell him what you are in the mood for 
• The Happy Pig for incredible dutch pancakes with apple crumble, caramel, and whipped creme
• Hans Egstorf for Stroopwaffel, right next to The Happy Pig and was the best stroopwafel I had during the weekend
• Winkel 43 for delicious apple pie. It is much thicker than your typical pie and has a delicious filling
• The Danish Cheese Experience, we took a 30 minute train to Zaanse Schans to see some windmills and stopped here for all the free samples we could eat

Must Do While In Amsterdam

During my stay we did so many activities but here I will be listing the ones that you cannot miss!

• Anne Frank Museum, a somber and beautiful story of Anne’s life that was truly eye opening to me. You see the Annex the Frank family lived in while in hiding and how heartbreaking World War II was.
• The Van Gogh Museum, there is currently an amazing exhibit by the artist Matthew Wong who drew inspiration from Van Gogh, and you can see the beautiful sunflower painting by Van Gogh as well.
• Zaanse Schans, a great view of the countryside and the windmills are calm and relaxing to look at
• Canal Cruise, pretty self explanatory, an awesome view of Amsterdam from its many canals!

All In All

During your study abroad experience you must go to Amsterdam!!! My only complaint was that I did not go during tulip season. In another life I will study abroad here! If my semester was longer I would be returning in a heartbeat!