Blog 32: it's a lovely monday in amsterdam

So it was such a great treat to have Sam and Dolly visit us all the way from America!! Seeing as they were our second set of houseguests we knew the drill. We set up their room and cleaned the flat for them, I even made them breakfast in the morning! We love having houseguests, so if youare reading this and have the urge to come visit, I make really great eggs in the morning :) (family style, I think I made like ten eggs, with mushrooms and onions…yummm)

(Prauge the afternoon we showed Sam and Dolly around)

We had so much fun showing Prague to them that they invited us to continue on their trek with them, which is how I ended up in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, Ash had to work this past week, so Sam, Dolly, and I hopped on the overnight train to Amsterdam and began our adventure!

(Amsterdam)

Let me just start out with this: I LOVED Amsterdam. I would (and hopefully will soon) go back in a heartbeat. It has its negative connotations with its legalization of marijuana and prostitution in the red light district. However, our extremely informative tour guide (we took a three hour guided tour of Amsterdam and it was AMAZING) told us that because of these policy implementations, Amsterdam has one of the lowest drug and crime rates in the world. I have heard of ideas like this, but it actually works in Amsterdam. The city was BEAUTIFUL and so clean. I loved the Dutch architecture, and in between every street is a waterway, with boats floating lazily along the streets. We had great weather, and I loved exploring the city. I would absolutely move there if I could.

(Amsterdam)

Amsterdam has a lot of cultural excursions, so we had to choose which ones we wanted to participate in while we were there for our short time (Sunday night- Wednesday night). We decided to go to the Van Gough Museum (the most famous one in the world), tour the Heineken Brewery (where Heineken started), and take the three hour guided walking tour of the city.

(Amsterdam)

The Van Gough museum was absolutely stunning. His works of art are impressive and his abilities are widespread. The collection was amazing because each piece was so different, yet they all came together cohesively. A lovely way to spend an afternoon.

The Heineken Brewery was amazingggg. We were surprised by it because we expected it to be this broken down old brewery from the 1900s, but boy were we wrong! It was very modern and new, and they had tons of exhibits for you to explore, rides for you to go on (you pretend like you are the beer getting brewed, it was pretty cool actually), beer for you to taste, and more! It was such a cool brewery; we all came out loving Heineken a little bit more. Their marketing technique? Successful. Dad, you would have loveddd it, if you ever make it over here ill take you to it, but for the mean time I took loads of pictures :)

(Heineken Brewery)

And the three hour tour, I cant even explain. I love the city so much it was fascinating to learn about its history. We learned interesting facts like marijuana is legal to sell (obviously) but it’s illegal to advertise that you sell it, so it has to be covered up with the premise that it’s a coffee shop that has huge bob marley posters in front and reeks of weed for no reason. Another thing I found interesting was the story of how the center of the Red Light District came to be a church, and how you have to pass around it (or most times through it) to get to the other side of the Red Light District. (it’s a long story, but ask me if you are interested).

(Amsterdam)

Anyways, it was a great trip. We met so many great new friends in our hostel. Kids from all over the world, doing the same thing we are. Out to see the world and meet others who are doing the same. The city was clean and beautiful and we had a fantastic time!

Since Ash couldn’t go, I had to travel back home alone (Dolly and Sam went off to London to head home) and I have to say im getting pretty good at the inter-europe traveling! But now im back home (safe and sound, so I know my grandparents are reading this with a sigh of relief) and ready to start work tomorrow!

Love love love from Prague!

P.S. The title came from the Monday we were there, we were just sitting on the side street of this beautiful old street with buildings covered in ivy, watching people ride by on their bicycles (the main form of transporation there, and yes we did rent them and ride all over the city, LOVED it) but as we realized that this was such a treat for us to be on vacation here, these people are just having a normal Monday morning. It would be as if we were at home getting errands run on a monday, and toursits were watching in awe. hahah but they looked so happy to be riding around the sunny streets of amsterdam. maybe the grass it always greener on the other side, but i think its safe to say the grass is pretty green in Amesterdam. xo xo