amsterdam (a little late!)

Okay so I got a little behind with this blog thing but I'll do my best to get you up-to-date. Be sure to check out my pictures from Amsterdam and all my travels HERE

Thursday

So since our flight on Friday was at 6am, and the airport we flew out of was an hour away, it was a pretttttty long travel night/day. I met up with some girls I went to high school with Melissa Zerin, Courtney Baratz & Lauren Scholder and their 3 roommates on Thursday night after dinner. We hung out and had a quite night until about 3am when we left to go to the bus station. We caught the 3:15am bus to the Girona aiport (about an hour outside of Barcelona). After a couple minutes of sleep on the bus, we arrived at the Girona airport and did the usual airport stuff until our flight started to board. Now maybe its because we are taking the cheap flight/airlines around Europe but I experienced something I have never experienced in my life- unassigned seats on the airplane. Now I'm sure you can imagine the type of chaos this leads to seeing as people literally RUN to the plane in order to get the best seats with the people they want to sit with. It was quite the experience to have at 6am on no sleep. The flight there was easy enough and we landed in just under and hour and a half. We didn't fly into the main Amsterdam airport, so we had to take another 2 hour bus ride from the airport into the city center of Amsterdam. By the time we got there is was 10-11am on Friday and our day was just beginning.

Friday

So the city center of Amsterdam is quite the quaint little town. There are tons of cute little shops and restaurants surrounded by beautiful canals and cobblestone streets. We were still hauling around all of our luggage so after walking around for a little and grabbing something to eat, we headed to our hotel to drop our stuff off and take a little nap after our long journey. Later that afternoon/evening we ventured over to the Anne Frank house to take the tour. It was an incredibly moving experience being able to be inside such an important part of world history. Though the annex was not large by any means, it was actaully a lot bigger than I had imagined it in my head. The part that struck me as the most shocking is how mundane and dreary the days must have been spending day after day in the dark rooms of this attic space, with blackout shades over the windows and unable to move around during work hours. It's unreal. After finishing the tour, the eight of us went to dinner at an amazing little italian restaurant and walked around for a little bit more before calling it a night and going to bed pretty early.

Saturday
Saturday morning we woke up on the early-ish side and headed towards a popular part of the city called Leidseplein. There we found so much good shopping as well as a popular place to stop and eat. After speading a couple hours wandering along the streets and canals of this little area we established a couple things. Though the shopping appeared good and we shopped for hours, none of us made one purchase clothingwise in Amsterdam. We also found a delicious bagel shop and muffin store which we returned to at least 3 times throughout the day on Saturday. They were LITERALLY the best muffin I have had in my whole entire life. The blueberry muffins weren't just yummy on top (like muffins normally are) but they were sugary and gooey and delicious all the way to the bottom. I think I made up for all the food I haven't been enjoying in Spain through at least 2 or 3 muffins in Amsterdam. Then we decided to go check out the museum district of the city. Its an adorable little square and courtyard in the wealthier part of the town with the ReiksMuseum and VanGogh Museum within 5 minutes walking distance of eachother. I could have spent the whole day in the courtyard with the I AMsterdam letters and skating rink and playground except that it was FREEZING cold out and we immediately decided to head to the Van Gogh gallery after snapping some pictures. After wandering around for another couple hours we headed to our dinner reservations. We ate a place called SupperClub Amsterdam and it was definitely an experience. The "tables" we actually like sofa/bed type things with a table sitting in the middle. The eight of us shared 2 tables and sat as costumed waiters served us a set menu which I actually enjoyed (except the fish, but hey I tried!) After dinner we headed back to the hotel for another early night (what can I say, travelling is tiring!) and prepared ourselves for the long trek back to Barcelona.

After taking my second travel weekend, I definitely had developed an appreciation for the city of Barcelona. I was overjoyed to return back even though I had an amazing experience in Amsterdam. Not only is the weather amazing here, but I am reaching a level of comfort that is so enjoyable to return to. My "routine" here varies enough from week to week that each weekend seems like its own little vacation, but without the hassle of group tavel and planes, trains and automobiles. Travelling in a group of eight was definitely an experience as well....if you catch my drift :) Sorry this post took so long to come to life. Stay tuned for my tales from Switzerland!!!

Besos! Molly