Waking up bright and early on Sunday, we were on our way to AAAAMMMSSTTAAADDDAAAMMM!!!! The city of many wonders, and many sins. We were all excited to experience such an iconic city.
Instead of an expected 6 hour bus ride, it ended up being a whopping 9 hour journey.....which SUCKED because that meant we basically lost half a day that we were supposed to be given in the city. But we did make it in time for our included dinner so naturally, this guy was happy :) Unlike the last hostel, where I had only 3 other roommates, this StayOkay provided everyone with 6-8 person dorm rooms so we were all jam packed in a funky little room with a shower that had no curtain or divider, just a super small room with a door, and then a separate bathroom. The lights stayed on for maybe, and I'm being generous here, MAYBE 45 seconds, and then you had to wave your arms or move to turn them back on. I was not a fan of the dark showering!!
We were about a 40 min walk, or a 20 min tram ride to the city center, and a bunch of us decided to make it down there for our first night. Such a quaint and beautiful Dutch city!
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| How wonderfully clique :) |
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| Here's our hostel! Lots of people... |
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| Haha |
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| The girls! |
On Monday morning, we woke up around 8 or so to make it for our included breakfast (duhhh, less cash flow out of my pocket than there already was!). At around 9 one of our tour guides hosted a walking tour of the city.
I think Bruno deserves a bit of an introduction, if you will. He is one of the coolest guys I have ever met, He was born in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, which is already cool enough. For the past 27 years or so he has been traveling the world without a place called home to stop at on the way. He has been a priest, has worked for many various companies and restaurants to earn up the money to move onto the next city. Although not on his bucket list, Antartica is the only continent he's never been to. This guy has even lived in Madagascar with a French doctor, has smoked weed with various different celebrities in Amsterdam, knows enough to communicate in 5 different languages including French, Italian, and English, and is now working through a student travel agency and is living with the owner here in Florence. He doesn't own a digital camera, so he carries a sketchbook and sharpie around and draws incredible interpretations of what he sees. He knows everything there needs to know about Florence and insisted that one night he'll make us homemade pesto with mushroom gnocchi with his infamous (apparently) homemade bread. I mean this guy is freakin unbelievable!
So anyway, while taking us around Amsterdam he knew everything there needed to know about the city's history, and about his inspiration: the post-impressionist painter Van Gogh. And the Van Gogh museum coincidentally happened to be our first stop!
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| Janine and I happier than ever! |
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| I amsterdam! |
Then we had a quick lunch and were on our way to the infamous Heineken Brewery Museum, which was 16 euro, we got an hour and a half worth of interactive museum, a free gift, and some of the freshest glasses of beer I think I'll ever get to have in my life! I even splurged on a personalized Heineken bottle with my name on it :)
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| So adorable! |
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| My taste buds took over: The Big Dog with bacon, cheese, ketchup and fried onion chips. |
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| <3 Happy happy!! |
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| "Welcome To The World of Heineken" <-- Why, thank you! |
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| Haha me and some of the girls! |
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| All the ingredients that make up the brilliant Heineken |
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| Bruno at work again! |
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| Bruno's final product. |
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| Our first freshly brewed beer |
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| Cheers! |
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| About to take our canal ride :) |
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| Canal Home!! House Hunters International in real life! |
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| 7.000 Euro a night Hotel, breakfast NOT included. |
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| The 'Love Bridge' |
Next came some souvenir shopping and lot of sight-seeing of the beautiful Dutch architecture and people :) Then we made our way back to the hostel for some dinner, and met up with our other roommate Kirsten and her friend who just got in town for the night! So excited to see her!
We then stopped by the Red Light District, which was a very interesting experience to say the least. You're really not supposed to take pictures, and with some of the stories we heard, we definitely didn't take out our camera. Each window offered different things, and each person had something that differentiated them from everyone else. There were also live sex shows that were first of all, ridiculously expensive, and second of all terrifyingly intimidating haha so we steered clear.
But anyways, that was the end of Amsterdam! Next stop, early departure to Belgium!
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