Semana Santa: Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Our last stop for Semana Santa was Amsterdam, Netherlands.  We were there from March 27-30.  The weather was still cold but a little warmer than the last two cities that we were in.  We arrived Wednesday night and found our hostel which was more like a hotel! It was huge and beautiful!

On Thursday morning we got up to go do the Anne Frank house.  We wanted to do it before the weekend and before the crowds came rolling in.  For breakfast we found a cute bagel shop right next door which was to die for! The Spaniards don't know bagels exist.  I did a presentation on breakfast in one of my classes and had to describe what a bagel was to my professor.  Anyways, we waited in line for about 45 minutes to an hour before we got in.  While waiting and literally 5 people from the door, a nice pigeon decided to leave a little present for me in my hair.... My friends were laughing so hard they didn't tell me what was happening for about one minute.

The Anne Frank house itself was all that I could have asked for.  Safe to say I got my Holocaust history in this week.  It was so cool and amazing to see where they hid for two years, and the bookshelf in its original condition.  Makes me fall in love with the story all over again.  It was very sad to hear the testimonies from Otto Frank (her dad, and only surviving family member) and the ones of her friends and classmates from school.

Afterwards we walked around the city and found a carnival in the main plaza!! It was so cool! The next couple of days all blend together now, so I will just tell what we did in general.  We walked through the red light district a couple of times and it was very interesting to say the least.  I never expected to see what I saw even knowing what to expect in the red light district.  I can only imagine what it would be like at night.  But some of these women make a fine living for what they do.  Our tour guide said that the oldest women still working is currently in her 70s!!!

We did go on a walking tour of the town one day which was a lot of fun to learn the history.  All of the buildings are falling and slanted because the entire city of Amsterdam is below sea level and the ground isn't solid.  So pretty soon buildings will start to collapse if people don't fix them correctly.

One night we went on a pub crawl.  The buses ran a little later than usual so we spent about a half an hour running through the city trying to find where this pub crawl was.  They had a meeting spot at a certain time but when we missed it, we had to go find the first bar.  It was hilarious and dreadful at the same time. But we made it and finally met up with the boys.  The pub crawl played some good tunes, and the same tunes at every bar but it was fun overall.

There was also this store that we came across that actually was heaven for an American study abroad student.  It was a store full of American brand name foods!! It had Kraft macaroni, peanut butter, sour patch kids, root beer, everything I have been craving!! But of course it was all WAY overpriced....

Some of us also did a canal paddle boating ride.  Amsterdam is full of canals and actually has more canals than Venice! We took one out and went down a few canals for an hour.  It was a lot of fun and a cool way to see the city.  It made me think of summer and how I was ready for some heat!

Amsterdam was a lot of fun and a great way to end our amazing week in Eastern Europe!  We spent our last night sleeping in the airport since we once again had an early flight. We had a six hour layover in Barcelona before making it home around dinner.