Today, Wednesday, was our first full day in Amsterdam. We had to wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, and meet downstairs in the hostel by nine, like usual. The plan for the day was
to walk around the city of Amsterdam looking at some new projects in the city meshing new architecture along with the older, existing structures. Just our luck, it was cold and rainy this morning. From what i hear, that is pretty typical of Netherlands weather, but we had been really lucky with beautiful days until now. When we started out it was just an annoying drizzle, but as we kept walking it started to rain pretty hard. We found a building to stand under and wait until the rain calmed down a little bit. Luckily, I had my umbrella, but not everyone did. When the rain let up some, we started walking again, but it was still drizzling. We got on a tram and went to two spots along a canal and looked at this two specific projects of modern mixed with existing structures. Then we got on the tram again and headed over to another area of the city to look at some living structures. When we got off the tram, we took a break and had 30 minutes to get coffee. A small group of us went to a little cafe and ordered warm drinks. It
turned out to be a really good little cafe, and it was a nice break from the cold, wet weather. We walked around the area we were in for a while. At one point, the weather got really bad, with strong winds and the sky was a grayish green color, so our leader, Ivan, decided to break for lunch and see if the weather got any better. We ended up going back to the same cafe and eating lunch. I had a club sandwich and Anthony had this really good pesto sandwich so we traded half of each. And for dessert I got dutch apple pie again. So good. During lunch we took some silly pictures playing with our scarves. The weather got a little better but not much, so we just got on a bus and rode it back to the city center and then we had free time. A small group of us started with a little bit of tourist shopping. I took a picture in these huge clogs with a wall
of clogs behind me. Its a really cute picture! Then Bhavika, Preston and I split away from the group again and went searching for an ATM. And that is a hard task. It felt like we ended up walking like 5 miles just to find one. Eventually we did and we got money and then headed over to the Anne Frank House. Amsterdam is the city where her and her family moved to when they left Germany when Hitler took power and also where the attic hiding place was where they stayed in hiding for two years before being discovered and
taken to Auswich. It is now a museum about Anne Frank. So, we got to go through the actual place they stayed and each of their bedrooms too. It was really cool to be there, but also a very sad experience. I did not realize that she died only one month before liberation and that her father was the only one that survived. By the time we got done with
the museum it was getting close to dinner time so we headed back to the hostel to see if anybody else was there and what there plans were for dinner. Most of the group was back there just relaxing a little bit and had already made plans to leave for Mexican food at 7 as a big group. Some of us sat in the eating area and used the wifi from the hotel next door to check our emails and stuff. While we were sitting there, the guys we had met yesterday from Seattle walked in and were going to play cards. Me and Christina joined them and we played Spaids. It was really fun, although i screwed up on a nil hand. They ended up coming to dinner with us too so there were 18 of us all at this mexican food restaurant.
We had to split tables but it was still a lot of fun and the food was so good. It was a little pricey, but you did get free chips and salsa! I got a margarita which was not good and tasted like pure lemon juice and also enchiladas with rice and black beans (because thats all they have here). So good. After dinner we went to this bar/club and just danced and acted silly. Tonight was our last night so a lot of people went to another club after that one, but few of us just went back. The second to last pic is Anne Frank's house and the last pic is at the mexican restaurant of preston and his tortilla the size of a quarter.
to walk around the city of Amsterdam looking at some new projects in the city meshing new architecture along with the older, existing structures. Just our luck, it was cold and rainy this morning. From what i hear, that is pretty typical of Netherlands weather, but we had been really lucky with beautiful days until now. When we started out it was just an annoying drizzle, but as we kept walking it started to rain pretty hard. We found a building to stand under and wait until the rain calmed down a little bit. Luckily, I had my umbrella, but not everyone did. When the rain let up some, we started walking again, but it was still drizzling. We got on a tram and went to two spots along a canal and looked at this two specific projects of modern mixed with existing structures. Then we got on the tram again and headed over to another area of the city to look at some living structures. When we got off the tram, we took a break and had 30 minutes to get coffee. A small group of us went to a little cafe and ordered warm drinks. It
turned out to be a really good little cafe, and it was a nice break from the cold, wet weather. We walked around the area we were in for a while. At one point, the weather got really bad, with strong winds and the sky was a grayish green color, so our leader, Ivan, decided to break for lunch and see if the weather got any better. We ended up going back to the same cafe and eating lunch. I had a club sandwich and Anthony had this really good pesto sandwich so we traded half of each. And for dessert I got dutch apple pie again. So good. During lunch we took some silly pictures playing with our scarves. The weather got a little better but not much, so we just got on a bus and rode it back to the city center and then we had free time. A small group of us started with a little bit of tourist shopping. I took a picture in these huge clogs with a wall
of clogs behind me. Its a really cute picture! Then Bhavika, Preston and I split away from the group again and went searching for an ATM. And that is a hard task. It felt like we ended up walking like 5 miles just to find one. Eventually we did and we got money and then headed over to the Anne Frank House. Amsterdam is the city where her and her family moved to when they left Germany when Hitler took power and also where the attic hiding place was where they stayed in hiding for two years before being discovered and
taken to Auswich. It is now a museum about Anne Frank. So, we got to go through the actual place they stayed and each of their bedrooms too. It was really cool to be there, but also a very sad experience. I did not realize that she died only one month before liberation and that her father was the only one that survived. By the time we got done with
the museum it was getting close to dinner time so we headed back to the hostel to see if anybody else was there and what there plans were for dinner. Most of the group was back there just relaxing a little bit and had already made plans to leave for Mexican food at 7 as a big group. Some of us sat in the eating area and used the wifi from the hotel next door to check our emails and stuff. While we were sitting there, the guys we had met yesterday from Seattle walked in and were going to play cards. Me and Christina joined them and we played Spaids. It was really fun, although i screwed up on a nil hand. They ended up coming to dinner with us too so there were 18 of us all at this mexican food restaurant.
We had to split tables but it was still a lot of fun and the food was so good. It was a little pricey, but you did get free chips and salsa! I got a margarita which was not good and tasted like pure lemon juice and also enchiladas with rice and black beans (because thats all they have here). So good. After dinner we went to this bar/club and just danced and acted silly. Tonight was our last night so a lot of people went to another club after that one, but few of us just went back. The second to last pic is Anne Frank's house and the last pic is at the mexican restaurant of preston and his tortilla the size of a quarter.
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