....I'm baaaack! Part 1: The crazy city of Amsterdam

Home sweet home in Firenze!! 

I'm back in action in Italy after a crazy fun filled adventure of Spring Break. I'm breaking up our week of travel into two different posts, one for each city, so that you all don't have a novel to read! Matt's arrival in Florence was smooth and simple, with no complications. I took a bus to the airport to pick him up and anxiously wait for his arrival. Since he stayed awake to fight off jet lag, I was able to show him most of Florence on the first day of our break. I took him throughout most of the piazzas, past our school, out to his first italian meal- pizza, and to finish the day off with gelato...naturally.

along the river arno :)

Saturday morning we woke up at 5am to head to the Florence train station to catch our Intercity train to Rome. We were flying Easyjet out of Rome to get to our first stop on our journey, Amsterdam. After arriving at the Rome train station we then had to take another shuttle train over to the Rome airport. These little unexpected travels definitely added up throughout the entire week! We were cutting it close to our flight time, but we made it through security and got to our gate to see that there was a long line of people waiting to board on our flight. So after all of the rush we wound up not needed to worry after all.

Once we arrived in the beautiful Amsterdam airport we asked around on how to get to the area of our hotel. We were informed to take the train to Central Station and then take the tram to Vondelpark. We made it to Central Station and then we were too tired to try to figure out which tram to take so we hopped in a taxi and took the easy way out to reach our hotel. The hotel was a little further out from the center of the city but the area was beautiful and the hotel room and service was amazing. For any of you that are going to Amsterdam, Hotel Central Park, I highly recommend it and it wasn't too pricey! One of the first things that amazed me about Amsterdam was the fact that almost everyone rides around on bicycles. It is their most common means of transportation and the streets are always filled with people riding around on them.. so cool.

One of the many canals of Amsterdam

Bikes eeeeverywhere!

To figure out where to go for our first night in Amsterdam we asked the guy who worked at our hotel and he told us to go to Leidseplein. This area was one of our favorites, there were a lot of people, bars, pubs, shopping, coffee shops, and tons of restaurants. When I say tons I mean this place had streets filled with every type of cuisine you could possibly want: Italian, Greek, Mexican, American, Chinese anything one right after the other!! I don't think that Dutch food is quite popular with all of the tourists...

Leidesplein

The Bulldog- Coffee shop

On the second day we were going to try to rent a scooter so we took the tram to Dam Plaza to get some info on renting one. The guy who worked there was so nice and didn't try to rip us off but rather told us that it wasn't really necessary for the small city of Amsterdam. He gave us suggestions of areas to explore, he told us to not waste our money on the Anne Frank or Van Gogh museum, but rather to explore the true areas that the city has to offer. He gave the best advice I have heard... the best things the city has to offer are always free. We took his advice and went to the famous Dutch Pancake Bakery where the "pancakes" were just one giant pancake and you could get sweet ones like at home or savory ones, with bacon or cheese. I went with banana and Matt went with bacon, both turned out being delicious.

True Dutch meal: Pancake Bakery

For our third day in Amsterdam Matt decided to live like the locals and rent a bike for the two of us, for him to drive and for me to sit on the luggage rack on the back. It was the best idea because we got to see everything and we got to travel around just like the locals and not seem like tourists. We drove all around through Dam Plaza (big shopping area), through Rembrantsplein, and then we decided to head to the Heineken Experience to take the tour of the brewery. The tour was awesome showing you the history, the change in the labels, the Heineken horses, how it's made, the ingredients, a ride that turns you into a beer, a chance to make your own personal bottle, and then a final bar with 2 free included beers. Definitely worth the 14 euros for this "museum" :)

Beside one of the machines that they use to cook the beer

Churnin the water and barley

That night we biked around, headed back to Leidesplein for dinner, and then ventured up near Central Station. We eventually ran into the Red Light District, which completely blew me away to see ugly prostitutes hanging out in the windows. Definitely a crazy, wild, city that I am totally glad we got to visit.  On our last day in Amsterdam we had until 3pm before we had to head over to the airport so we searched for an American version of breakfast, and we eventually found a place that had omelettes. We hung out close to Central Station since that was where we had to catch the train back to the airport, in a really cool coffee shop, Homegrown Fantasy, until it was time to go. The city was extremely unique in it's relaxed attitude, it's architecture, and it's way of life. Amsterdam was one of my favorite cities for suuuure!

Red Light District