thursday night/friday morning we left the train station in lund at 1AM and we began a very very looong night. we got to copenhagen around 230AM and had to wait about 4 hours just sitting on the airport ground till we could check in for our flight. so we passed our time playing cards and trying to sleep. then at about 7AM it was time to fly!
we got to amsterdam around 9 and started off trying to find our hostel, the flying pig downtown. we found the place and it was amazing! so much fun. we had the best time there and the people were so nice and helpful. they had pool tables, a kitchen, computers with internet and skype! they served a free breakfast every morning, comfy beds, and they had amazing snacks that we could buy (we all fell in love with the toasties).
after checking in, we decided to go around the city a bit. it was raining but we're used to that now thanks to sweden.
we decided to go on a canal tour but once on board all of us ended up just passing out. we were so tired after being up for almost 3o hours. so after wasting 10euro on that canal tour, we decided to go back to the flying pig and take a nap.
so after a refreshing nap we went upstairs and hung out with all the people at the hostel and we met a lot of really nice people from all over the world!
the next day we woke up early hoping to take a bike tour, but we managed our time wrong and it took us longer to get to the meeting point so we didnt end up making it there in time. so instead we had a museum day. we started off at the rijks museum. it was in this amazing building and it had lots of rembrandt artwork.
afterwards we got some lunch and then headed to the van gogh museum. the museum was amazing. getting to see all the paintings that i had only seen in books so it was a lot of fun. we started getting restless from looking at paintings all day so towards the end we started making up our own titles to the paintings and trying to interpret what the artist was trying to say. then we tried to look for the "iamsterdam" sign. i wanted to get a picture with it so desperately. we searched all over for it, but we couldnt find out where it was! i had seen a picture of where it was supposed to be but it wasnt there so i was upset! so finally we asked someone and they told us that the city moves the sign every so often and they had just moved it the week before! they had moved it to the outskirts of town by the olympic stadium! so im sad to say we never got to it! :(
so after a long day of museums we went and got some dinner and headed back to the hostel. we spent the evening at the hostel again. it was so much fun and the people were so friendly that we ended up never making it out even though we planned on it!
the next morning we woke up again to try and do the bike tour, but this time it was raining and windy so the guide told us that we would probably enjoy the tour more if we came back the next day. soooo we decided to go to madame tussauds wax museum which turned out to be very entertaining! it was a little creepy how realistic some of the wax celebrities looked but it was fun to take pictures!
afterwards we went back to the hostel to clean up and get ready to go to the anne frank house. we got a little lost trying to find the place, but we got there eventually. the place was amazing and it was weird to think that we were in a place that we had all read about and where so much history had taken place. it was very powerful and afterwards to make ourselves feel better we went to the hard rock cafe to stuff ourselves. we had the most amazing dinner and ate waaay too much!
afterwards we went back to the hostel and met with some of the people we had met there and decided to take a tour of the red light district. it was so weird and funny and unbelievable that something like that exists. it was completely different from what i thought.
the next morning we woke up early (again!) to finally take the bike tour! it was soo much fun. we got to go all throughout the countryside and see a totally different side of amsterdam! we got to see a windmill, a cheese factory, and clog factory. the cheese place was amazing. its this little family owned place and they made amazing cheese! we each bought some and plan to have a wine and cheese night!
the tour lasted about 4 hours and it was probably one of our favorite things we did while in amsterdam. afterwards our trip sadly was over. we went back to the flying pig and packed our bags and headed back to the airport!
it was an amazing trip and the girls were so much fun! we had such a great time together and were sad when it all had to end! but fortunately for me i still have 2 more trips coming up! london next weekend and budapest in 3 weeks!
oh and we are so fortunate that we took our trip when we did! we used the airline sterling, and yesterday the company went bankrupt! so all flights are cancelled and everyone lost their money! so we could have been stuck in amsterdam with no way to get home (that wouldnt have been so bad!) and if i had planned another trip with them i would have lost all that money! i know a lot of people that had travel plans for this coming weekend who are now out of plane tickets and are not getting reimbursed for their loses! ah im just glad that didnt happen to us!
so this weekend i have a couple of papers i need to work on and then a week from today i leave for LONDON!!!
i hope its a little warmer there! its been so cold here lately like in the low 30's and it gets dark at around 4:30!
hope california is a little warmer and everyone has a good halloween!
miss you lots
love you more
train station 1AM
enormous wooden shoe
rijksmuseum
soo many canals!
world peace at the wax museum.
the start of our bike tour!
our bike gang.
windmill!
the clog and cheese factory!
1 comment:
Looks like that bike tour was worth the wait! :-) I was beginning to feel your frustration, and thinking "I hope they get to do the bike tour!" LOL
Amsterdam is such a fun place! When I need a quick break from the countryside, I head for Amsterdam.
I enjoyed reading about your trip!
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