What?! A new note! This can’t be true!  Well friends, yes it is.  I am finally returning to updating this blog.  These last couple of weeks have been absolutely insane.  From Amsterdam to Prague to a volcano to finals, well I just haven’t had a lot of time to blog.  Alas, I have returned.  This post is just going to talk about Amsterdam because frankly if I wrote about everything that has happened in the past 3 weeks well this could be the next bestselling novel.  Just kidding, my life’s not THAT interesting.  Without further ado…Amsterdam.  (insert lyric your favorite Amsterdam here)

Back on April 5th, Emily and I embarked on our journey to Pays-Bas aka The Netherlands.  Our wonderful friends at SNCF (train company of France) told us it would take 2 trains and 4 hours.  4 trains and approximately 6 hours later we finally arrived in Amsterdam.  I mean we did get to see more train stations in Belgium which is always exciting.  *insert sarcastic Mandi eyes here* Anyway we got there and it was…okay if you’ve been reading my blog at all you’ll be able to guess the weather…RAINING.  I know it’s hard to believe and all.  We headed to our houseboat.  Yup, we stayed on a houseboat.  Be jealous.  It was awesome.  I brushed my teeth while watching swans swim by my window on more than one location.

After our unnecessarily long trip we (okay more me) wanted to go to the Heineken factory.  Well let me throw this out there.  Amsterdam is probably the most confusing European city I have ever been in.  I don’t know if it was the fact that everything looked the same or that the roads all curved, but I was constantly lost. Anyway we couldn’t find the factory (it’s pretty far out) so we rerouted to Anne Frank’s House.  It’s crazy to think she actually lived there.  Very cool even if it was a tad expensive and did not have a student discount.  That night Emily and I had a good “oh Mandi” moment.  We were searching for a bar to go to (because you know, it’s really hard to find one in Amsterdam) and we saw all these lights so the two of us decide we should walk over there.  FYI red lights=red light district.  Who knew?  We found a bar right on the edge and had prime seats of a couple of windows.  We would time the guys going in.  Okay, it amused us.

The next day we went on the free walking tour of Amsterdam except that halfway through we decided we were bored and wanted to go to Heineken instead.  The Heineken Experience as it’s called was actually really good and we got 3 beers (granted it was 12? 15?  I can’t remember. Euro).  I also believe this was the day we discovered the Birkenstock’s are A LOT cheaper in Amsterdam.  I bought some nice white sandals.  Score.

Wednesday we headed to Keukenhof which is basically the Disneyland of flowers.  It was absolutely gorgeous and SUCH a relaxing day.  We literally spent all day looking at flowers and pondering life.  I doubt that most people who study abroad go to a flower garden, but this was so worth it.  I mean just look at this pretty swan.  Theme: I like swans.

Thursday was our last day in Amsterdam and frankly we were pretty burned out and kind of ready to go back to Lille.  We went by some of the things we hadn’t seen yet and ended up at Vondelpark which was just perfect.  The weather was wonderful and we laid in the grass and let the world turn.  Amsterdam turned out to be pretty relaxing which was awesome.

Friday we went back to Lille and this time it only took 2 trains!  Woohoo.  Overall opinion of Amsterdam: they really do the whole pot/prostitutes thing in a classy way.  I swear.  It also has a lot of pretty parks/places.  I don’t know if I’ll ever go back because I feel like I’ve seen a lot of it, but maybe one day.

Tune back in next time for adventures in Prague and stories of the volcano.  Bisous!

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