Hello hello!!!
Sorry for not posting last week, it was CAPA’s break week so I didn’t really pay that much attention to my computer since I went to the Netherlands for a week!
I know you guys have fall break at Rollins way earlier than us, but our break week just ended, remarking that we are just half way done with our adventure here in London… I know, it’s sad isn’t it? .. The really really fun part is that we get to travel around Europe as we please during break week!
Everybody in CAPA went to different places, the most popular being Italy and Spain, but I have also heard people went to all sorts of places including Iceland, Marrocco, Poland, Budapest, Greece, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris and of course Amsterdam! Many people decided to hire tours and traveled around Europe with a big group of students from London, others decided to go solo and traveled by themselves. In my particular case, one of my oldest friends is currently studying abroad in the Netherlands and so I decided to visit her.. we had not seen each other since two years ago, so you can imagine how excited we both were when I bought the tickets.
My friend lives in Tilburg, a city that’s 2 hours away from Amsterdam by train. Since she had class during the first half of the week, I went to Tilburg and stayed at her place. This rural-ish city gave me a nice break from the massive city of London, in contrast, it was really calmed and super small.. also very very cold (colder than London), humid, cloudy and with an insane amount of bikes.
After she was done with classes, we decided to go to the Hague, for those of you who do not know, this city is very special because it is the “government city” of the Netherlands and it also hosts the European Head Quarters of the UN. My friend and I were part of out High School’s Model of United Nations and so we were stoked to be there and see all the embassies and stuff.
Then, we went to THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM! It was amazing… My parents were not happy when I told them I was going there because the image they have of the place is “The city of sin”, however, being there and getting to know the culture actually helped me understand that “Amsterdam is the city of freedom and in freedom most people find sin”.
Amsterdam is one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. All the canals, boats, bikes, cafes, museums, etc… it was such a special experience, especially because my friend had lived there for a year so she knew all the cool places to go to. Let me show you some of the things I saw…
Like the “SkyLounge”, a rooftop restaurant/club that serves the best cocktails in the city.
This is a really cool Venezuelan restaurant that we randomly found in the middle of the floating flowers market!… And we also randomly found another friend while we were eating there… The world is really small.
The classic picture with the letters… with a tiny twist because this city really is mainstream.
We went to one of the many many museums in Amsterdam and this was my favorite piece… made out of cocktail stirrers btw.
Amsterdam is known for its many Coffee Shops… where they do not sell any coffee if you know what I mean. (If you don’t, jus think… what is the one green thing that is legal in Holland)
This is me trying to be artsy and taking a picture of the preffered method of transportation in The Netherlands… Fun fact: there are more bicicles than people in Amsterdam.
The typicla picture of one of the dozens of canals in Amsterdam, they are literally everywhere.
Oh yea! I didn’t know this but Dutch people are apparently famous for their cheeses… I saw sooooo many different types while I was there.
The best cafe I have ever been to… not because of the coffee, it was aight, but because they literally let you sit wherever you want, on the floor, the stairs, cauches, sofas, chairs, tables, the bar, etc… As you can see, I ate on the floor… This is also Martin Garrix’ favorite hang out spot, unfortunatelly he was in Rotterdam when I went to Amsterdam so I did not get to see him.
Another exhibition at the modern art museum I mentioned before, it was so cool it deserved to be mentioned again.
Also! If you are ever planning to visit Amsterdam, try to go to the Museum N8… A night when all 57 museums are open until 2 am and they transform them into clubs so you get the best of both worlds! It is only 20 euros and you get unlimited access to all museums, food, drinks, music, and exhibition..; just take a look >
I know this post was really long, thank you for reading until the very end…
l will be back next week with more on my London adventures and who knows, I might end up traveling this weekend as well because Europe is hella cool!