Anne Frank House
It is really difficult to get tickets to the Anne Frank House (they fill up about a month to a month and a half in advance), but some tickets open up the week of at random times. My friend Leah constantly refreshed the page and a few days before we left she managed to find four tickets, so we were able to go! It was a really well put together museum, and after always learning so much about Anne Frank it was really interesting to see the actual spaces that she wrote about.
FoOoOd
Amsterdam was a definite hit when it came to food. On Saturday, we went to an amazing apple pie shop called Winkle that my roommate recommended. The Netherlands produces a crazy amount of apples, and apple pie is a really traditional dish there, so naturally this was perhaps the best one I’ve ever had. We also grabbed amazing stroopwafle, which is essentially thin waffles with cinnamon and caramel in between them. And, last but definitely not least, the Dutch cheese! There were cheese tasting museums all around the city, and you could go into them and try over 30 types of cheese (my favorite was a pesto sun dried tomato gouda – HEAVENLY!). They dip them in various mustards, which is surprisingly delicious. And, best of all, it’s totally free.
Tulips
On Sunday we spent the morning walking around the city and then drove out to Keukenhof to see the famous Dutch tulips before our flight home. Even though they were not out in full bloom, and so the picturesque rows of flowers that normally come up when you google it were not there, it was still really gorgeous. We walked around the gardens and ate ice cream and just flourished in the beautiful weather before flying home!!
Other Highlights
Our Airbnb hosts, a cute older couple, gave us traditional Danish cheese with mustard and stroopwafles the first night we arrived! It was a great foreshadowing of the niceness of the Dutch people, which is a welcome change from the more reserved Danes.
Another really cool part of the experience was seeing the red light district. It was weird to walk around in broad daylight in the middle of the city, and to turn a corner and see girls in windows. On Friday, in my Gender Perspectives on Human Rights class, we studied prostitution and the sex trade, specifically in Amsterdam. So, it was really interesting to be there the next day and see the reality of what I had just learned about.
My Dutch friend
This summer while solo-traveling in Budapest, I met Britt, a Dutch girl who was also traveling alone. We spent two days straight together, and I promised her that if I ever came to Amsterdam I would let her know. Almost a year later, she took a train over two hours to come spend the day with me and my friends! It was so much fun to see her again, and having her there to show us around the city made the experience so much better.
My only regrets for the weekend were not being able to do a canal tour, not going to see the amazing art museums in the area, and not having the flowers in full bloom. However, I feel like Amsterdam is a place that I am going to definitely visit again, so I am not worried.
Overall it was such an amazing weekend, full of new fun experiences and food as well as reconnecting with old friends . To any considering a trip to Amsterdam, it is well worth it. Go go go!!!! Dag (bye) for now!
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Maya is a senior International Studies major, spending the spring 2018 semester in Denmark through DIS Study Abroad in Scandinavia.
Read more from Maya at travelingpapaya.wordpress.com
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