Amsterdam!

This past weekend, my friends John, Nick, Rob, Sean, and I all went to Amsterdam! It was a really fun trip, and definitely out of our comfort zone.
We got to Amsterdam Friday night, had a bit of trouble finding our hostel since it was outside the city, and a lot of locals thought it was funny to steer us in the wrong direction, but after an hour and a half of walking, we found it!
Saturday we woke up early and went to the Anne Frank house which was right near our hostel. It was really moving to walk throughout the house and read handwritten excerpts from her diary, and actually see and walk around in the small rooms that were hidden upstairs for Anne and the seven other people who were in hiding. After this, we explored Amsterdam a bit, got acquainted with some of the local culture, and then we went to the Heineken factory - which was super fun! It was a really cool brewery tour, much different than Guinness. We also got two free drinks and a taste testing lesson! Also, there was a virtual reality ride of how Heineken is brewed where you stand on a moving platform with a screen in front of you. You get sprayed and kinda wet during it, and it does actually feel like you're being brewed and bottled. Saturday night we also took a nighttime canal tour, which was really awesome. The canals are so beautiful and it was super relaxing to take a boat around them.

a canal in amsterdam

heineken brewery

bottling station

coffeeshop

Sunday, we went to the I AMsterdam sign, and met up with one of John and my friends from Saint Mike's Sarah, who is doing a semester abroad in Amsterdam with the program SIT, and she is doing a research project on masculinity and femininity in the Netherlands and Morocco (she's amazing). We got some waffles on a side street (mmm delicious!) and then went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was amazing!!! He's one of my favorite artists so I loved the museum and seeing the progression of his work, some of his most famous pieces, and some work from the artists that inspired him. Then the five of us headed to a Competition, which the details are not for all readers, so I won't say any more! Later that day,  we met back up with Sarah and she gave us a tour of the Red Light District. It was semi-uncomfortable, but really eye-opening, and Sarah, having actually taken a lecture on prostitution in the Netherlands, gave me a ton of history and facts about the area, a lot of which were really interesting. We then all went out for some Belgian beer and then called it a night.

bikes, bikes, and more bikes!

I AMsterdam sign!

One thing about Amsterdam that was really cool was how many people bike. EVERYONE bikes. There are bike lanes that are about as big as car lanes, and according to Sarah, bikes have the right of way before anything else (cars, pedestrians, trams, taxis, buses, etc). That was pretty cool to see, and I'm glad none of us got run over by bikers, although there were some close calls!

Overall, it was an interesting trip! It was kinda hard to navigate around the city, since the layout of Amsterdam is really confusing, and it's also hard to understand people and read signs/maps in Dutch. Also, the locals tend to be not friendly towards Americans, so that was another hurdle we had to cross. It is such an interesting place to visit just because it's such a different and much more tolerant atmosphere than the United States. Overall, I'm really glad I went, it was certainly an adventure, but I'm also super happy to be back in Cork, with the friendly Irishmen, cozy atmosphere, good food, and all the green!