Amsterdam

I'll talk about Amsterdam, but I just found out that I can watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report over here!!! There's no TVs in our apt and I can't watch Hulu, Netflix instant queue, CBS, NBC or any of those networks online. It's also nice because then I know what's going on in the world. Important things such as Anthony Weiner's wiener hahaha. What would I do without the Daily Show?? Ooo also another side note, I found zip lock containers!!! I just now have to find zip lock bags...who thought other countries wouldn't have something like that?

Being in Amsterdam made me really appreciate family vacations. 12 of us made a last minute decision to book a flight and go to Amsterdam the next day. We booked a hotel for the first night but then we had to find hotels for the next two nights while we were there. It was so hard finding hotels! It was also so stressful! And it was hard to keep in contact with all 12 of us especially since only a few of us had cellphones and it was expensive to call. Everything was in euros too so it was costly. Small bottles of water cost 2 euros! While a liter of water in Prague costs $1! It made me miss family vacations because my mom makes all the plans, keeps track of everything, and pays for everthing. I'm just in it for the ride! I don't have to stress out about every single little thing. It also made me homesick. Thinking that it's only been 2 weeks and I have 7 more to go didn't help. But now that I'm back in Prague, which is my home away from home, I'm ok. I do have to say, I like Prague more than Amsterdam. Everyone was pretty happy to go home. You can do Amsterdam in two days easily, we were there one day too long.

We did do some fun things in Amsterdam. I went to the Van Gogh museum. That was amazing. They had so many of his most famous works and they set it up so you saw the paintings chronologically. I guess Van Gogh wrote a lot of letters to his brother talking about the paintings he made and about his life. Next to each painting it would have an exert from a letter he sent to his brother about the picture and talked about that time period in his life. It was really interesting. My friend went there another day than I did and ran into Kristen Wiig at the museum! She is on SNL and is the main person in the movie Bridesmaids. She went up to her and told her she loved her and that she was her idol and asked if she could take a picture with her. She said she didn't think so because you can't take pictures in the museum but she could sign something. My friend had nothing for her to sign so Kristen Wigg offered her a hug and she's like yes! She seems like a really nice person. My friend was beyond happy.

I also saw the I Amsterdam sign, Anne Frank's house, and went on the Heineken Experience tour. The line for Anne Frank's house was incredibly long, but we knew it'd be long. We thought it was going to be a two hour wait but it turned out to just be 50 minutes so that wasn't too bad. It was really interesting. They gave us a pamphlet while waiting in line and it gave a summary of her life, the events that happened, and some exerts from her diary. We got to go behind the bookcase and saw where they lived. I can't even imagine living there for as long as they did before they were caught. They also had a section where it talked about injustices everywhere. The museum is there to remember and make sure nothing ever happens like this again. I would definitely recommend going there.

The Heineken Experience was fun. The tour consisted of mostly Americans. It was a fun tour. It talked about hops and barley, their purpose, how they make beer, and how you know what makes beer good. It also explained the history behind the Heineken. They had some fun interactive things there too.

Everyone in Amsterdam was really nice, except for the cab that ripped us off. I'm still a little bitter about that. Otherwise it was a lot of fun and basically everyone speaks English. It's very English friendly. Oh some other interesting things I've noticed in Amsterdam, everyone rides a bike in Amsterdam. They are extremely bike friendly. Not too pedestrian friendly. They'll run you over if you don't move fast enough. Also, I went to some clubs there. They had an amazing atmosphere and the music was good, but no one was really dancing. They were just mostly swaying, not dancing too much, which was not too fun. They danced like that mostly everywhere. My friends went to this one place and the cotton-eye-joe song came on and we started doing the cotton-eye-joe dance and then I noticed we were the only ones doing it...and everyone was staring at us lol. People also smoke at the bars in Amsterdam in Prague, which I don't like. I actually accidentally burned myself one someone's cigarette last night! It was weird just being burned all of a sudden and being like what just happened, then I saw the person I walked past had a cigarette. Some restaurants in Amsterdam let us know that people could smoke weed but your not allowed to smoke cigarettes, which I found interesting. Also, tourists are not going to be able to smoke in Amsterdam's coffeehouses when December comes around. Amsterdam is passing a law that comes into effect around then. I wonder if a lot of businesses will go out of business, I'm sure a lot of income comes from tourists.

I'm staying here in Prague for the weekend. A lot of my friends are going to Barcelona, but after last weekend it will be good to stay in Prague. I might go to the zoo, or to the botanical gardens, or maybe go paddle boating on the river, or maybe do all three! All while eating gelato lol.