Amsterdam!

Last weekend I went to Amsterdam! My best friend lives in the Cité Universitaire here is Paris, and his building organized a super cheap weekend trip to Amsterdam. There were extra spots, so I could go as well. :) We all took a bus at 11pm from Paris, and we got there at 6am. 

After dropping stuff off at our hostel (Stayokay - highly recommend), we walked around a bit. Not much was open before 9am, but it was cool to explore the area by our hostel. I guess everyone trusts everyone in Amsterdam, because almost everyone's windows were open so you could see into their houses. I saw this beautiful cat in someone's window. 

The architecture is interesting as well. The houses are all super thin because people used to get taxed by how much space the houses took up width-wise, so they just made them thin and tall, instead of short and squat.

One of our friends from the residence hall is actually from Amsterdam, so he gave us a walking tour. We started off at Central Station.

Then we went and walked around the canals. It was so gorgeous with all the flowers and trees that started blooming. The weather was kind of on and off sun and rain, but still pretty nonetheless. 

I decided what I'm actually going to do in life: drop out of the world and live in a house boat in Amsterdam. 

Bikes are the most common form of transportation in Amsterdam, but there were some cars (I don't really remember more than five being driven at a time though). 

We of course went to the markets. I was very excited to see that everything here is WAY cheaper than anything in France. It was awesome. There were booths that sold flowers, cheese, olives, other foods, and even clothes and beauty products.  

I got some deeelicious olives, hummus, and stroop waffles. 

My best friend had already been to Amsterdam before, and he went to this café called Winkel that he said had really good apple pie. We kind of wandered around for a long time looking for it, but we found it at last (right after we were about to give up and go somewhere else, actually), and it was so good. Probably the best apple pie I've ever had.

Amsterdam also seemed to have a ton of amazing cafés in general. I have an obsession with French pharmacies, and my best friend has an obsession with cafés. Lets just say it was pretty amusing watching him flip over all the cool cafés there.

We also went to another market (the more touristy one with all the tulip bulbs, refrigerator magnets, and start your own pot plant kits). There was this cheese museum. It's not actually a museum, but a store. I didn't go in, but I took a few selfies with the cow (that will never ever see the internet).

I also had a quest to get me some fries while I was there. They were delicious. Although, I probably need to get my butt to Belgium if I want really exceptional fries. (Belgium is pretty well known for their fries (and chocolate, waffles, and beer of course)). 

Many pictures were taken in front of the I amsterdam thing by the Rijksmuseum. We actually didn't go to any museums while we were here. They're super expensive, and we only had one full day. I prefer what we did anyway: walk around aimlessly. 

Saturday night we also went to the red light district. I was surprised to see that there were actually red lights; I had always thought red light just meant a place you shouldn't go, not actually that there would be red lights there. Woah.

 I didn't take any pictures because this isn't that kind of blog. It was interesting. I kind of found it degrading seeing women sold in windows like meat. But it's just different and something I'm not used to. There are also a lot of pot shops and "cafés." We didn't go to any of those kind of cafés because it's just not our cup of tea, but for those that like that, it's available to you in Amsterdam. 

We left Sunday at 3pm and got back to Paris around 11pm. This is everyone passed out on the bus (except for my high Italian friend here). It was like a class trip from high school. Very nostalgic. :)

Amsterdam is probably one of my favorite cities I've been to in Europe. It just has a nice home-y feel (you really feel like you could live there), it's not too big, it's sustainable, it has all the types of food you would ever want, it's reasonably priced, and overall beautiful. The people there are really nice, too (and really well-dressed btw). Great weekend trip!