Day 1: Thursday, 11/11
On Thursday, I packed and headed to class, luggage in tow. I left my 1:30 class a little early (it usually ends at 2:50), and I took the metro then bus to the Ruzyne airport. My flight was leaving Prague at 4:35 and getting to the Schipol airport in Amsterdam at 6:40. Our flight was delayed (of course) but by around 9 we were checked in and settled into our hotel. I had traveled with 3 girls who are in my program and since our Amsterdam weekends coincided, we also booked the same hotel. The hotel (a mix of a hotel and hostel, actually) was tiny and had bunk beds, but was right off of Damrak - the main street from the train station so it was a great location. We were too tired to do much of anything except scavenge around for food. We went to an Italian place for dinner and I had the beef cannelloni. I guess the cons of having a €6 dinner in a sit down restaurant is that the portions may leave you still hungry afterward... so on the way back to the hotel I picked up a cone of fries. These things were sold everywhere on stands and small street shops, and came with a variety of options for the sauces... I was boring and chose the ketchup - and discovered European ketchup is incredibly sweet.
Day 2: Friday, 11/12
We woke up ready to start a day of exploring Amsterdam. We first got breakfast at Renee's, a small local bakery with a ton of fresh baked goods. I got the waffle topped with hardened chocolate. I also picked up a snack for later: traditional dutch Oliebolen (fried dough with raisins). Stopping by some souvenir shops on the way, we went to the tulip market. It's around 150 years old and on the Singel canal. The Netherlands is famous for tulips, windmills, and wooden clogs... and we found a ton of all of these things here (but mostly the tulips).
Tulip Market
Inside one of the stores
Next up? Finding the Rijksmuseum. The great thing about Amsterdam is that everything is in walking distance, so we also got to see a lot of the city just in walking from place to place. We had a quick lunch at Bagels and Beans before heading into the museum. I had the bagel with hummus there, and if I haven't mentioned before, the Czech Republic does not know what bagels are. The Rijksmuseum is all about Dutch art, crafts, and history. We spent a couple of hours there, and it was all pretty interesting - especially since I had little to no prior knowledge about any of the historical information.
By the time we were finished, it was already getting dark outside when we stepped out to the Museumplein. This is a grass square with a pond and fountain. And of course this is where the famous I Amsterdam sign is! There were a ton of people there at the time, but we still took plenty of pictures.
Rijksmuseum with gardens outside
I Amsterdam sign
After spending a sufficient amount of time at the sign, it was time to eat. We found a Chinese buffet and had dinner there before heading back to the hotel to get some much needed rest.
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