When we arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday night we found our way to the airbnb via train then bus! We sure are getting good at this whole public transportation deal. We went straight to bed because we flew in so late! On our first day there we decided to take our bikes out and be like the locals! We had four people in our house but only three bikes so we went down to a local bike shop a few blocks away to rent a fourth one. Now the saying, “its just like riding a bike,” is false… because our bikes were too tall for us and it was quite an interesting experience. It was a struggle and a half but it was sooooo much fun getting to ride bikes again! Out of the residential area and into town only took us about 10-15 minutes by bike so it was super easy! We went and got pancakes at a place other people in our program told us to go to by the Heineken factory. It was called Carousel and it was delicious! Dutch pancakes are a lot closer to crepes but they are thicker. They put bacon, eggs, and cheese into the batter before cooking them!! They were absolutely delicious. We also got delicious flavored latte’s there and they were good too! After breakfast, we met up with the other girls who were with us but in a different apartment! We made our way to the I Amsterdam sign and got our pictures of course. It really is a cool scene because in the background of the sign is a beautiful museum! The architecture is very interesting and reminded me a lot of Belgium!! Right around the sign was a little market where they had Stroopwaffles. These are a dutch snack where they have two “waffles” that are more of a mix between waffles and cookies and in the middle of the two is caramel! They are absolutely life changing and brought tears to my eyes. After dying and going to heaven because of the stroopwaffles, we found a vintage store called Marble Vintage because the lady who owned the house we stayed in shops there!! It was such a cool store! Everything that they sell in the store is not vintage from every day people, but they take clothing from old sets of movies and tv shows etc and that is what they sell! So each piece of clothing has such a cool backstory! After loving the vintage store we found a famous coffee shop called Bulldogs that everyone said we had to at least see. It was a huge place with a gift shop even… so crazy! The culture there is so different! We got funny souvenirs there including the most delicious hot chocolate I have had in Europe so far (sorry Switzerland). With the hot chocolate came a collectors item mug! We then wandered through the parks on our way back to find something for dinner! The parks are so beautiful! It is so hard to find even just grass in so many cities so the grass and lakes and playgrounds were so cute! and there were so many dogs!! We then found a place for dinner that had burgers so we stopped in! I got a chicken avocado burger and I was SO happy to have avocado!! They were so delicious and so filling so we were ready to ride our bikes back to the house! The ride back was beautiful because we rode all along canals at sunset! It was breathtaking. While we were out exploring during the day we happened to run into some study abroad students that we had met in Florence so after dinner they came over to our apartment and we all went out to this local bar together! This bar was so cool it had art deco all over the walls and old records! It was so cool! and it was such a small world to be able to go with other Americans that we had met so long ago! It is such a cool experience meeting other students and connecting with them then finding them later in the semester! The next day we woke up and went back to get pancakes! This time I got apple-cinnamon and it was SO good!!! It is making me excited for breakfast food when I get home! We then walked to Central Station, stopping in little stores on the way. We were going to central station so that we could get to the tulip gardens that are in another town in the Netherlands! Netherlands and Holland are interchangeable by the way! While we were standing in line for the bus to go to the Tulip fields we met a group of boys from California who are studying in Paris! We just keep making new friends! The gardens were absolutely breathtaking!!!! The actual rows of tulip fields you cannot walk in, but you can go up in a windmill to look out over them! However, the gardens leading up to them have so many flowers! We spent so much time walking around looking at all of them! In the middle of the gardens is a big open space that had food trucks, a playground for kids, and a little river that you can take a small boat on! They had it set up so perfectly it felt like we were in a movie! And going in the windmill was so cool!! We spent so much time there and got delicious bbq sandwiches, popcorn, and more stroopwaffles! Once we got back to Amsterdam we walked around a bit more and did all of our souvenir shopping! We then went into a nicer mexican restaurant for dinner! After dinner we decided to go walk through the Red Light District obviously before it was night time and intense. We had to see what it was like and it honestly was so interesting how normal it seemed to everyone! The lights on the water were beautiful and it seemed like such a normal place for tourists to just go walk through and see what the lifestyle is like! We quickly got out though before everyone started going out in it! We then just made our way back to the house and all hung out for our last night there! We were so thankful that we had all day Sunday as well because we fit so much more in! We woke up and went for bagels this time instead of pancakes and they were delicious too! The avocado is so good here so I got a bagel with cream cheese, avocado, and tomato! I loved it! We then finally went to Heineken Experience! This was soooo cool! It is a self guided tour but it was so interactive and informative! There are different workers along the way to explain things to you and show you how brewing beer works! If the barley seeds are more roasted then the beer will be darker! I thought the tour was so interesting! After the tour we went and got starbucks then went to get lunch at a place across the street from the Heineken factory. There we got sandwiches with some kind of meet on them, truffle mayo, and some other ingredients that were amazing but I have never seen anything like it! Then the other girls had to leave for their flight but Justine, Molly, and I still had time to kill so we went back to the market by the sign and got more Stroofwaffles! Then we had to go get the extra key from a neighbor because the other girls took the key to get in before they went to the airport! After that we almost missed our flight because we were so late getting to the airport!! But we made it! With nice security guards letting us skip the line in security and running like mad through the airport we made it safe and sound!!