Amsterdam, Netherlands

Just a 2-and-a-half hour train ride from Brussels, I had to check it out while I was in the neighborhood. Unbelievable city. Stepping into Amsterdam is stepping into a different world. The city itself is beautiful (see some of my pictures in my album!)--I'll try and describe how this city is laid out. A combination of factors give the city a sort of fairy tale feel to it. The city is built around canals and every time you turn a corner there is a new line of beautiful canals to greet you. Lining the water are storybook-looing houses/buildings all stacked up close to eachother in a rainbow of pastels. Very cute :) There are cobbled streets, weeping willows, and tons of inviting parks, benches and sights to see! The canals are also littered with houseboats (I loved them) and Oz and I took a took a canal boat tour so I was lucky to get some good shots of the houseboats from the water. Overall, very attractive city with neverending sights to see. The transportation system there seemed a little messy to me, though! They had trams and cars and bikers and pedestrians and boats in the canals and every form of transportation basically sharing the same space--it made crossing the street a little difficult at some points!

Aside from the striking sights, Amsterdam is notorious for two things: soft drugs are legal and its red light district. The red light district is also just a fun place for going out, housing most of the bars and nightlife of the city. Although their liberal policies probably seem very taboo to many, the dutch philosophy is along these lines: allow alternative ways of living or build more prisons. They believe in curbing the sale of street drugs and educating youth about drugs rather than striclty saying don't do them. They have few problems with drug abuse or crimes in general, which may or may not stem from their lenient views and laws. So that being said, it was a really interesting learning experience being in a place so different from the US!!!

Aside from taking in the awe of the red light district, we did a lot of strolling the streets and admiring the canals and views. We toured the Anne Frank House which was a really sobering experience. The tour was really interesting and did a really stunning job of helping you understand what really happened during the Holocaust. The tour walked you through details of the 8 people in hiding in the Anne Frank House--how they lived, what they looked like, how they were found, etc. Worth the money.

Like I mentioned earlier, we also took a relaxing canal tour right before leaving, allowing us to see the city from a whole new vantage point :) It was quite a nice way to end the trip--it wound us through the canals, took us out to the harbor and showed us some of the sights we had missed along the way. We hit a few tourist souvenier shops on the way out (I got a keychain--a dutch shoe with amsterdam written on it haha--and some postcards) and borded the train Saturday late afternoon. Fascinating city, fun people and an overall successful trip!!