Amsterdam Recap

When we left for Amsterdam last Friday it was actually sunny and beautiful in Luxembourg.  Too bad we were on a train and heading straight into more darkness.  That being said, the weekend in Amsterdam was a blast!  Even better than Antwerp and Bruges.  I don't have too many pictures worth putting up from this weekend so instead you're going to get a play by play of the weekend...this is definitely not something I plan on doing for each trip.

We got into the city pretty late and wandered around like the Americans we are, trying to figure out what tram to take to our apartment.  After talking to some locals and a friendly cop we figured out how to get to the apartment we had rented out for the weekend.  Once settled in we decided to go out into the city and find some food and a beer...or four.  The first night was a blast and surprise, surprise we found other Miami students at a...wait for it...Irish Pub.  Irish Pub are pretty much our go to spot due to the fact that the bartenders speak English, don't seem to hate Americans, and definitely don't care when 20 or more students take over the whole place and treat it like a bar back in Oxford (of course we didn't actually do this)...

Much to our surprise we actually woke up early on Saturday morning and set out for the day.  First on the agenda was going to the "IAMSTERDAM" sign that tourist like to take pictures in front of.  Best part of spot was the little cafe we had breakfast in next to the sign where I had my first fried eggs and bacon since being in Europe.  Next stop was the Van Gogh museum.  This museum has the largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world.  We saw some of his most famous paintings and had a really awesome audio guided tour.  After the museum we saw the sun for about twenty minutes so that was really great and put us in the mood for some food.  Street food = more money for other things, so of course we had Amsterdam's version of the hot dog which was pretty good and only one token.  Side note - we have dubbed the 2€ coin a "token."  Most often referred to as a "beer token", since at the bar at school the beer of choice happens to cost 2€.  I digress.  Next stop was the Heineken Experience.  It's called the Heineken Experience because it's much more interactive and fun than a typical brewery tour.  Hard to explain or compare it to something but someone said it's kind of like a "beer amusement park."  Finding somewhere to eat dinner was an adventure but we ended up in some soccer pub that was adequate.  After wandering around downtown a bit with no real plan we went back to our headquarters...the Irish pub from the night before.  This night we really did take over the place and packed it full with pretty much every Miami student that was in Amsterdam for the weekend.  After we closed the pub down for the night it was back to the apartment and a wonderful night sleep on the couch.

Going to the zoo on Sunday morning didn't happen and we all slept way past our alarms.  Oh well.  It was worth it because we had about 7 hours of traveling ahead of us for the day.  100  or so games of Euchre later we were back in Luxembourg.

Off to Rome, Pesaro, Arezzo, Pisa, and Milan on Saturday.  I promise to take lots of pictures!


Edit:
Here's one picture from Amsterdam for your viewing pleasure...

"IAMSTERDAM" Sign