Thursday, November 16, 2017

Adventures in the Netherlands


After my weekend in Paris, I took a train with Jess and Bobbi to Maastricht, where they are studying this semester! We got in pretty late on Sunday night so we just unpacked and went to bed when we got there.

On Monday, we headed to the grocery store first thing in the morning to stock up on food for the week (pretty exciting stuff, I know!). After we cooked breakfast, Jess and I headed into town and she gave me a little tour of the city. Maastricht has two main squares surrounded by a ton of cute shops and restaurants. It was so cute and quaint and I could definitely tell why she loves it so much! We stopped into an old church that had been converted into a book store and coffee shop for a little snack before Jess had to head to class.

this bookstore/cafe was so unique!
a sunny day in the city, featuring my tour guide!
The university Jess and Bobbi go to operates on a quarter system so they were starting a whole new set of classes that week. I hung out in one of the school buildings and got some work done while they had their lectures. It just so happened that Villanova course registration for the Spring was going on while I was on my break so it was nice to have some down time to plan out my schedule (and I also edited my video from Paris!). When they got out of class, we headed back into town in pursuit of Halloween costumes! The university was hosting a Day of the Dead party that night so we got big flower crowns and masks for the occasion. And, after much deliberation, we decided on a rocker chick theme for our actual Halloween costumes, after being inspired by Rolling Stones tee shirts we found at H&M. Post-shopping we got delicious Belgian waffles at Pinky's, a waffle chain that you can find on almost every street in Maastricht (or so it seemed).

the food tour of Europe continues...
The next day was pretty much the same, but after class we watched It to get in the Halloween spirit. None of us particularly like scary movies so I'm not sure why we thought that was a great idea!! One of the university housing buildings set up a haunted house that night which was even more terrifying after seeing the movie just a few hours before. Wednesday was spent recovering from our Halloween festivities and exploring the other side of Maastricht, across the canal, where there are some nicer shops and restaurants. We got bagels at Jess' favorite bagel place followed by macarons for dessert.

unfortunately the stores on this side of the river were a bit out of our price range
After Jess and her friend Rachael got out of class on Thursday, we headed straight to the train station and hopped on a train to Amsterdam! Our Airbnb was a cute little family apartment located on the second floor of a building with some killer stairs - I swear they were almost vertical. We settled in and ordered burritos for dinner (I will literally take any chance for Mexican food I can get).

On Friday morning, Ashlee arrived and we headed to the city center for a breakfast of traditional Dutch pancakes. I had an epiphany moment during the meal when I realized that one of my favorite restaurants in London, My Old Dutch, served the same kind of crepe-like pancakes. Kind of makes sense when the word 'Dutch' is in the name but I never put two and two together. Afterwards, we walked around the canals for a while and popped into a few shops. That afternoon we went to the Museumplein, the park where all of the art museums - and the iconic I Amsterdam sign - are located. We had seen an ad for the Moco museum while we were walking around and decided to take a look. They had a super cool Banksy exhibit featuring some original work from the street artist and it was super cool!

I went for the banana nutella
the canals are so pretty!!!
I loved how different Banksy's artwork was from all the traditional art we saw in Paris
some words to live by
Amsterdam sign round one
Afterwards, we tried to go to a famous avocado restaurant that went viral on Facebook over the summer but the wait was way too long so we got dumplings instead - and Ashlee got to learn how to use chopsticks :) Next stop was the tulip market, a huge street full of tulip bulbs and flowers for sale. We thought there wouldn't be any flowers since it's not really tulip season, but surprisingly there were a few! And the entire ceiling was covered in hanging dried flowers which was beautiful - and they smelled amazing.

flowers as far as the eye could see
That evening Jess and I had booked tickets for the Anne Frank House. We were a little early for our time slot so we got to walk around the canals at night for a little bit which was so pretty. The actual tour consisted of an audio guide that read excerpts from Anne's diary and told the story of her life leading up to, during, and after her time living in the annex. We got to see the actual rooms her and her family lived in which was so surreal. The nazis took all the furniture when they raided the annex and the apartment is exactly how they left it. Anne and her sister's heights were marked on the wall and the actual magazine clippings they used to decorate the walls were still there. The mood throughout the whole exhibit was so somber. We talked for a while afterwards about how unbelievable it is that people were just going about their daily lives while this family lived for two years in hiding fearing for their lives. Definitely a heavy experience but I'm glad I got to experience that piece of history.

canals by night
Afterwards, Bobbi arrived from Maastricht and we met back up at the apartment for dinner. That night we took a walk through the Red Light District. It was a bizarre and slightly sad experience that left us feeling a little grimy. When in Amsterdam, I suppose!

The next morning we got a delicious brunch at The Corner Bakery before heading back to the Museumplein. We had planned on going to the Van Gogh museum, but unfortunately did not book tickets ahead of time. The wait was going to be two hours so we decided against it (but now I have a reason to go back!). We walked around the city some more before deciding to take a canal tour. It was really cool to see the city from water level and learn more about its history! That night we had a girls night in and got wine and a ton of snacks and talked about our week together. It was crazy to think that I had only met most of the girls I was with just a few days before. We're already planning a reunion in New York City this summer :)

a little fruit to balance out our all-pastry diet
Amsterdam sign round two - love this crew!!
Bright and early on Sunday morning, I said my sad goodbyes and headed to the airport to catch my flight back to Copenhagen. I couldn't have asked for a better week and I'm so happy I got to explore two new cities with my best friends. I couldn't be luckier.

Click here if you want to watch the video from my adventures in the Netherlands:





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