After a short school week I headed off to Amsterdam with Zach, Jordan, Madeline, Katrina, Clarke, Lukas, and Meesh; a group of people from Indiana and Illinois schools. We left for Cork Thursday evening in order to make our 6am flight to Amsterdam. I had not planned anywhere to stay, expecting to maybe sleep in the airport, only to find it doesn't open until the following morning (Dublin airport is open 24 hours). However some of the girls booked a hotel room right next to the airport so I just gave them some cash and stayed in that room - only 20 euro so basically the price of a hostel.
We got to Amsterdam the next morning and split up to find our hostels. I was waiting for Ryan Costello to arrive that night to meet up with me. I went with the Depauw girls (Madeline, Katrina, Clarke) to check-in at their hostel, and check-in at my hostel which was close by. They ended up backing out of their hostel due to the condition it was in: nasty, sketchy people, sketchy employees, overall unpleasant place. They had to pay the total price (around 200 euro) for the stay, and booked a hotel somewhere close by.
Side bar: They purposefully didn't book the hostel I was staying in because it got bad reviews...my hostel was clean, had pleasant staff and people in the hostel.
We went to the city centre and explored a couple touristy spots: the Van Gough Museum, different parks.
They wanted to go take a nap so I walked around and took pictures of the canals and different buildings during the sunset. Quick ran back to the hostel and took a nap before Costello arrived. I met up with him and we started the evening. We had a few brews in the hostel and headed out on the town.
**Attention: parents and family members in the generations above mine and below mine may want to refrain from reading between the rows of stars - I know this may not deter you, but I warned you**
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We went out to a local coffee shop and met some people from Paris and continued to have a very pleasant conversation with them. We bought drinks there because apparently you have to in order to stay there. They don't offer alcoholic drinks in the coffee shops, which makes perfect sense - they don't want people getting to twisted and crazy in the nice calm environments. We tried to meet up with the other crews of kids I came with, but our agendas didn't line up and they ended up going in earlier than us that evening. We explored further in the town and ended up in the red light district, which is pretty disgusting. Women standing in front of glass doors waiting for people to walk in and pay for services...so I figured why not? Just kidding, that's nasty. We ended up at a bar and posted up at a table and enjoyed the vices of the city, while watching Nascar. We meandered back to the hostel around 3am or so, and fell right asleep to prepare for another fun filled day.
The next day we woke up and HAD to get the pancakes because we were told they were delicious, and they were. Another day of working our way around the city - the coffee shops and canals made it very difficult to find our way around. However we did make it to a couple more touristy spots. We came upon a delicious treat that was apparently their seasonal treat - some apple filled danish type thing. It was fantastic. The next evening and night was very similar to the first, but we headed to different places. A lot of the coffees hops had some of the nicest environments in my opinion. Nothing too crazy like a club, or over crowded bar. We didn't go to the clubs because we didn't actually know where the 'cool' ones are, and didn't meet up with the other group that went to a club.
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**Continue reading here: Sunday morning we woke up and met up with the rest of the group and hung around the city getting ready to get on the plane. I met up with Richie to begin our next adventure: Belgium! See the next post for details on that!
Slán
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