Amsterdam

And after a months-long hiatus from the blogging world, what better time to get re-involved than when I'm trying my very best to procrastinate writing my candidate work sample? Seemed like as good a time as any to me... Anyhow, I will just go ahead and start updating trip in (hopefully) the order we took them in! First up in Amsterdam.

We took the bus into Amsterdam and arrived first at a cheese factory where we were served a wonderful breakfast and given a tour. We also got to see how they make clogs both by hand and with machines! It was really cool and we even got to try some on. Clogs, despite being wooden, are actually quite comfortable. We all paraded around the shop in them and felt like Dutch natives in no time at all! When we got to the city there was a bus tour and then a walking tour where they split us into the Red Light District group and the not Red Light District group. We all went to go see the Red Light District. It was quite an experience. I really still don't know how I feel about the whole thing, but I'm glad that I got to see it. We then tried to go to the Anne Frank house, but the line was obscene, so we just spent our day meandering around the city. Amsterdam is a city built on canals just like Venice, and unlike how a canal city would be in the States, there are no guardrails. If one is not careful, one will most definitely end up in the water! I guess Europeans are just smarter than Americans, or maybe they sue less, but I definitely stayed away from the edges because I'm just a walking disaster waiting to happen! It was a fun but chilly day, and I would definitely like to go back sometime to be able to see the Anne Frank house and to also get out more into Holland to see the tulips and the windmills. Of course, that trip would need to be in the springtime, but that's fine with me! Here are some picture from our trip to Amsterdam.