Well as mentioned briefly before, Amsterdam really wasn’t as grand as we hoped, expected, and were told it would be. Upon arriving our hostel was so disgusting we immediately began searching for somewhere else. I had a hard time booking somewhere there to begin with because the options were either in the red light district or above a coffee shop, neither of which I was too keen on. We found a moderate hotel not far from our hostel and moved there for our last 2 nights. It was much nicer but the receptionist guy got in this big argument with me when we arrived and after that I was just out on Amsterdam. We did get to do some nice things, and we wonder if we would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so hot (and if our rooms had proper ventilation) and if our hostel situation wasn’t so awful.
GOOD THINGS:
-Van Gogh museum was great! But it was SO crowded we had to listen to our headphones the entire time just to stay sane! But we got to see some of my favorite pieces of his and the museum was broken up into the different movements the artist went through so it was interesting to see how he progressed and his subject matter, etc.
-Anne Frank House: although neither of us read her diary, we were familiar with the story and the museum explained everything very well. It was amazing to see how they were hidden and find out what happened to them. Apparently Amsterdam had been a bit of a haven for the Jewish people for a long time, so when the Nazis came it dramatically affected the city because of how many Jewish families were there. So sad. Its been interesting to travel through Europe and see how the war deeply effected each of the countries. What a crazy time.
-Free walking tour: we only made it half way through, it was SO hot and neither of us were feeling very well. But we got to see some parts of the city we hadn’t before and learned more about the history of the city. Oddly enough, the Berlin tour was WAY more interesting. I think Amsterdam just gets all the hype, maybe that’s why we were disappointed?
-Vondel Park: huge park right by our hostel/hotel! Our first two nights when we had to stay in the shitty hostel, we would go to the park until it was dark and we HAD to go back to our room. Haha, it wasn’t that funny at the time but it was a great park. Everybody is there with there dogs (they don’t have leashes here, crazy! But the dogs are really well trained and just follow their owner…even on super busy streets!), and friends are picnicing by the ponds, jogging, biking...its just a really great park.
-shopping: we did a little shopping, you should know that we are SO sick of all our clothes were going crazy! after the second week we were already sick of all of them. its been so hot a lot of the places we go, that we have to change half way through the day...this makes us go through our clothes even faster! i didnt buy anything, but cassie got a cute new dress shes going to wear tonight, yay!
so that was Amsterdam. pretty meh. but i know some people love it so i guess to each his own.
we're in Paris now, we got in yesterday afternoon but hadnt had any sleep (stupid hotel on a busy street and it was SO hot) so we just rested last night. unfortunatly i seem to have caught something, my tummy is bothering me and i have a bit of a fever...actually when im not on ibprofun i feel pretty awful. so i sent cassie to the Louvre for the day and im home resting:( its really weird when we are apart, we had a hard time seperating today...haha. our beds are across the room from each other here and its got us all discombobulated...she keeps sneaking over to my bed to visit me. I'm concerned about her moving away for 6 years...this is going to be interesting.
tonight we go out with the boys so I'm trying to get better to be ready for that! tomorrow i think we're going to the musee de orsay which is a great museum in an old beautiful train station. while we're here we are also going to try and do the free walking tour and see all the main sites and picnic in front of the eiffel tower, go to Versaille for the day, and try and get to the sacre de cour.
we miss you all and im looking forward to some of the comforts of home. cassie is looking forward to camping! but of course, Paris is amazing!!! i never want to leave! in fact, im about to look of nannying jobs in Europe right now...mwahaha.
love from Paris!
Van Gogh Museum
Rembrandt's House
