Amsterdam was the place I was most excited to go back to the entire trip. And we actually made great time which all of us were very thankful for considering the last bus ride. We were able to check in freshen up and eat breakfast before the walking tour! We met in dam square and right off the bat we could tell our tour guide was going to be hilarious. She was one of those blunt humor kind of people and again a very happy person- still going with the tour guide trend. She brought us all through Amsterdam to see all the historical spots and even gave us some inside info on dating a dutch man. They are very cheap. Not like the typical American oh can we go to Applebee's for the date special like the oh your meal was this much so can you pay your half. Yes this is real life. She even told us her friend went on a date and a few days later received a text from her date, informing her she owed him blank amount of money..... Well she gave him the amount of the entire bill and said never call me again- so easy to say most people don't put up with this. But hey I would pay for my meal if it meant I could date one of those athlete tall, model, blonde dutch men.
Once our tour ended we grabbed some food and I had french onion soup :) then my friends went on a coffee shop tour but I was recently in amsterdam so I wanted to see something different. So I bought a ticket to go to the Keukenhof tulip gardens! It was a botanists heaven and was breathtaking. I've never seen so many flowers in such beautiful colors I could of stayed forever. The sun was starting to set so I hopped back on the bus that takes you from the gardens to the airport where you have to take the train to amsterdam centrale. Yes quite a process. But this very nice man gave me his two day train pass and I got home for free, totally made my day!
I made my way back to the hostel and grabbed some walk to wok on my way back. It was so good all my roommates went and got it too. Guess I have good taste in food :) again we decided to embrace the night and go down to leidseplein for the bars. Somehow we ended up following the pub crawl and at the last club I think Danielle and I were the only people left from this impromptu pub crawl. The pub crawl leaders took us in despite the fact we didn't pay for anything- gotta love Amsterdam.
The next morning we got sorta a slow start and took a little stroll through the flower district and sampled some cheese. Then went to eat at bagels and beans. YUM YUM YUM - oh how I've missed american bagels. I got one topped with mozerrella, pesto, chickpeas, ham, and sun dried tomatoes.... They also had the tea served with fresh mint leaves which brought us back to life after the night before. Then we went to the Rijkmuseum. I had a near death experience when I decided I was coordinated enough to climb the e, but really was trying to get on the r but realized that was too ambitious half way through. Don't worry we all survived climbing the letters and all and then it was Heineken experience time!!!!
This is honestly one of the coolest museums and tours around. Not to mention its all about beer. The first time I went there this last summer I was so obsessed i starting looking at Heineken careers. Well turns out they have a graduate program that Im 100% applying to next December so fingers crossed!! But back to the tour. So we went through the museum, tasted the beer through the steps, did the simulation and took all our green screen pics. And made it down stairs to the beer tasting. One thing we had all noticed the entire time was how incredibly good looking every single person was that worked there. Like even the guy that waves you in the right direction - all models. So im convinced you have to submit a picture when applying for a job there. So with the admission price you get two free beers at the end, and some how in the tasting room Id already had 2. Then these 2. Then Ashley is allergic to hops, some people left early and then 3 guys came over that were gluten free or allergic to hops who knows I was more focused on the fact they were giving us their tokens. I ended up drinking 8 beers so I definitely got my money's worth to say the least.
Me Sarah and Danielle skipped out on the Van Gogh museum and went back to the hostel in search of munchies. Sure enough a French fries store right by our hostel. I got some fries with the mayo and Sarah and Danielle literally inhaled two hotdogs in less then 10 seconds. I turned to take a pic of my fries per usual and she was already done. Pretty sure the two men working thought we were insane loud Americans. Europe hasn't changed us in that area. We got back to the hostel and prepared for our pub crawl. Don't worry we actually paid and signed up for this one. It was the red light district pub crawl we even had an older couple with us that somehow kept up. So two nights in Amsterdam and two pub crawls later made for a super fun bus ride from Amsterdam to Brussels Tuesday morning..... Not.
In Brussels we saw this famous statue the size of my arm, it's the little boy peeling- but more importantly we had a delicious Belgium waffle!!! So after our we are our waffles we went to delirium which is a famous bar in Brussels because it has the most beers available! I had a Barbour beer which was very good and it was back on the bus for paris!