AMSTERDAM

This weekend I took a trip to Amsterdam!

At 3:45 Friday morning I was off to the airport, so I hoped in a black cab and it took me to the train station, which eventually got me to the airport (50 mins before my flight). This trip was different than any other because I flew by myself and at first I didn’t think that I was going to make it. The train was delayed getting me to the airport and then security was all backed up, I got to my gate only 15 minutes before it closed….but once all that panic was over I was good to go. 

The flight to Amsterdam from London was only 45 minutes long so before I knew it we were already landing. I must mention that the airport in Amsterdam is massive; I was so tired that before I even made it through the airport I stopped to take a quick nap. After my brief rest I headed to catch a train to bring me to Central Amsterdam where I met Tiffany and her sister Meghan.

Surprisingly I found my way to the hostel without getting lost and on my way a nice man gave me a flower and told me I was pretty (great start of the trip haha). 

The hostel was in the perfect location so once I met up with the girls we dropped our bags and headed out. 

Our first stop was food and from there coffee…. then we wandered around Amsterdam taking it all in.

We spent the whole day doing whatever we wanted, no plan, no time restraints…just going wherever life took us. 

Fast-forward a few hours and we were getting dutch pancakes for dinner then strolling through the red light district. I could not believe my eyes, it was totally unbelievable but like a car accident you can’t stop looking even though you know you should. After the casual stroll through the district we chilled some more getting more food and retired to our room at 3 am or so.

         

The next morning we woke up and headed to a specific breakfast destination, from there we went on a canal tour, which was pretty awesome. We were able to stop by the outside of the Ann Frank house but we couldn’t go in because the presold tickets were sold out and the line was too long (why waste precious time). We spent a lot of our time in Amsterdam eating which I can’t complain about because the food was awesome.

This trip was super relaxing and fun and I know that I will be back one day for sure (maybe in 2 weeks, who knows). I don’t even know how to begin to explain Amsterdam in order to do it justice but I’ll try. The canals and the color palate of the city is so peaceful and beautiful. The whole city seems like it is a kingdom with cobblestone roads, trams and canals. The trees and buildings line the canals perfectly and there are probably more bikes than people. The people there are so friendly and nice and the quality of life just seems higher. The whole time I was in Amsterdam I though of it as the sweetest sin, everything that we are accustomed to being illegal and that we are told is wrong is in the clear. There are no rules but the lack of rules does not leave chaos.

Even in all its abundance, Amsterdam is able to achieve an atmosphere of tranquility…and I just couldn’t get enough.

-AMV

ITALY

Hey everyone!

I just got back from a warm and wonderful weekend in Rome! The weather in Italy was nothing short of fantastic, on Friday it was 66 and Saturday it was 64 (We lucked out!).

First off, this trip was different than all the others because I didn’t travel with my usual travel comrade Tiffany; instead I traveled with a few other friends (Nikki, Allie, and Sammi). We left London early Friday morning and arrived in Italy at around 11am and the sun was shining! From the airport as usual we checked into our hostel. 

Originally, we were all suppose to be staying at Mr. Rome but due to overbooking on their part Allie and Sammi stayed at a different hostel down the road. Once that fiasco was taken care of we were in search of food! We walked in the direction of the colosseum and found a pizza place (the pizza was soooo bad) then we got our first authentic Italian gelato (this was so good, it made up for the wack pizza), then we headed to the colosseum!

The colosseum was awesome, take a look for yourself:

After we exited there was a bunch of guys dressed up as guards so we took some pics with them later to find out they charge 5 euro a person.....ABSURD (the pics are on my friends camera).

We spent a decent amount of time at the colosseum and once we left the daylight had already left us. We wandered around for a while then we decided on a spot for dinner and had the most divine moscato  and I’m not much of a wine drinker (apparently I am now). 

After dinner we were in search of the best cannolis and we found them.

When we returned back the hostel everyone was hanging out and drinking wine and we joined in. The owner of the hostel Marius was making dinner for everyone which smelt and looked amazing. We spent the rest of the night drinking wine and meeting new people it was truly amazing. Needless to say we did a ton of eating on this trip…..

Day 2:

Saturday we woke up at 8am and were non stop till about 11. The hostel had breakfast, which was homemade cappuccinos and pastries, which were pretty good. After eating breakfast Nikki and I met both Allie and Sammi and we headed toward Vatician City. As we were approaching Vatician City a man on the street stopped us asking if we had tickets, which we didn’t he then proceed to talk us into a walking tour that way we didn’t have to wait 3 hours to just see the Sistine Chapel. The walking tour was cool for like the first hour the second 2 hours were well…boring. But the tour concluded in the Sistine Chapel, which was truly awesome! We got to see both the religious and non-religious side, which we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do if we didn’t take the walking tour, plus I learned a lot.

Check out the pics from the walking tour:

After Vatican City we wanted to see the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Ponte Sant’Angelo, which were on route to the Pantheon. I forgot to mention that the owner of the hostel planned our day out for us and mapped us out the most direct routes to both the attractions and the best food! 

Before we made it to the Pantheon we took a quick detour for what might be the best pizza I have ever had, then we got gelato once again because I mean when in Rome….right?

On our way to the Pantheon we discorded a street light that was my height and some street art.

 The Pantheon...

After our visit to the Pantheon we headed to the Fontana di Trevi, it was awesome but insanely crowded. Like any tourists we took the cliché fountain pic, and basked in the glory of the fountain.

Our next destination...Trinita dei Monti aka the Spanish Steps which provided a breath taking view of the city and we got there right as the sun was setting! 

At this point our feet were hurting a bit so we decided to take a coffee break and regroup and plan out the rest of our night. Once we were recharged and ready to go we headed back to the Trevi Fountain to see it all lit up and then headed for the main shopping street, Via del Corso! After walking up and down the street for a bit it was getting late so we decided it was dinner time so we decided on a nice pasta place and I got more wine (Merlot, it was fab).

At this point we were probably 1.5 hours away from where we were staying so we walked for a bit then hoped on the metro (which is terrifying compared to the tube in London, its so dirty) which brought us fairly close to “home.”

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to catch our flight out of Rome. We could not have picked a better time for our return flight because the Rome Marathon shut the city down from 8am on! Another pro was we left right as the rain started…we took the sun with us to London!

It was another great weekend getaway and there are still more to come!

On deck….Amsterdam, in the hole….Paris (with my 5 favorite people in the entire world, my family)!

In the mean time I have 4 papers to write and 2 presentations to give, it’s crunch time!

-AMV