Amsterdam.

We flew into Eindhoven in the south of the country, and had to take a bus to a train to get into Amsterdam. Amsterdam is amazingly beautiful. The city is spotlessly clean, has beautiful buildings, and endless canals. My first thought was literally, "Can I stay here for ever?" Hannah can attest to it.

Against my better judgement I let Hannah book us in a Christian hostel, Shelter City, our first night. It ended up being clean, quiet, and cheap-- my favorite things. Our hostel was on the outskirts of the Red Light District (RLD)-- there were windows right on our street-- we did a lot of walking and exploring that first night. The RLD is a lot to take in and digest, I'm going to refrain from using this as a space to even begin thinking about that. 

The next morning we moved to our new hostel, The Flying Pig. It was essentially the exact opposite of Shelter City. Keelin arrived that morning and met us at the hostel. We didn't give her much time to rest before we were off for the day. An absolutely freezing day, we decided to spend our afternoon on a three hour walking tour. I would highly recommend the tour to other travelers, but perhaps on a warmer day. 

Before our tour, at the Royal Palace, in Dam Square

We did a day of markets-- Noordermarkt, Albert Cuypmarkt, and Waterlooplein-- with brief interruptions for the Jewish Quarter and Vincent Van Gogh Museum. We ended the day at the Heineken Factory, which got pretty silly. The tour came with three free beers, and we (mostly Hannah) acquired another four between us. They basically had to kick us out when they closed at 7 PM. It was one of our favorite activities.

We spent our final night in another Christian hostel, but in the area of Jordaan, not the RLD. We woke up early to get to the Anne Frank Huis before the line got too long. The museum was absolutely fascinating, but perhaps not the most upbeat to spend out last morning. Next, we were off to do an hour long canal cruise! It was a nice way to get out of the rain and cold, but also gave us a really interesting perspective of the city.

Keelin and I spent out afternoon roaming in the Dutch Nation Museum, the Rijksmuseum. We had to catch our overnight bus to Berlin (10 hours!!) at 8 PM, so our evening was cut short. We had to say our goodbyes to Hannah, so sad, and then off to the bus station.