amsterdam

Saturday morning I left bright and early for a weekend in Amsterdam. I was really excited as this was my first of hopefully many long weekends travelling in Europe. One of my Deloitte friends, Ondrej, was going to be in Amsterdam for the weekend visiting his girlfriend, Stephany, who is on an assignment there with Deloitte, just like me.

Saturday I had the whole day to myself since Ondrej and Stephany weren't getting back from their trip to Ondrej's hometown in Slovakia until 11pm. I dropped my suitcase off at Stephany's apartment and then headed off immediately to the Anne Frank House. After waiting in line for about an hour, I toured the house. It was really interesting to see.

Next I walked along the canals and through the Jordaan area, taking in the beautiful sites, and making my way to the Noorder Market, where I shopped around a bit. There are bicycles everywhere in Amsterdam! The train station has a four-story tall bike parking garage, that is always full. They have their own bike lane and signals all over the city.

As I walked through the market, it started pouring down rain...again...the entire day was on and off rain with bits of sunshine in between. This is apparently the typical Amsterdam weather. Armed with an umbrella and rain jacket, I started walking towards Dam Square and grabbed a quick lunch along the way. There are many "coffeeshops" like this one located throughout the city:

I made it to Dam Square about the time it started raining again. The square has lots going on and lots of tourists.

Next stop was a quick breeze through the Amsterdam Historical Museum. 

And then a stroll through the flower market. I was able to purchase some tulip bulbs to send back home.



At this point, I was getting pretty tired. I'd done a lot of walking already. I decided to skip the Van Gogh museum and instead head to the Heineken Brewery. The brewery is no longer operation, but they have what they call the "Heineken Experience". It was pretty neat to see and ended with two ice cold Heineken's.

I spent the evening at an improv show at Boom Chicago. My plan was to go to just the first show so that I would be home before Ondrej and Stephany got home. The first show was so great that I decided to stay for the second (for 5 EUR more). I sat across from a guy from Pennsylvania that was there by himself as well. He works in finance and travels to Europe a lot for business. I really enjoyed myself.

I made it home just a few minutes after Stephany and Ondrej. We stayed up talking and drinking more beers for awhile. Sunday morning, we woke up and rented bikes. It was so much fun. I felt like a kid riding bikes again! It was nice that we had Stephany to follow because trying to figure out where we were going and not get run over by trams and cars can be a little tricky. Here's me with the I amsterdam sign. Yes, it was raining again.

Sunday proved to be a little more rainy than Saturday. After getting drenched on our bikes, we made it to Vondelpark. It was really pretty, even in the rain. We sat at a cafe and drank beers to try to wait out the rain. Ondrej was a little upset that he accidentally grabbed a non-alcoholic Amstel Light.

After returning our bikes, Stephany and I went on a canal tour while Ondrej napped. It was really fun to be on the canals. Unfortunately, it was raining for 90% of the tour, so I didn't get great pictures. I enjoyed seeing some of the sites from the canals and looking at all of the houseboats and houseboat decor lining the canals.

Sunday night, we met up with some of Stephany and Ondrej's friends for dinner at a Thai restauraunt followed by beers and dutch apple pie. Monday morning, we had mint tea and pancakes before Stephany and Ondrej dropped me off at the airport on their way to France (their vacation continues).

Amsterdam was so much fun thanks to some great hospitality :) Hopefully I can return the favor soon!