my debut as a european traveler could not have been more perfect. there is a bit of an apprehension attached to catching your train, staying in a hostel with strangers and navigating a new city in hopes to conquer it all. I admittedly am glad I had friends with me for the first time but have a lot more confidence on how to figure it out for my future travels.our trip got off to a great start with a french man who was a bit nicer than three sleepy girls wanted him to be. taking a nap was not an option for the chatterbox, and by the end he was sharing my kindle with me asking the definitions of english words he didn’t know. we laughed over french and american mannerisms and got lots of suggestions of things to do in paris.  amsterdam is absolutely charming and is a city full of beautiful architecture, canals with cobblestone streets and tons of bikers. the people there are so welcoming and it was wonderful to be able to actually have conversations with people. (unlike the french, the dutch don’t snob tourists and english speakers). we made best friends everywhere we went, or so I’d like to think, and spent over 3 hours at dinner one night talking to all the people around us. 

amsterdam shares my love for typography and there was great fonts, attention to detail and amazing graphics everywhere. I may have to consider grad school in the netherlands! there was also an awesome store that was vintage furniture and is literally my sister and I’s dream store, hout & nieuw, so we might have some future plans forming in our little minds. 

we wandered around a lot making sure to go to the anne frank house (buy tickets ahead if you plan to go so you can skip the line,) the heineken experience, a canal boat tour and the van gogh exhibit but mainly just enjoyed stumbling across cute places. jenna and annie were definitely our navigators while I preferred to walk around choosing which bicycle would be my favorite one to ride around on if I lived there. 

we ate like queens tasting apple pie, goat cheese tostis, and the best “all american breakfast” that included three types of drinks (thought of lauren and bobby!) my favorite was probably a panini place with chicken, mango and one with cooked pumpkin and fresh parmesan cheese. I definitely want to duplicate those in the near future. 

I’m so thankful to have gone and am now looking forward to our upcoming holiday and my prague, vienna and budapest travels!