Saturday, July 23, 2016

Amsterdam Day 1

Day 1 in Amsterdam was the first full day to fully experience what this city has to offer. I did not really have that many expectations because I was still in excitement from my week in Paris. Two of the main things that I did think about for today was becoming more aware of Amsterdam’s whereabouts and having an idea about how to deal with the multiple levels of transportation. We also had a scheduled walking tour designed to tell us more about Amsterdam’s history, lifestyle, and culture.

For the walking tour, a tour guide picked us up from our hostel and we walked with him as he picked up other students before we arrived at our main destination. I thought the walk there was kind of interesting because I got to see some other hostels and areas throughout Amsterdam. Furthermore, the walk gave me an opportunity to become more acquainted with cultural customs in different districts. I could see that some areas were more residential and some areas were livelier. I could tell that people just enjoyed being around one another and it matched what I perceived on the first day which is just a calm laid-back type of environment.

During the walking tour, enjoyed listening to our tour guide because he was a native, very knowledgeable, and he’s traveled around the world. These qualities let me known that he had a wonderful background to be able to give us a personal perspective of Amsterdam. A couple things that were highlighted during the tour were the Anne Frank House, two protestant churches, and an equality monument. These things resonated with me because they were symbols for Amsterdam, and they represented the culture of Amsterdam to the rest of the world. Each one had its own unique message, but all were very symbolic to me. Our tour guide even surprised us with a sample of aged cheese from a family-owned restaurant, and it was a very tasty snack.

Today was a wonderful day to experience all of the great things that Amsterdam had to offer and I felt more prepared to learn and enjoy more of this wonderful city.