Wow, oh, wow! Amsterdam was fabulous! It also marked the last of my solo travels. Megan, who I became friends with at Tufts this past year, joined me in Amsterdam after she attended a 6-week long study abroad program in Talloires, which is put on through the Tufts European Center. We met at the at soccer tryouts last fall (for the Tufts club team) when everyone at tryouts was going around saying their name, where they were from, and what position they play. It came my turn and I said “Meg, from Palo Alto (because no one knows Los Altos!!), and defense. After five others had gone, I was surprised to hear a new face say the exact same thing. I mean literally the exact same answer. Her name was Meg. She grew up in Palo Alto. She plays defense. It was hilarious. She later told me that she thought it was a prank and that all the seniors had figured out where different freshmen were from and pretended to have their name and be from their hometown. But obviously that wasn’t the case. Ever since bonding over our shared traits, we have been friends. We have been to concerts, done half marathons, and are now traveling Europe together!

Amsterdam is the first city of six cities we will be doing together- and it was a great one to start with, although it did start a bit rocky as Megan took the wrong train from the airport and ended up in the countryside in a town called Hilversum before she was able to get off and board the right train back to Amsterdam. She did eventually make it to the hostel and we had some delicious Asian fusion for a late dinner.

Our first full day in Amsterdam was sunny and warm! A nice reprieve from the cloudiness and rain I experienced in the U.K. We started our day with a walking tour around the city and walked past the narrowest house in Amsterdam! The reason houses in Amsterdam are so tall, but narrow is that back in the day taxes were determined by how wide your house was! So if you wanted to show off your wealth, you would build a particularly wide house. If you were stingy (like my dad 😉 ), then you built as narrow a house as you could!

Narrowest house in Amsterdam

We then had lunch at Il Panorama. We sat outside on a canal and had amazing focaccia with grilled vegetables as a starter! Next we were off to the I AMSTERDAM sign. Don’t worry, we took a lot of pictures 🙂

M is for Meg!

Meg + Megan

Megan

After some wandering around, we arrived at Foodhallen for some dinner. Foodhallen is a food hall with upscale eateries inside. It seemed to be where a lot of working professionals went after work. To finish off the day, we had some delicious Belgium waffles!

Meg with her sushi at Foodhallen

Strawberries + Nutella

The next day was primarily spent on a bike tour of the countryside! We got on our bikes and rode like locals… or like a group of herded tourists in matching ponchos. Although we hit some rain, we still had so much fun. We stopped at a windmill and a farm that makes cheese and carves clogs. He was one of three traditional clog makers left in The Netherlands.

After the bike tour we took a few hours to rest before heading out on a tour of the Red Light District. It was fascinating to learn the history of the area, along with how it has evolved into a legitimate and legal business. We heard about the tax, health, and safety implications of being a sex worker. Women have to apply for their business license at the county hall, just like every other person applying for a business license. Altogether, it was cool to understand how the business actually works.

The next day we took a train to a town called Utrecht. We had heard from a few locals that it was a cute town so we decided to check it out. It was definitely worth it if you have a few days while in Amsterdam. It’s only about 20 min. away by train so it’s easy to visit for the morning and lunch, which is exactly what we did! We walked around the town, which isn’t too large, and then found a nice Italian restaurant next to one of their canals to eat lunch. Overall, a really fun town to visit for a couple of hours.

To finish off the day, we went to dinner with two Canadians and a brother and sister from Alabama where we watched Portugal play Wales in the semi-finals of Euro Cup. We both enjoyed hanging with the four of them, although it got a bit awkward when the Canadians brought up Trump… Luckily, the topic switched quite quickly.  Unfortunately, Wales lost 2-0 and Portugal advanced to the final. After the game, we all headed back to the hostel and Megan and I packed up our stuff as we were leaving at 7am the next morning.

Amsterdam was definitely one of my favorite stops so far (along with Galway and Edinburgh). Meg and I dubbed it “one of the most Instagrammable cities” we had each been too. The canals made for a beautiful backdrop around every single corner. Some examples:

Also, neither of us smoke weed so we decided to focus on other things Amsterdam had to offer, but we did see the first Coffee Shop and some other fun weed related things!

First coffee shop!

For all you cannabis lovers out there!!!

After Amsterdam, our next stop was Stockholm… but the cheapest way to get there was to have a layover in Riga, Latvia. We embraced this by leaving the airport and spending the afternoon exploring this Baltic country (about 5 hours).

First stop was Centraltrigus, a food market that occupies 72.3 thousand square metres of space and has over 3000 trade stands. We walked around and snacked on some fresh raspberries for about 1.50$. SO CHEAP!!

After walking around the market and the rest of town, we found a delicious lunch place called Street Fries Kitchen. It was sooo good! Megan had lentil and avocado salad and I had a ham, cheese, and egg crepe. Definitely one of our favorite meals so far!

Lastly, we meandered back to the bus stop by walking in a park along the canal.

Riga!

Megan frolicking through the park!

We took the bus back to the airport and despite Megan setting off the metal detector for the 3rd time (!!!), we made it through to the plane!

Now off to Sweden 🙂

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