Amsterdam Day 2/Night 3

Day 2 we decided to spend with our new friends that we had met from the night before. After breakfast, we all walked to the iamsterdam sign, which was about 5 minutes from our hostel. I was thinking I could go and get this amazing shot of the statue with no one in it. Wrong. That sign is so big it was hard to fit in a frame and there were people climbing allll over it, so I did my best.

After, we walked through the city and went on a tour of Anne Frank's house. Wow. I am an emotional person, I know this. I cry during movies, tv shows, songs, anything. So of course, walking through the house I was a bit of a mess. I did really enjoy the tour because I was never able to really picture what the secret annex looked like, and now I can say I walked through it. It was an emotional tour, but worth it.

Once we were done, we knew we need to lift our spirits and set off in search of a pancake house. No such luck. We ended up just eating at a small restaurant off some cobblestone street. I had a fully stuffed nose, so I cannot tell you if my lunch was good or not :/

When lunch ended, we said good bye to our new friends as they had to catch a train back to Belgium. We were a bit tired from the previous nights, so we went on a canal tour. That was enjoyable, but like I said, I was tired, so I miiiiggghhhttt have fallen asleep for a bit of it. I did learn that back in the day, when Amsterdam was thriving, people were all about showing off their wealth through their mansions. We floated by some old mansions and holy cow, just to think those were houses and what life must have been like back then was insane. Now the buildings are used as commercial spaces. We also learned that the people used to build their houses so the front facade would slant out, to give the illusion that their house was bigger than it really was.

When the canal tour was over, we headed back to the hostel to collect our bags. Saturday night the hostel was completely booked, so we ended up couch surfing to save money. At first I was a bit hesitant about it, but I have had friends that have done it and loved it, so I figured it was worth a shot. It took us a while to find the apartment where we were staying, but the trek over took us past a small red light district. Lovely.
After wandering around some dark streets, we finally found the apartment. (shout out to the dutch lady that actually spoke english and didnt run away when we approached her in a dark street and helped us find our way)

We stayed with a woman named Sapi who was 37 years old and had plenty of references on her couch surfing profile. We talked about a lot over Indonesian food - she can speak about 4 languages fluently and understands many more. She loves to couch surf herself and is a very free spirit.

We decided to go to bed slightly early Saturday night because we had to be up bright and early Sunday for a fun adventure!!

anne frank huis

Stay tuned for part 3