High on life: Houseboats, clogs, windmills, and coffee shops.

June 15:

Already at the airport, have a coffee and about to board my direct flight from Innsbruck to Amsterdam! Crazy that's it's significantly cheaper to fly (and faster) than taking a train all the way up there! Looking forward to more fun travel adventures with Couchsurfers!

IBK Airport

Heading to the runway.

Amazing.

I love you Austria.

Quite a short flight! Great view of the alps, then before I knew it I could spot Munich and saw a few familiar things. As usual, customs was easy, didn't really exist actually. If you have nothing to declare you just walk through. No passports, no stamps. Easy! Airport was quite big and impressive though! Had exercise bikes, playgrounds for kids, a terrace with trees where you could overlook the airport, amazing! 

Took the train into Amsterdam Centraal, easy schmeasy. Take a WILD guess where I am now... Starts with S, ends with S... There isn't one in Innsbruck, coffee... Starbucks!! A really cool one too, set up more like a hangout where people stand, mingle, and wait for their trains. Meeting my couchsurfer here shortly.

Met Haroon and took the tram back to his apartment. Really nice spacious apartment right on the outside of the official city center which is a perfect location because it’s not as busy, but still close enough!

View from his apartment

Haroon is a really cool guy, he’s a journalist for one of the main newspapers here in Amsterdam and he does the good stories; travel, culture, entertainment, etc! He has traveled a lot all over the world. He has a giant map of the world with pins showing where he has been. Can’t wait until I do that one day! He had to see some of his friends and drop off some DVDS, etc so we took a walk through Amsterdam. Really beautiful city with all the canals, houseboats, bike, flowers. It’s really nice. Pretty much what you would expect, but nicer. Didn’t go to the Red Light District yet, but we walked by another area where the girls were in their windows. Just sad to believe people live like that. 

Be prepared for a lot of pictures very similar to this #1

Canals #2

Awesome sign

M for MATT!

Amsterdam!

Made it to his friends flat, had a drink with them and talked and go to know them. Really cool guys too! Then we met up with his other friend who is a travel journalist all around the world, he is normally away from Amsterdam about 8 months of the year. Pretty much an amazing and extremely interesting job! Met even more of his friends and had a great dinner. One of them guessed I was 29 years old, HILARIOUS! Zucchini with goat cheese and spinach ravioli! One last bar with the guys. One of his friends is a mathematician and does algorithms for people who have more than 10 million euros. Insane! Great first night in Amsterdam.

Oh and by the way, it stays daylight for quite a long time here! Didn’t realize I was so far north I guess. It was nearly midnight and it looked about 8 pm or so!

June 16:

Slept in a bit, Haroon is working all day. I’ve been accomplishing a few things that needed to be done before heading out into town! Just ordered my cap and gown for graduation on August 6^th!

Explored quite a lot of Amsterdam today. Walked around without a map as usual, and found some cool places. Great relaxing day, taking in the sites. Couple came up to me and asked if I were a local, needed directions to a hotel. Love when that happens, mean I don’t look like a stereotypical tourist. 

Trying to be artsy

#3

Anne Frank's house

Anne again

#4

Faster than fast food! They make the sandwiches and put them in the boxes right away, then you just put your money in and the door opens! Insane!

Center

Madame Tussaud

So nice

Houseboats!

Walking through the streets

Netherlands flag

Red Light District

Red lights

Random facts: There ARE millions of bikes in Amsterdam, not exagerating! Some of them even have these giant "baskets" where they either put their kids or groceries in it! 

Oh and also, trams kill 40 people a year.  Mostly UK tourists as they are used to looking the opposite direction... notice I didn't say the right way.

Great building. Used to be the old post office, now it's a shopping mall.

#5

Couchsurfing!?!

Another fact, in Amsterdam coffee shops are not coffee shops. Cafes are coffee shops. Coffee shops are well.. not for coffee. Although they technically sell it so that they can be an open business. But I managed to find an amazing CAFE; The Coffee Company. Really cool atmosphere inside and a delicious hot chocolate/cappuccino frozen drink! The Bambino! 

Love it.

Delicious!

Met up with Haroon after he got off of work. Grabbed some Thai Food; Tofu, rice, and veggies! Having a chill night, going to relax. Something I very rarely do!

June 17:

Woke up, messaged a couchsurfer and walked out the door. Didn't know if she would call me, but about five minutes after I walked out the door she called! We both had the same plans for the day so it worked our perfectly! I walked to the train station and did a few "errands".

More houseboats!

Enjoying the city!

Cool boat

#6- Probably my favorite though!

Having drinks on the boat

Notice what's behind the postcard.

Look at all the bikes..

So cool

We met at the train station and went to Haarlem outside of Amsterdam! Nice city! She has never officially couchsurfed so I told her all about it! 

Haarlem!

On the bridge!

Can you believe it? A jumping picture!

Riding a bike

Dangerous/Awesome European playgrounds!

That's scary..

 

Windmill!!

 

Nice town

Giant church

Love it! Positive energy!

Crazy architecture

Saying goodbye in the train station!

Julia was traveling for a few months in Europe while job searching too! Had a great time and great conversations!Haarlem was really nice, glad we got to go outside of Amsterdam and see another city.

June 18:

Slept in, had lunch with my host. Delicious eggplant/goat cheese sandwich. Then he had to do some work and I explored the city more.

Right outside the train station

Found a great market and then took a ferry to an industrial part of Amsterdam about 15 mins away. Really interesting. Found this really cool hipster cafe and spent a few hours there. Relaxing. Enjoying the sun. Reading my book; A Walk into the Woods by Bill Bryson.

Awesome

Boat+Hotel=BOTEL! Hilarious

Submarine?

Illini colors

Graffiti

The cafe

Really cool

Inside

 

On the ferry back!

Meeting another couchsurfer now! Irina from Russia! Then tonight I will have dinner Haroon and then out for the night! Brussels Belgium tomorrow!

Wow Irina was another cool girl! I'm telling you, Couchsurfing people are amazing. She has three weeks left in Europe on her trip, and only has 200 euro left and not worried a bit! She did a hitchhiking race (common here) and finishes 8th out of 50 people! She's all about the experience and having fun! She quit her banking job and went to Europe for four months! Good for her! 

 Haroon made the most delicious veggie lasagan for dinner! We really got to talk and get to know each other which was great. So amazing how much you can learn from people. 

Couchsurfing with Holland colors!

Went out for a night on the town! His friend organized a giant party, got us on the list, and get this, it was in an old church. Insane! Wonder what God thinks of that. Dancing and blaring music inside what once was a church! 

Taken just for the guy in the background in a dress!

Had some great whole wheat noodles and veggies from Walk to Wok! Better than Running Wok in Innsbruck!

Overall, Amsterdam was a great city. Weather seems to not be so great here, so could never live here! All the canals and modes of transportation through the city are pretty cool. Much cleaner and nicer than one would immediately think when hearing Amsterdam. Although in certain areas (Red Light District and near it) can be pretty trashy. Sex shops, shows, coffee shops (not for coffee!) Guess it makes the city unique with that rebellious feeling? Not my thing but interesting to say the least.