Last weekend my and a group of my friends took a trip to Amsterdam and we had a great time. Me and a couple of my friends flew out on Ryanair, which was cheap but the planes were not at all comfortable. But you get what you pay for. The first day we were there, we walked around for a bit just seeing the city. We ended up going to a Chinese food restaurant because we were all getting hungry. It took awhile to get our food, around two hours I’d say. After that, we went to a bar and watched the France vs. Netherlands Euro game, which was really cool. It was a great atmosphere to watch the game in. After that we went to this Ice Bar thing which was really cool. You basically get three free drinks, two of which are in the Ice Bar. Its a giant freezer but everything in it is made of of ice. The tables, the benches, the bar. The glasses we drank out of were also made of glass, so it was a fun time. It got cold very quickly though. After that we went to another bar, and then ended the night at the bar that was attached to our hostel.
The next day, half of our group went to go see this park that they had really wanted to go see, and the rest of us went on a day tour around the Netherlands. It was a bus trip that took you to three different places. The first was a small town with windmills, and we got to go inside one of the windmills. We got to see how it worked on the inside, and we were able to climb up to the top of the windmill and it was a cool view. After that, we got back on the bus and headed to the second town. The second town was a beach town that I can’t remember the name of, but it was a really nice town. They took us to the cheese factory there, and they told us how cheese was made and we got to sample a bunch of different cheeses that they make there. After that we got lunch on the water which was nice. After lunch, we rode a ferry to the third stop of the day. Here they took us to a clog factory and the clog maker took us through the whole process of making clogs. It was overall a fun day trip to make. After the clog factory, the bus took us back to Amsterdam and we met up with the rest of the group and went out that night.
On the last day in Amsterdam, I decided to get up early and go walk around the city. My supervisor told me that I needed to take time and just walk around the city because of how pretty it is. So I took her word for it and it was good advice. It really was a very pretty city. It was also completely flat so it was really easy to walk around. I got some really cool pictures and had a good time just walking around. After that I met up with the rest of the group, an we went to the museum of prostitution. Now that was an interesting experience. It was a really in-depth tour, and it had A LOT of interesting facts about the industry. After that, me and a couple of the guys had to go because we had an earlier flight then the rest of the crew did. So we packed up and headed to the airport, and that was the end of a fun trip to Amsterdam.
I’d say that the hardest thing to get used to in regards to the culture here is just the way that they conversate. A lot of it is just blunt, and almost like dry humor. At first it was a bit off putting because I’m just not used to that sort of thing. Once you get used to it though you see that they don’t mean to do anything in any particular way, it is just how they are. After the first couple of weeks it just became normal to me so I’m used to it now. Other than that I haven’t had a tough time with the cultural differences. Everyone at my office is nice and easy to talk to. I’ve really enjoyed my time with them so far.
