Amsterdam

It was weird to end the voyage and this entire experience in a new port. I was so focused on saying goodbye, packing up my stuff and thinking about home when all of a sudden it hit me…”Wait, we have one more place to explore!” My mom and I spent three days in Amsterdam before heading home. We walked all over the place – visiting churches, souvenir shopping, eating and just soaking in all the sites. It was so nice to stay in a nice hotel in a nice part of the city. It felt so luxurious.

Amsterdam is a beautiful little city. Canals and bridges everywhere. Quaint row houses, cafes and cobblestone streets at every turn. Interesting feel and character to the city - a mix of old, elegant Europe and the free, open attitude of sex, drugs and everything goes. I found it quite hilarious when we went to visit the Old Church that is located in the Red Light district. Here is this grand old church surrounded by sex shops, marijuana shops and prostitutes hanging out in windows offering their wares. Quite a contrast.

I think my mom enjoyed her first experience abroad. I’m glad that I could be there to show her around and explore a new country with her. The only down side was how expensive it was. Amsterdam is EXPENSIVE! It was, by far, the most expensive port we visited in eight months. It even beat Barcelona which was pretty darn expensive. $5 for a small bottle of Coke, $35-55 cab rides, $16 for two days of tram rides, $35-50 a piece for every meal. It killed me how expensive it was at every turn – and they got you at every turn. We paid $20 to visit the Keukenhoff Flower Gardens (they were beautiful) and then they charged 40 cents to use the bathroom and $4.50 for a map! Ridiculous.

All in all though it was a nice place to end the voyage. It was fun to run into students all over the city but kind of sad too because we knew we couldn’t say, “see you back at the ship”. Hmmm…still feels weird that it is over.

More on my return home to come...