The Place I miss most...
I fell in love abroad with this magical place. First of all it was summer, June, and it was cold. Most people wore 3 layers in the daytime here. I had one of the best days of the whole trip in Amsterdam, the perfect day really. We woke up, had a hotel European breakfast, which was basically hard bread :) (hostel lifestyle!), then we took the metro into the city. Our first stop was a 9:00 a.m tour of the actual Anne Frank annex! It was incredible and surreal to be in such a historically known place (you learn about Anne Frank and the World Wars in middle school..). The whole tour was eerie. The part that I think made most people very emotional (besides witnessing the conditions of such a brave girl and her family) was the video of Otto Frank, Anne's father (who survived his family), on the vidoe he says he never knew such "adult" was in his young daughter and that she had serious thoughts and that he did not truly know her (his reaction to reading her diary). It was very intense.
Outside it was chilly and breezy.
We all then went on a walking tour through the larger portion of the city with a woman who was a graduate student at Texas and came out to Amsterdam to finish her thesis and ended up falling in love too and stayed! It was such an educational and thoroughly enjoyable tour. We saw sooo much I wish I could remember it all but just to name a few: Rembrant's home, red light district, homomonument, patha theatre and so much more...After the tour a group of us went to the "iamsterdam" sign, we probably climbed all over the sign for a 
(Alana and I on the sign!)
good hour, it was soo much fun! It was the nicest feeling to feel so content and peaceful so far away from home. I remember a group of us just laying on our backs on the fountain near the sign. It was awesome. After our sign fun we continued our explorations solo. We ended up in "Vondel Park", as soon as we entered there was music. Just regular amsterdamnians hanging out and relaxing and enjoying this beautiful place. The park was luscious green and there was a lovely stream that flowed. The group of us sat under a tree and enjoyed the free entertainment. If I was a local that's the park I would hang out/bike ride in all the time. It was full of all types of people, young/old/families. 
(Candace, Adam and Kaylyn @ Vondel Park, precious!)
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| Alana and I outside of Anne Frank's, near one of many beautiful canals :) |
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| A perfect chilly day! It was June and we had 3 layers of clothing on! |
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| an unsuspecting shot, I love this beautiful canal city :) |
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| typical Amsterdam cafe |
MUST DOs:
Anne Frank's Annex, ride a bike like a true Amsterdamnian, Go to the Pancake Bakery (DEF. must, the best pancakes of your life: http://www.pancake.nl/), go to the iamsterdam sign which is located next to the Van Gogh Museum, see at movie at the Patha theatre (famous for world premieres) we saw a movie there!, go to Vondel Park and spend the afternoon relaxing, go see one of the last dutch windmills ( I believe we saw one of seven left), --there is sooo much to do get a little lost and have the best time in this amazing place.
