my blogger homepage is in Dutch.. .good thing I can read Dutch...

hello hello hello!

some people are confused as to why I am in Holland (The Netherlands, same thing- remember?) So I thought I'd inform the general public. The reason being because I have a friend from Hope named Ella Vandervlugt who decided that Scotland would be her destination for a study abroad experience as well. Ella's father was born here in Holland so she has family here and while she was growing up she visited her often. She decided that since our semester starts fairly late and we will be going to Europe anyways, she might as well make a pit stop in Holland and brought me along as well :) So that is how I got this amazing opportunity to visit Holland before Scotland. It's really great though because family and family friends have been taking us all over and showing us all the great spots to visit since they know best. BUT, Our first solo adventure went down today...

No Plan in Amsterdam. That's what we called it.

We knew that this was a city that we must visit, so we went. Ella had actually never been to Amsterdam before, so it was new for both of us. We hopped on a train and about 45 minutes later were in Amsterdam's Central Station. The only thing we knew that we really wanted to do was to visit Anne Frank's house. This was an incredibly amazing experience. I couldn't believe I was actually standing in the room that for TWO whole years 8 people stayed in hiding. Can you even imagine not being able to breath in fresh air or hear a bird chirp or even go to a friend's house for two years? I definitely cannot even fathom that. My favorite part of the museum was that when Anne Frank was in hiding she had one magazine and a sticker book and she put some pictures on her wall to make it more cheerful and they were still there! That was so awesome to me. I learned so much about the German invasion in The Netherlands and how the Jewish people had to live. It was really a great experience and it was worth our whole trip to Amsterdam just to see that.

Afterwards we walked to the Hortus Botanicus (Botanical Garden). We spent lots of time there looking at all the plants, green houses, and just sitting in cozy little spots and people watching. It was such a beautiful place, I loved it. After this we went to a grocery store, bought some food, found a place of solitude amidst the chaos of the city and ate our dinner :)

I really loved the two main things that we did there. They were amazing. As for the city... not my favorite. Streets are extremely narrow, it is extremely crowded, people and more people and even more bikes whizzing past at all times. Usually I love cities, but this one.. not so much. There were some beautiful things to be found there like the canals (obviously) and some of the larger really old buildings, but the atmosphere there is not what I am usually looking for, to say the least. If you have exact places you want to visit like museums, etc., then it is fine- but as for just walking around, I think here I'd rather go to a quaint dutch village like Delft. so far my favorite. Even though that was the case, our time there today was wonderful and I am really happy we went. Anne Frank's museum was so interesting and the gardens were the best I've ever seen.

Still sending love from The Nederlands,

Jess

P.S.

Details like this will probably not be the case once everything starts getting busy...

P.P.S

It takes way too long to upload pictures on my blog, but once I do upload pictures on my facebook I will be able to post a link here and even if you do not have a facebook you will be able to see ALL of them which will be a lot more than I'd be able to put here.