Hallo! –> Hello!
Hallo Amsterdam! We’re finally here. After a long couple of days of traveling, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to Amsterdam, we’ve made it. Overall, today was all about getting ourselves introduced to Amsterdam and preparing for the next two weeks. After we arrived at Schiphol Airport we took a shuttle to the the Generator Hostel, where we’re staying. This hostel is located in Amsterdam-Oost (Amsterdam East) and it overlooks a very beautiful park known as Oosterpark.
After stopping at the hostel and attending an informative orientation with CIEE, we took a short walking tour around the neighborhood of Amsterdam-Oost, where I observed a few interesting pieces of information about life in Amsterdam. First, is that biking is definitely a very popular mode of transportation, even more so than driving. This is a great example of the various types of sustainable measures that are taken in Amsterdam. The abundance of bikes is also an important fact to realize as people must be mindful of the bikes when crossing a road. The bike riders typically don’t stop for cars, and they usually won’t stop for pedestrians either! That’s why it’s important for us to be aware of our surroundings and to be mindful of the activities happening around us. It was a beautiful day outside today (for a majority of the day, there were a few rain showers later on!) so we also took a walk through Oosterpark, where we saw many people running, walking their dogs, biking, and having lunch.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Bar Botanique and the food was delicious! I am really looking forward to trying new foods in Amsterdam and to further exploring the unique culture here! During this trip, it’s a goal of mine to get out of my comfort zone and to explore as much as I can throughout the city. Part of traveling to a new place is getting to experience a different culture and I intend to make the effort to learn as much as I can about the Dutch history and culture, I’m so excited to continue on this adventure!