Hello again! I will start day 1 on when we began our airport travel. We went through the Pittsburgh airport to get to Philly and had a 5 hour layover in Philly. I had such a good time at the Philadelphia airport because they had exhibits in our terminal that featured different fiber arts. I just started a new knitting project too so I was really excited seeing all of these knitting, crochet, and cross stitch projects being displayed on the walls, pillars, and rocking chairs throughout the terminal. Then we had a 6 hour flight to the Netherlands which was not the greatest but I was able to manage.

Once we arrived at the airport in the Netherlands, it was immediately interesting to see how every sign had English in large, bold text but then Dutch in a smaller text underneath it. I immediately wondered if this was an EU standard or if it’s just because English is most commonly used for business. We then met up with one of our tour guides, Dasha.

Eventually, we got on a bus that took us to our hostel, the Generator. My immediate impression of the city of Amsterdam was how pretty all of the buildings were. Near the airport, the buildings were big, impressive glass structures. But, when we moved away and towards Amsterdam-Oost, we started seeing the notorious apartment buildings and canals. I was especially taken away by buildings that were covered in a climbing ivy because it was so beautiful.

Then, we dropped our luggage off at the hostel, did our orientation, and then went on a walk in the area. I was impressed by how popular biking actually is in Amsterdam. There are very few cars and they are generally smaller than typical cars in the US while almost everybody you see is either walking or biking. It will definitely take a little bit of time to get used to looking out for bikes as well as cars because I definitely almost got hit multiple times.

After getting lunch in the park, I then walked around a bit during our break and just enjoyed the park. It is really beautiful and everybody enjoying the nice weather in the park makes the area seem really relaxed. Then we went to a nice restaurant and had a lovely group dinner.

After this dinner we got to explore the city on our owns a bit. We tried to find a vintage market but instead just walked up and down the nearby streets. We walked into a grocery store to see what they had available. I loved looking at the different produce they had available and how large of a cheese and cured meat section they had. Then we decided to walk towards the center of the city. Yet again, we passed plenty of beautiful buildings and art. One major thing I noticed was how unique public art is in Amsterdam. They are plenty of sculptures and murals that are really cool to look at. We ended up walking all the way down to the Nemo science center and the major canals nearby. Unfortunately, the science center was closed by the time we made our way over there. However, the canals were beautiful especially with the sky reflecting on the water. We stayed long enough to watch the sunset and it was absolutely beautiful.

I really enjoyed my first day in the Netherlands and I can’t wait for the rest of the trip!