This morning, our overnight flight arrived in Amsterdam at around 5:30 am. We stayed in the airport for about an hour and a half while waiting for our guide, Raha, who will be staying with us for the whole trip. Then at about 8:30 we started the Fault in Our Stars scavenger hunt. While my team did not perform the greatest, we still were able to explore and get used to the city. We went to the Anne Frank House, the Remembrance Day memorial, Town Hall, a cheese shop where we had some samples of delicious gouda cheese, and a Basilica. We then went

Amsterdam is a beautiful city with some amazing architecture. I also really admire the layout of the city as it is so easy to walk the city, or use public transportation. All roads lead to the town center where the Remembrance Day memorial is, and it is a simple, yet very effective model that I feel not many US cities use. The Netherlands is a much more liberal country than the United States and it was obvious with the types of fines that exist here. For example, if you do not ask before petting a dog or approaching a baby you can be fined hundreds of dollars. Littering has a fine of $350, although it can’t be the most effective because I saw a lot trash on the ground. Overall, I really enjoyed the city, the canals and architecture are beautiful.

We learned all about the transportation and how to use it. For example, we got tickets for 5 days to take the metro, bus, and tram and also took the train twice.

After our scavenger hunt, me and about 15 other students on the trip went to a pizza and burgers place to eat lunch. There was a really cute dog that was the owners and he just sat on a chair outside with us relaxing.

Then we got back to the hotel where I had a much needed nap after only sleeping 7 hours the past three days. Who doesn’t love traveling? Then we met up and ate dinner at Coco’s Outback, an Australian outback themed sports bar where I had chicken parmigiana. After dinner we had some free time to explore the city again before returning to the hotel to sleep at around 10:45.