The first day in the Netherlands was very long but also very eventful. We started off with a long day of travel where we flew for a total of around 8 hours and landed in Amsterdam at around 5:30 their time. Overall the flights weren’t too bad at all and had lots of good food.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam it was cool to see the difference in their airport compared to the airports I have been to in the US. The Amsterdam airport was much quieter even though it had lots of people and it was also very well maintained. After we met our tour guide and departed from the airport, we got to our hotel dropped off our bags, and headed into the city. In the central area of Amsterdam, we all participated in a scavenger hunt that took us through some of the major monuments in the area. While it was exhausting being up for so long and walking so much, it was amazing to see the different monuments and also the structure of the city, specifically the buildings. The architecture is much different than the majority of the US and seeing the different structures was a unique and fun experience. Being in the heart of the city it was also easy to see how much the culture is different, specifically surrounding transportation. Many people rode bikes and there were tram lines across the entire city. The result of their major transportation not being cars was that although crowded, the city felt much quieter and more tame than any US city I have been to.

Finally, to cap off our day we went out to eat at CoCos Outback where I had a kangaroo burger. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the burger but it was fantastic and CoCos was a very fun place to have a group dinner to end off the day. Overall the first day was long but very fun, I learned a lot about culture in the Netherlands, saw lots of cool monuments and architecture, and had amazing food.

I would say my biggest takeaway from day 1 is that the transportation is just so different from the US. From the metro system to the trams, as well as the bikes people ride, Cars are not even close to the main form of transportation and its so interesting and fun to see how that works and to compare and contrast the pros and cons I find with both forms of travel.