I amsterdam

Sunday, November 21st
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Despite the fact that four alarms were set for 8 am Sunday morning in our hotel room, each one of us managed to either snooze, turn off or completely sleep through all of them.  Cue 9 am as we all groggily wake up to this realization...at least it was light outside!  We all got ready, packed up and headed down to breakfast, which was just as delicious as the previous morning's.  Nalgenes filled, we made our way back to RAI station to catch a tram into the city center.  Our first goal of the morning was the find the infamous "I amsterdam" sign.  We had been told we would find it in numerous places around the city, but so far had had no luck.  With a faint idea of its location, we walked towards Museumplein, a stretch of land that houses two of the city's best attractions, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum.  Walking around the perimeter of the buildings, we spotted the iconic white and red letters and all jumped for joy!

Finally!

We managed to take plenty of pictures despite a few people (two little girls to be exact) who were casually hanging on the letters.  After our mini photo shoot, we continue our walk into the heart of the area, which includes a large field and fountain; it was a beautiful spot that we were excited to find.  We eventually came upon a tram stop and decided to hop on and head towards Dam Square.  As we exited to tram, directly in front of us was De Bijenkorf, known as Holland's most upscale department store.  Naturally, with the shopaholics making up our group we thought it would be quite appropriate to stop in and browse for a bit.  Our first stop was the Christmas shop, which all got us in the holiday spirit.  We wandered towards the main atrium of the store, admiring the cool displays and even finding some familiar faces (or maybe I should say whiskers)...

Paisley's tight with St. Nick

After covering all the necessary departments, we crossed the road over to Dam Square Souvenirs, as we were all wanting a little something to bring back home with us.  We had noticed the spot the night before as there are life size cows hanging upside down from the ceiling, and we immediately agreed we would have to return on Sunday.  The souvenir shop was definitely the best we had been in in Amsterdam so far, and we all managed to pick out a little something to help us remember our Dutch weekend.  

We continued our walk along the canals, not really knowing exactly where we were headed but enjoying the beautiful scenery none the less.  As mid-afternoon rolled around, we all agreed we should get lunch and navigated our way back to where we had dinner the night before.  On our way there, we had spotted a corner place called "maoz," which specializes in falafel.  They have this in London, but we figured we might as well try it in Amsterdam and cross it off our London list!  The lunch was amazing, as you could choose any topping you can imagine.  We all enjoyed our pitas outside on a stoop, which gave our back a much needed break from carrying around a weekend's worth of luggage!  With everyone finished, we continued down the road and came to "Winterlund Amsterdam," aka an amazing Christmas market, complete with wooden chalets and skating rink.  We got wayy too excited by all the food vendors, and spent the next hour milling over our options and trying anything we could.  Lauren and I started off with this amazing little dessert: light mint cream on top of a small waffle all dipped in chocolate - heavenly!  Not too long after, we spotted a stroopwaffle stand, which is the signature snack of Amsterdam.  Unlike the waffles we eat as breakfast, these are more like the thickness of an ice cream cone, but are cut in half and filled with a delicious warm syrup.  They made them right in front of us, and it was definitely worth the wait!  Overall the whole market got us even more excited for Christmas, if that's possible.  
By the time we finished at the market it was 2 pm and time to head to the airport.  We were all sad to say goodbye to Amsterdam, but as always were ready to head back home to Londontown.  Back to Centraal Station we went, and from there caught a train to the airport.  The ride was actually really cool as it was a double decker train, so we enjoyed the view as we flipped through Us magazine and got our US celebrity gossip fix.  We arrived at the airport 20 minutes later, had a quick check in and headed to our gate.  It was a bit weird as you have to go through security right before you enter the gate, so the five of us waited outside, read, and tried to use up our Euro change in the gift shop before heading into the gate.  The flight was smooth, and we landed at Heathrow right on time (unfortunately, we had to wait 20 minutes taxiing, but oh well).  All exhausted, we patiently waited in the (rather long) customs line before hopping on the tube back to Gloucester.  For dinner, Ashley and I headed to Nando's for take out, while Lauren and Maggie popped into Café Forum right across the street.  We all enjoyed our meals together, talking about our favorite parts of the weekend and chatting about the week ahead.  
Only two weeks left of placements!  Seems hard to believe, but I know it's going to fly by...let's hope at least!
    xo Carolyn