I usually don’t travel by myself; I prefer to do so with my friends because it takes so much stress away from travelling. I’ve only done it one other time when I went to visit my friend in Paris, but this time I was going to Amsterdam by myself to visit my mom and sister.
I decided to pack the morning of, and as I was getting into my cab, I realized I forgot my passport. Thankfully my cab driver turned around and waited for me to run up the hundreds of stone steps to my apartment to get my passport. From there everything seemed to be going smoothly, until they announced we would be going through some turbulence on the airplane. I have never experienced anything like this plane ride in my life, I thought it was going to crash. It felt like I was on a roller coaster ride, but not one that I enjoyed. People were flying out of their seats, screaming, and gasping. I think I was having a nervous breakdown with the girl sitting next to me because we both started laughing during the moment of extreme fear. After thirty minutes of riding in a roller coaster the ride smoothed out, and everything went as planned.
When I got to the airport I was immediately met with sass from my mother when I told her it would be easier for me to take a cab from the airport to the Airbnb, instead of going into the city center and taking a cab from there. My plan was much faster, and I got to the Airbnb twenty minutes earlier than my mom and sister, even though they landed an hour before me.
When I rang the doorbell to the Airbnb a ten-year-old boy let me in and gave me instructions about the apartment. This was making the list for the weirdest day of my life, I thought it was a dream.
Eventually my mom and sister pulled up in their cab, and I was able to see them for the first time in three months. I had never gone that long without seeing my family, and I was surprised at how normal everything seemed. My mom and sister both made remarks about how I’ve gotten taller somehow during my time in Florence, and we shared all the missing details of our lives while unpacking.
We then decided to visit an open market in the city center. It was just about to get dark outside, and the Christmas light decorations were beginning to glow. With the lights all around us it felt like we were walking through the sky. All the stands sold different things, some looked like tourist stands, and some were original products made in Amsterdam. There was also food being sold, freshly made waffles covered in chocolate and caramel were constantly being handed out, making the street smell like a bakery.
Finding somewhere to eat that night was one of the most confusing tasks. Every time we walked into a restaurant, we expected a waiter to bring us to a table, and it took us about three restaurants to figure out that you seat yourself. We ended up going to a cozy little restaurant/bar and finally eat. My mom and sister were both getting used to the time difference, so we ended up eating around 6:30. They both ordered a falafel sandwich, but I got a smoked salmon one.
The next day was very hectic. Originally, I was supposed to fly back to Florence on Monday, but because of the airstrike happening in Italy I had to fly back that night. During the day my mom booked two tours, one at the Anne Frank House and the other at the Vincent van Gogh museum. We started the day getting breakfast at a little Italian cafe, and we all ordered breakfast bowls with yogurt, freshly made granola, strawberries, bananas, and blueberries. My mom and sister both ordered cappuccinos, but I decided to get tea, and the machine they gave me to make the tea was something I had never seen before. First you poured the boiled water into the cup with the tea leaves in it, then they gave me a timer for three minutes, and after that you put the container over the teacup, and it pours out.
We started our museum tours with the Anne Frank house. It was a very somber and interesting experience. We were able to walk through the house and hiding place where Anne Frank and her family hid during world war two. In the rooms they had different biographies of the people who stayed there, as well as different letters that were written by those people.
The next place we visited was the Van Gogh museum. I enjoyed this museum, but towards the end I kind of wanted to see paintings by other artists. What I liked the most was looking at his sketchbook and the utensils he used to create his paintings. Rather than looking at the finished product I preferred to look at the drafts beforehand because the process of creating a work of art is very interesting to me.
Van Gogh’s sketchbook
Even though my time in Amsterdam was so short it was still a nice break from the craziness of Florence, and school. I also had the opportunity to see my family again after about three months. Even though many things went wrong with this trip I’m still happy that I went, and I wouldn’t trade my experience in Amsterdam for anything else.
Francesca's travels 