My Alternative to Tulip Time

I was not quite sure we'd make it to Amsterdam! The Irish airports didn't open till Wednesday and our flight was out early Friday morning. Thankfully the ash cleared up and we were able to get to Amsterdam. (Me being paranoid and all had planned how to get from the Netherlands back to Ireland by ferry just in case the ash came back and we were stranded.) Our flight left so early Friday morning that none of us really slept the night before. It made for an interesting first day in Amsterdam. Thankfully our group (it was me, Kaitlyn, Ryan, and Jackie this time) got along really well.

Friday we checked into our hostel and then went on a free walking tour of the city. The tour was great. It's put on by a group called New Europe. They have free walking tours in a bunch of different cities in Europe. Amsterdam was beautiful! I loved the canals. On the lovely afternoons we were there people just cruised up and down the canals in their boats. Saturday we ventured out of the city. First we went to the Keukenhof Gardens. They were beautiful!! Almost all the flowers were in bloom and we had perfect weather that day. It was there I introduced my friends to poffertjes! Yum! I love those things! In the afternoon we went to Zaanse Schans and saw a bunch of windmills! I bought stroopwafels there. Those and the poffertjes just made my day!
Saturday night we did the Anne Frank house. It was a good museum, interesting and thought-provoking. That night we just got pizza, sat by a canal, and people watched. It was one of my favorite things we did in Amsterdam actually. Sunday we went to the Van Gogh museum in the morning. I liked the museum because it was smaller and we were able to see the whole museum (mostly because they had a floor and a half closed but it was still a great museum.) For the afternoon we relaxed with a canal tour and souvenir shopping. (And, of course, we ate more poffertjes!)
It was a quick trip but a lot of fun! Amsterdam and the Netherlands are beautiful! It's been added to the list of places I need to visit again some day.

Also, sorry for the shorter post. Finals are looming and Ireland/Europe is proving a pretty good distraction from studying.