'I amsterdam'

It’s virtually impossible to compare international cities to non-man-made wonders. For instance, the difference between the French Alps and Florence is just as immeasurable as the difference between Barcelona and Cinque Terre. It’s essentially comparing apples to grapefruit, if you will.

So, while reflecting on my way back from Amsterdam Monday morning, it’s unfair to say it was my favorite European destination thus far, but it was my favorite city.

I decided that I appreciate natural beauty more than man-made structures. That’s why I loved the Alps and the cliffs of Cinque Terre so much (although I was awestruck by Rome, but that’s a whole different ballgame). Amsterdam, I decided was so cool because it was a combination of the two. It had the hustle and bustle of a city, intertwined with gorgeous canals throughout the downtown streets. It truly was the best of both man-made and natural worlds and had a homey feel to it. It felt more like an American city than the others I’ve visited here, except with a bit more, um, liberal policies.

Max, Dana, Sarah and I crammed so much into our 70 hours in the Netherlands. We rode around the city on bikes for a day, saw where Ann Frank hid from the Nazis (I didn’t go in because it was a 2-plus hour line and the weather was too nice not to enjoy), saw the Heineken factory, went to the Van Gogh (pronounced with a Hebrew-esque “ch,” not like “go”) Museum, saw the "I amsterdam" sign, went to the greenest parks I’ve seen in ages, ate incredible food, saw the notorious red light district – which lived up to its reputation, went to a comedy show called “Boom Chicago” run by Americans living in the Netherlands, went to another only-legal-in-Amsterdam show the night before – which was, um interesting… the list goes on.

Amsterdam is an incredibly biker-friendly city. And by “biker-friendly” I mean that the streets are flooded with the Dutch on their bikes; they’re everything but friendly. They’ll ring their little bike bells at you and won’t hesitate to run into you at decent speeds – which almost happened to Max a half-dozen times – then curse at you in Dutch.

The coolest thing we did all weekend was go to the city carnival. We went on a crazy ride called the Booster Maxxx, which was a combination of the Tower of Terror and an upside-down roller coaster. We sat suspended from probably 100 feet with a crazy view of the whole city, then went spiraling, circling toward the ground over and over for about three minutes. The swings, as you can see, were also nearly 100 feet off the ground, which gave us a 360-degree view of Amsterdam and its North Atlantic coast.

Our three days flew by and now I’m back in Prague, working on my project for my Central and Eastern European Integration into the EU and NATO class. Yeah, it’s a mouthful. Good thing I’m going to Munich for Spring Fest on Friday.

(More pictures coming soon.)