My friends here have been traveling for weeks already. They have been to places such as Munich for Oktoberfest, Valencia, Mallorca, San Sebastian, Paris, and many other places across Europe.

Well, this past weekend, I finally went on my first big weekend trip… AMSTERDAM, the capital of the Netherlands!!!

I have always wanted to go to Amsterdam because of its reputation for having beautiful architecture, and by no means was I underwhelmed when I saw it. The buildings look like they are right out of a storybook, painted vivid colors and designed to whimsically. Even more amazing than the fabulous buildings were the canals that wind intricately throughout the city. I think there was a canal running down or through every street! Lots of people have their own boats that they take out on the canals as they please, and canal tours are offered by companies to show visitors the city from the water. I didn’t go on a canal tour, but one of my friends that I traveled there with did and she said that it was very nice, and that she saw a lot of things that she would not have seen on foot.

Throughout the weekend, we visited a lot of attractions that the city has to offer.

First, we visited the Anne Frank Huis (Anne Frank House), where the now-famous WWII victim Anne Frank went into hiding with her family when the Jewish were persecuted during the Holocaust. Although it was a bit depressing to see the house after already knowing what the Jewish were put through during this awful time in history, at the same time, it was very interesting to see the small hidden annex that eight people were confined to live in for two years. This is an important part of our world�s history, and I highly recommend that anyone who visits Amsterdam goes to visit this.

Another attraction that we made a priority on our list was the Heineken Experience. Heineken makes it a point to let everyone know that learning and understanding how they brew their product is not just something to see, but something to really experience, and an experience it was. We saw the entire process that brings the end result of the beverage Heineken beer, from what it�s made of (did you know that it is 96% water?!), how it is made, how it is bottled, and how it has progressed through the years. This interactive journey through the Heineken Brewery is something else that I would definitely suggest to anyone that goes to Amsterdam, purely because of the enjoyment that it provides.

As anyone would when visiting a new place, we spent a great deal of time exploring the city. We saw almost anything that anyone could possibly see, from the beautiful Vondelpark, to Dam Square, to Leidesplein, to the notorious Red Light District. Dam Square had a fair going on this weekend, which was refreshing to me because it reminded me of being home.

This weekend in Amsterdam was also the Amsterdam Dance Event weekend, an electronic music conference and the world’s biggest club festival for electronic music. The conference was something for people in the music industry, but it was accompanied by a nighttime music festival which took place in 52 venues around the city. On Saturday night, my friend and I went to one of the shows and it was so much fun, very different from the clubs that we go to in Barceona.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was when I got to see my cousin, Marisa. She studied abroad in Amsterdam while she was studying at Susquehanna University, and she loved it so much that she now lives there and is attending grad school there. It was really awesome to see her, because I haven�t seen her in awhile, but what was really interesting was to meet her Dutch friends and talk to them about the area and what it�s like to live there and everything.

So basically I had an amazing weekend, and I’ve decided that Dutch people are my favorite group of people in Europe that I have come across thus far because of the fact that they don�t treat tourists as tourists. All of the people that I met were genuinely friendly and wanted to get to know me. The people that I met at the dance event that I went to were all fun-loving people that just wanted to make sure that I had the best time possible during my trip. In the future, I definitely want to go back and visit again!