The best part of spring break was traveling to Amsterdam.
Even though the weather was pretty freezing the whole time we were there I
loved it so much. The architecture was so interesting, the mix of modern
contemporary buildings and buildings that looked like that they had been there
for a hundred years made the whole city scream, ’this is a place where artists
live.’ Even the graffiti was beautiful. Walking around the city was freezing
but it was so interesting to see the different types of cultures that existed.
I didn’t expect to go into a Buddhist temple but I’m glad that we did. The sculptures
were like nothing I’d ever seen before. Even though we were freezing on the
walking tour of the city it was still fascinating. We learned that there were
hooks on the tops of the building that would be used to lift furniture into the
windows of the buildings because the stairs are too narrow to get anything into
the building. We also walked through a street market for a while. Me and my
group were talking to one of the venders and he asked us where we were from and
we told him Calgary he remarked, ’oh! The Olympics.’ We also had several different
types of Dutch cuisine, like crockets. On the final day in Amsterdam we went
north to see the windmills, as well as to see how clogs are made. They used to
hand carve them until the 18th century. Now they have a machine that
can make one clog in under five minutes. But then they have to let them air
dry, no wind, no light, it has to be completely by the air or the clog is
ruined. Then we went into a windmill and got to see the inner workings of it. I
felt very prideful to be part Dutch that day. Overall it was an amazing experience.
