Allison Mullen

I went to Amsterdam, Netherlands with my roommate, Kyleigh Mohr, from March 9 through 11. We stayed in the Flying Pig Hostel in downtown Amsterdam. The city itself was really amazing in terms of being beautiful and also having an open culture. We did many things in the city and walked around downtown.  

On March 9, we left Heathrow Airport in London and took the Royal Dutch Airlines also known as KLM. We sat on the runway for about two hours but otherwise, the flight went very well. We ended up in Amsterdam around 1 p.m. The walk from Central Station to our hostel was only eight minutes, so we got to see a little of the city before checking in. Once we were able to put our stuff down, we headed to get food. Something very interesting about the city was that KyLeigh, who has a gluten allergy, was able to find food a lot easier. So, we ate at a gluten-free place burger joint. It was pretty good! After that, we went back to our room. The cool thing about our hostel was that there were these little cards with things to do and discount codes. We were able to book things at cheaper prices. Day one was pretty boring, but we still had a lot of fun that night.  

On our second day, we had reservations at a brunch restaurant called Ted’s at 10 a.m. I had seen it all over TikTok. I got this amazing fried chicken donut breakfast and KyLeigh got yogurt. After, we went on a boat tour by the Central Station. It was an hour long and there were headphones that connected to an audio device with information about the city. The boat tour was beautiful because everything in the city is beautiful. It was 1 p.m. when we finished the tour, and we had a reservation at Hard Rock Cafe at 2 p.m. We walked over there and once again great food options there. We returned to the room after that because it started to rain and snow and it was cold. We took a nap while waiting for the bad weather to stop. Later that night, we went to a souvenir store where I got a sweatshirt. 

On our last day, we had to check out at 10:30 a.m., but luckily they had lockers to store our things. Our first stop in the city was Pancakes Amsterdam. KyLeigh Mohr, a fellow AIFS student and my roommate, said, “I liked that there were a lot of options for me and was so excited to find a gluten-free pancake place.” It was amazing! I would totally recommend it. We had booked a place called Upside Down Amsterdam for 2 p.m., and it was an hour away. So, we started to walk to it. We stopped in a few stores and got boba. At this point, we were forced to take the tube because we were going to be late. The Upside Down Amsterdam experience was fun, there were many things to do there including a ball pit and many picture-taking options. After that, we had to head to the airport and back to London.  

Overall, Amsterdam has to be one of my favorite places we have traveled to this whole trip. The views and culture are so amazing and I would totally go again someday. I hope if you are in London, you take the Eurostar or the short plane ride to visit.