As sad as I am that this amazing trip is coming to a close, I am happy to say that I had a memorable last weekend in Amsterdam for our free weekend.

My trip didn’t technically start till Saturday, because Jackson and I didn’t get to our hotel until 11:00 PM on Friday night. We spent the vast majority of the day on Saturday exploring the city. We realized early on that Amsterdam is much larger and more open than Dublin, with many different canals and quiet neighborhoods around every street corner. It didn’t take us long to realize that there were many tourist traps in Amsterdam. Many of the restaurants don’t have signs indicating prices, and we found ourselves spending crazy amounts of money on food. In one such instance on Saturday morning, we spent 9 euros for a muffin. For lunch on Saturday, we thought we were spending 15 euros on Bolognese and lasagna, but were charged 6 euros each for water and 6 euros each for bruschetta that we didn’t even order, so our total came to 27 euros each. Nonetheless, we didn’t get discouraged by this and figured this is just one of the downsides to coming to a city that is infested by tourists. So, we continued to explore the city and put these hiccups behind us.

Saturday evening was one of the highlights of the Amsterdam trip. I met up with a larger group of Bucknellians at a Pannenkoekenboot, also known as a pancake boat. When I first signed up for this a couple weeks ago, I really didn’t really know what I was signing up for. But the experience as a whole was fascinating. We ate as many pancakes as possible for an hour straight while floating down a canal. That’s it. But the combination of the delicious pancakes with countless toppings, the beautiful sunset, and just the mere fact that it was spent with friends made the experience memorable. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for things to do in Amsterdam.

While the pancake boat was one of the highlights of the trip, the Sunday morning bike ride was THE highlight of the Amsterdam trip, and one of the highlights of my entire trip to Europe. Jackson and I got up early Sunday morning to go on a 20 mile e-bike ride of the Dutch countryside, capped off with a cheese testing at a local cheese farm. Though 20 miles seems like an exhausting trip, I realized after riding an e-bike for the first time that the motor actually does the majority of the work. So, I got to soak in the views of the countryside instead of worrying about falling behind and catching up with the group. And let me tell you, the views from the ride were breathtaking. We passed by grazing sheep and cows and even houses that were directly on top of a canal, something that I have never seen before. At the end of the bike ride was the cheese tasting. As a cheese enthusiast, it was a dream to sample over 30 different kinds of cheese, from goat to cow to sheep cheese. My personal favorite was either the truffle cheese or the smoked jalapeño cheese. I’m super glad that Jackson and I pulled the trigger on doing this excursion because it is something that I will never forget.

On Sunday evening we met back up with the Bucknell group to get a tour of the Heineken factory. This tour was vastly different that our tour of the Guinness storehouse, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. While the tour of the Guinness storehouse was a guided tour, the tour of the Heineken factory was mostly an independent study. However, I arguably liked this better because I didn’t feel rushed and I got to read all about the process of creating the perfect Heineken. Similarly to the Guinness storehouse, there was a bar at the top where we could have a drink, but this time it was an open roof bar so we got to soak in both the views and feel the cool breeze.

To cap off our trip to Amsterdam, Jackson and I went on the canal tour that most of the Bucknell group did on Friday afternoon. This was the perfect way to end an amazing trip. It was relaxing, informative, and we got to eat even more cheese. Unfortunately for Jackson and I, we ate all of our cheese in the first 5 minutes of the tour and watched in agony for the next hour as no one else even touched their cheese. We were so tempted to ask if we could eat theirs, but we held our tongue.

To conclude my final blog, I want to express how grateful I am to have gotten the opportunity to be a part of the Bucknell in Dublin program. To be honest, I definitely had mixed feelings going into the trip. As excited as I was to explore a new city and make new friends, I was nervous about my internship, cooking most of my meals, and having to navigate a city I was unfamiliar with. However, after getting accustomed to Dublin and my surroundings, all of these doubts and worries proved pointless. I had the time of my life and have no regrets that I spent my summer in Dublin. This was a lifechanging opportunity for me and I look forward to maintaining the relationships that I built over the past two months!