Amsterdam/Geneva

I survived traveling with only a backpack for a week! and the straps didnt completely rip under the weight of all my stuff so i'd say it was a pretty successful trip. We started our adventure in the milan airport. we got to milan at about midnight and our flight didnt leave until 7:40am so it was definitely a long cold night on the airport benches/floor. Looking back after the fact it wasnt that bad at all, i would definitely spend the night in an airport again for a cheap flight. We flew into amsterdam where we went the first 3 days of the trip. The netherlands are absolutely beautiful!! The canals, the architecture, and the excellently planned out bike lanes particularly impressed me. My dutch roommates were so excited to have me visit there home country and gave me a ton of recommendations of places to see, eat and explore. I was traveling with Victoria and Sawyeh, two of my friends from SDSU and 3 really sweet girls from their florence program, molly, megan and brittany. We saw so many things in amsterdam but some of the highlights were the anne frank house, vondel park, and of course we walked through the red light district. Seeing it first hand was kind of a trip, it was definitely weird to see with your own eyes the women in the windows, it made it real not just something you heard about. It was extremely cold in amsterdam though and my most important purchase was a pair of 2 euro gloves to keep my fingers from falling off. We had pretty good weather throughout the trip though it randomly hailed for about 5 minutes the first day we were there. After amsterdam we flew to geneva switzerland which is a gorgeous place but so damn expensive! luckily for our wallets we were only staying there one night. We walked around the city all day and also took advantage of the free public transportation pass we got (and apparently all travelers to geneva get fyi) by hopping on and off random buses to explore more of the city! We also indulged in some swiss chocolate of course which goes without saying was exceptionally delicious :) Vt, Sawyeh and I caught a train back to florence the next day while the others continued on to france. Luckily we decided not to do that leg of the trip and thank god because france decided to have plane and train strikes this week so they had to wait 12 hours in the geneva airport to catch the next available plane. The trip was so much fun and i really had a good time but i have to say, i was really excited to come "home" to florence again. I didnt realize how much i missed hearing/trying to speak italian! Its nice to be back in florence but i sure miss everybody from back home so much!

victoria and sawyeh at about 4:30am in Milan 

megan and molly

one of the many beautiful canals

the group :)

a monument dedicated to the dutch jews who lost their lives in the holocaust

i love the dutch houses and the changing of the leaves!

right near damn square

exploring the city

its hard to see, but someone put a red hat on the statue!

probably beacause it was soooooo cold! (im wearing about 5 layers)

didnt have a chance to stop in bummmer

vondel park!

i love the changing colors of the leaves

a cool modern art sitting area near our hostel

the most delicious hot chocolate ever

the famous "I AMsterdam" sign

mascot of "Brood" a really delicious bakery :)

GENEVA

the famous geneva water thing haha

beautiful architecture

it was pretty cold in switzerland too

gorgeous sunset by the lake, you can see the shooting water thing in the background

the girls being silly

the beautiful view of the mountains on the train ride back to florence