In one last hurrah, I set out to Amsterdam and Rome for 9 days – using every possible day between classes and finals to adventure. “Shouldn’t you be studying?” you ask. Well yes, I agree, I should be studying, but I ended up being very lucky to have most of my finals in the second half of the finals period, which allows me to justify – to myself and my mom – that using 110% of my reading week to travel around the continent is a good idea. After all, I have spent most of the last 13 blogs repeatedly going on about how important it is to seize the opportunity to travel as much as possible during study abroad.
So how did I pick Amsterdam and Rome? It wasn’t because I have Dutch heritage or a affinity for pasta, although I could definitely eat pizza every day without complaints. No, it was because Amsterdam and Rome had the absolute cheapest flights when planning this trip 2 months ago. Flying from Dublin to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Rome and then back from Rome to Dublin was cheaper than a round trip from Dublin to most places for the same week, so I really had no excuse not to see these two cities. Flying between the two was even cheaper and faster than taking the train somewhere else.
With a trip like this – the second longest vacation I’ve ever taken at just a day shorter than my pre-study abroad road trip – it’s hard to know where to even begin, so I’ll just use this blog to focus on the highlights broken down into the two features that I appreciated the most: food, and history. If you’ve been reading these blogs, you should know by now that I really enjoy learning about the history of where I travel, it fascinates me. You may have also noticed (see blog 12) that food is also one of the most important things about my study abroad experience. My focus on food may also be related to the fact that I tend to write these blogs before dinner, but that’s beside the point.
Amsterdam and Rome are culinarily almost opposites in terms of food. Amsterdam reminds me more of Ireland, with no-frills comfort food classics comprising most of their traditional dishes, complimented by an extensive variety of international eateries. Rome, in contrast, is a city completely dominated by Italian restaurants. In Amsterdam, finding a place for “traditional” Dutch food was almost a challenge, and a friend at UL from the Netherland’s number 1 recommendation for Dutch food to try in Amsterdam was Kapsalon, which is composed of French fries and Donner or Shawarma meat – a delicious meal that relies heavily on international influences. Even the fries in Holland known as “Holland fries” are quite literally just what the rest of the world knows as Belgian fries.
But my favorite Dutch treats were without a doubt the sweets. The Netherlands are also known for their pancakes and stroopwafels. The former are similar to American pancakes but bigger and often with more interesting toppings cooked into the cake. One I tried featured bananas and bacon both cooked into the cake, while others at my table tried a savory pine nut and goat cheese pancake that was equally delicious. Stroopwafels are thin waffle wafers with a thin layer of chewy caramel baked in between them – simultaneously chewy, crunchy, and absolutely irresistible at all times of day and night. These were probably my favorite thing I ate in Amsterdam.
Italy is obviously famous for the foods they have given the rest of the world. Finding an Italian restaurant or pizza place is done with ease in every part of the world I’ve been to so far, and the quality to price ratio in Rome has proven to be superior. There was no challenge finding homemade pastas and pizzas in Rome, and almost everything we had over the five full days I was there impressed and filled me up. From pizza, to lasagna, to gnocchi, to my nightly gelato, I spent five very happy days eating in Rome.
Now moving on to history. The highlight of my trip to Amsterdam was without a doubt my visit to the Anne Frank house. Some things truly need to be seen to be fully understood, and I cannot understate the degree to which seeing the place where Anne Frank wrote her diaries and lived with her companion families in hiding was an incredibly powerful experience. To read and hear her story and the stories of the thousands just like her is one thing, but to stand where she stood while reading her quotes and listening to audio of people who knew her is wholly chilling. Leaving the Anne Frank house everyone is quiet, still internalizing things that – even after seeing her bedroom wall with her pictures still pasted onto the wallpaper – are difficult to come to terms with. I recommend a visit here to everyone for the level of emotional understanding the house leaves you with.
Historical sites in Rome are a much less somber experience. Everyone knows the major sites in Rome, such as the Colosseum and Vatican City. There is far more I was able to see in five days in Rome than could ever be summarized in a blog like this, so again I will focus on the highlights. My two favorite historical visits in Rome were the Vatican Museum and the Roman Baths of Caracalla. The Vatican Museum almost doubtlessly has more statues and paintings of significance than all the other museums I’ve been to in my life combined. It is staggering to walk through such long exhibits filled to the brim with sculptures, artifacts, and paintings with such historical and religious significance. Besides the clear educational value of this, the awe factor that comes with viewing such impressively large and ancient works is what makes it truly special. The Sistine Chapel is obviously the icing on the cake of the Vatican Museum, and was well worth the neck cramps sustained from over half an hour of staring at the ceiling with my mouth ajar in awe.
The Baths of Caracalla are a less mainstream site in Rome, lying on the edge of the city a fair walk south of the Colosseum. They contain some of the largest and best preserved Roman bath ruins in the world, and the design for these baths was so impressive that it was used as a model for several large and impressive works of architecture throughout the ages, including most recently Penn Station and Chicago Union Station in the US. The idea that almost 2000 years ago citizens of Rome had a vast and beautiful free and communal space for exercise, relaxation, and study outfitted with modern luxuries (hot tubs!), make today’s best equivalent – gym memberships or a trip to the YMCA – seem more than a little underwhelming. Altogether, I wouldn’t trade this past week’s trip for the world, and I’ll leave this blog at that so I can get back to my studying.
