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Hello Holland

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Day Seven: After eight hours of fitful sleep, I’m awakened in Dutch to the news that the bus has stopped. We were just on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Half-asleep from a poor night’s rest across two bus seats, I figured out a new railway system and made it into Centraal Station. The second I stepped out of the station I was bombarded with hordes of bikes everywhere. Right outside the station, I made the mistake of trying to cross the double bike lane of bikes zooming about and almost got run over. I was amazed and delighted. I love bikes. Biking was a common family outing as a child, and one of the constant hobbies I kept up no matter where I have lived.  (Dedicated bike lanes crisscrossed the city with commuters and tourists alike on bikes) I walked into town and to the Red Light District where my St. Christopher’s hostel was. During the day, the Red Light District is pretty tame; it just looks very commercial and touristy. It seems comparable to Times Square in New York City. I checke
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Trip to the city of Lights

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          The New Year came while I was asleep in midair. The airline gave me several complimentary glasses of wine for my transatlantic flight so I zonked out and woke up in 2019. It was the winter break of my Junior year of college and I was on my first solo trip to Europe. An old friend from high school posted that she was looking for a travel companion to Paris after her original travel companion dropped out. It was a perfect opportunity because I missed seeing this friend, and I hated doing nothing during breaks from school. We had made plans and lists of destinations. Reports from the BBC had recently come in about the Gilets Jaunets (Yellow Vest) protesters rioting on the Champs-Élysée over President Macron and his recent gas tax. As the reports of rioting and footage of tear-gas clouds were projected on our screens, my friend backed out, but I was still determined to go see how bad it really was in Paris. If all else failed, I would take a train somewhere safer. I was excited f
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