This week my family came to visit me.  I couldn't wait to see them after 3 and a half months, which was crazy to think it had been that long.   Since my parents had planned to stay in Amsterdam with my sister and brother, I took a train into Amsterdam Friday night and stayed with them for the weekend.  It was great to see everyone and I couldn't have been happier.

      On Saturday, we had a boat tour through the Canals, which really gave me a new view of the city and was able to learn a lot from the tour guide about the history of the city.  After went headed over to the Van Gogh Museum.  Although I've already been to the museum, I was able to appreciate his paintings more visiting a second time with my family. Since I've been to Amsterdam multiple times before, I was able to show my family around the city which was something I thought was really cool since I was not even studying there.  A couple things that they noticed about the city was the same things I did as well when I first visited too.  They noticed how clean the streets were, the fashion, the abundance of canals, of course, the marijuana. That night we went to the Amsterdam Icebar, which my friends and I went to the first time we visited, and they loved it. After the Icebar we went back to the hotel which closes to the Amsterdam Zuid station.  All the times I've stayed overnight in Amsterdam was in the of the city, so it was a change and also cool to see what life is like and how  transportation systems work getting into the center of the city.

      On Sunday, we headed back to Maastricht.  We stayed at the Crowne Plaza across the river, which was surprisingly very nice and was awesome to see everything on the other side of the river a little more in-depth.  That night I took them into the square and went to dinner at De Gouvenours.  Even when we were just walking around the city, they were amazed by the beauty of Maastricht, and they also loved the food as well.  On Monday, I did not have class so I showed them more of the city and went clothing shopping in the outdoor mall between the two squares. Tuesday night after my classes, we went back to Amsterdam to stay the night since we had an early flight the next morning into Rome. 

      It was safe to say that I was extremely excited to see Rome for the first time.  We got in around 11am that day and was able to walk around the city.  The first thing we did when we got settled went to a pizzeria around the corner from our Hotel, which did not disappoint. That night we went to a family owned restaurant, which my cousin who had studied abroad in Rome, recommended. The food was homemade by the wife, her husband took the order and the son brought out the food.  I  was amazed by the quality of all the food in Rome, which is something I am going to miss a lot.  We stayed there for four days and got to see the Coliseum, St. Peters Basilica, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Jewish Ghetto, the Tiber river and the Spanish steps.  I was shocked by the amount of history that was in Rome.  My dad told me that the oldest buildings in New York City are around 200- 300 years old , which is pretty amazing considering that the building and artifacts in Rome are thousands of years old.

      Saturday afternoon we took a flight back to Amsterdam, stayed the night and dropped my family off at the airport Sunday morning for their flight back to America.  This was a trip I will never forget especially being with my family.  I loved every second being with them and can't wait to see them soon!