Amsterdam was amazing. We stayed in a Christian hostel (which was decorated with signs that said “God Loves You!” and offered free English-Dutch bibles) located right in the heart of the Red Light District, which was quite the interesting experience. Everything was so unbelievably beautiful, and we spent a lot of time walking around and looking at lopsided (drunk) houses and legions of bicycles. (The iepen had already snowed, but their new leaves were especially beautiful when the sun decided to come out.) We spent a lot of time visiting bookstores and museums, including the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House.

I’m afraid I was a rather obnoxious travel partner for my friend, who has yet to read The Fault in Our Stars; I kept seeing things that would remind me of the book and going on about how exciting it was to be there after reading it. Still, I was careful not to spoil anything since she does plan to read it, and we talked about how different our experiences with the story would be after visiting Amsterdam.