THE PLAN – London July 27 – August 3 // Amsterdam August 3 – August 10

July 27, 2015 – 6 hours prior to departure.
  
Hello friends and family,

I’m going to Europe for the next two weeks and I created this blog so that I could share my experiences with the world. If you don’t already know, I’ll be going to London with California State University Channel Islands (the school I just graduated from) from July 27th to August 3rd, then Amsterdam from August 3rd through the 10th. While in London, 15 students and I will be studying British architecture, intercultural communication, and going on tons of guided tours. Some of our main points of interest include:

Wednesday: Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, & The London Eye
Thursday: The Tower of London, The Shard, & Borough Market
Friday: Natural History Museum & Hyde Park
Saturday: Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, & Oxford University [and Fabric Nightclub]
Sunday: St. Paul’s Cathedral & Trafalgar Square
Monday: Pack up and head to Amsterdam

As my colleagues prepare to head back to the states, I’ll be hopping on a plane headed for Amsterdam. My mother was born in this wonderful little city, and we have lot’s of friends in The Netherlands (or as we call it, Holland), so I extended my stay in Europe so I could spend some time with them. As you might guess, the Dutch portion of my trip is a little less organized, but this is my tentative plan:

Monday/Tuesday: I land in Amsterdam Monday afternoon. My cousin, Bryce is picking me up from the airport, so I’ll hang out with him and his parents (his mom is one of my mom’s best friends) for a day or two. They live in a suburb of Amsterdam, about 20 minutes out.
Wednesday: Wednesday at some point I hope to head to my cousin Donny’s house, just outside of Amsterdam. He used to be deep into the nightlife scene in the city, so I’m hoping we can hit the town together. Donny is a successful hairdresser who has cut several famous DJ’s hair including Tiesto’s!
Thursday: I plan on spending the entire day Thursday in Amsterdam, visiting museums, etc.; perhaps with Donny if he’s free.
Friday/Saturday/Sunday: As the weekend approaches I will migrate to a family-friend, Mitchell’s house. Mitchell is my age and is in a similar scene as I am in Hollywood. He is going to show me the underground electronic music scene in Amsterdam. I’m really looking forward to this. If possible, we might even be able to find a festival we can attend.
Monday: I’ll stay with Mitchell for the remainder of the trip and head back to the US on Monday morning.

The last time I was in Europe I was only 15 years old, so I’m really excited to go on this adventure for the first time as an adult. I’m also really excited for the guided tours in London since I would probably never organize these type of activities into my own trips. I can’t wait to touch down in London and start exploring!

Thanks for reading!

Taylor