AMSTERDAM
        
         We arrived here for a class trip, just before the weekend began, and found it to be one of the strangest, beautiful, and unique cities of northern Europe.  Before coming here, me and my companions knew little of it, except for its pop culture references as being a place with very open laws for their coffee shops, we had no idea that it was a historic city built over canals with great architecture (though leaning over).  Our tour with our professor took us through the newer sections, which consisted of newer developments on top of older industrial areas; it was not as interesting as the old town.  When going through the tourist areas, it was shocking to suddenly find us in the middle of the red light district, which was like the back door of disney with all the camera bags and fanny packs.  At the end of it I found one of my favorite bizarre French cars, the Cirtoen C6, it is very French as you can see, style for the sake of style, doing things you would never see an american car do; it even has a reversed curved rear windshield!  By the end of the trip, we were very happy to be back in Lille, the sun had come out, and we were in more familiar surroundings.