the shelter jordan

I wanted dedicate an entire post to the hostel we stayed at in Amsterdam because it was so great. We had no idea that it was a Christian hostel when we made our reservations but it was a great surprise! We ended up having dinner at the hostel both nights we were there. Not only was it inexpensive, but it was also very good. The first night we met some pretty cool people who worked at the Shelter. We were the only guests at dinner that night, so it was us and all of the staff. The staff are all volunteers who are either done with school or taking some time off from school, just like us. They were from all over Europe, the UK, and the United States and extremely friendly. Some of them even knew people from Gordon that I know! It was so crazy! During dinner we got lots of helpful opinions and advice about what to see and do in city. Then they invited us to go to this jazz night thing at a bar in the city with them and we were so excited! We left around 9 and it took us about a half hour to walk there. But the walk was so much fun! We got to see the city at night, which was beautiful, and we had some awesome conversations with our new friends! It was so nice to talk to a fellow American about football and The Office.

The jazz was great and we had a really good time! We got a lot of advice and even made some notes on our map of where we go from the front desk and were off bright and early the next morning. After we ate dinner at the hostel again we went and walked around and then spent some time in the common room reading and journaling. After Fran went to bed I hung around to finish up my journal entry but ended up having a very cool conversation with another one of the staff members who is from the Netherlands. We had a deep talk about school and education and a deep spiritual talk. It was very cool and so exciting to hear about how God is working everywhere in the world!

Anyways, to wrap up these random thoughts about our hostel, it was a great experience. Although I am not the biggest fan of the city of Amsterdam, staying at the Shelter Jordan will probably be a highlight of the trip!