I AMSTERDAM!!

Dear Amsterdam,

I am sorry our time together was so short. Even though you left me liver-broken and penny-less, I will always cherish the memories of long walks in the red light district, visiting favourite coffee shops and making fun of wasted tourists while munching on brownies. You are perfect and I will think of you always, never change, until we meet again….

Train station

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of weed in the middle of the day….in the middle of the city….actually no, everywhere! When you think Holland, you think Amsterdam and when you think Amsterdam, you think red light district but there’s actually way more to do in Amsterdam and the red light district is awesome but surprisingly small.

I arrived on Friday afternoon after getting up at 5am, a change over in Rome and a hideous flight with 2 babies and a fat guy snoring and drooling on his belly, I made it! And my cousin, Alexandra (through marriage, twice removed) but cousin nonetheless, picked me up at the train station which is right below the airport. We took the train to Voorhout, I dropped my stuff off and we headed straight into Amsterdam. Some sight-seeing of random buildings obviously didn’t hold my attention and before long we were heading to a coffee shop…of course. Five minutes later we headed to the outskirts of Amsterdam and met up with Natalie (my other cousin) and her friend Sarah. Ironically we were going to the Goldfish concert. Down a path, through a park and into an opening in the middle of the forest was party central. Dutch bands playing, krokets on rolls – oh the cheesy goodness – and lots of drinks of course! We partied the night away, ‘no matter the weather’ (it was raining) and just had an all round epic time. Chilled Saturday, made a picnic lunch and headed…..you guessed it, AMSTERDAM! For a proper tourist round.

LIQUEUR

This picture really doesnt need a caption

Thats me on the E!

A stop on the pub crawl...or was it?

We started with a coffee shop…yes again, and if you ask me, don’t waste your time with brownies, just order a greencake, or smoke a joint. Next was a hubbly sesh at the Greenlight District, which is a shop, not an area, and then headed for the Bols experience (similar to the Heineken experience). And yes its an experience. It starts with a taster room where you guess the flavour, then you head into a room where you smell every liqueur they have to offer, then there is some boring movie which we skipped and then straight onto the free cocktail and shots, wooo!! Next we headed to burger king…most..amazing…meal…ever. (Note: I am a brownie, 2 shots and a cocktail down by now).  Finally we headed into the red light district for the pub crawl. I wish I could go in depth about this part of the evening but that could get pretty graphic and also….its pretty much a blur. All I know is that it lasted until 5am and we got a free t-shirt. Woke up Sunday morning for (Nat and Alex’s) father’s day breakfast. No questions were asked thank goodness and sunglasses where permitted at the table.  I already started getting withdrawal symptoms on the flight back and realised that I could easily live in Holland but not Amsterdam, that would be too much strain on the liver and wallet, and who knows, maybe that’ll be my next stop  on this journey we call life ;)