We got to Amsterdam Thursday night and were exhausted so we got dinner near our hostel, the Amsterdan Hostel Centre. We booked out hostel pretty last minute and ended up in an 8 person mixed room which ended up being quite the experience.
Friday morning our first stop was Starbucks. Being that Italy doesn’t have Starbucks, I like to take advantage of it whenever possible. From there we made our way to the Anne Frank house. It was a crisp morning but the sun was shining which made the walk pretty pleasant. I had no idea how cute Amsterdam was. Usually when people think of Amsterdam, they think of weed or sex (red light district). But the city itself is beautiful. The Anne Frank house was a great experience and very touching. Most of it was kept in tact making it a very touching experience, especially having relatives that were holocaust survivors and victims.
From there we went to the Pancake Factory. It was down the street and had been recommended by some friends. I now know why..the pancakes were amazing! They’re more like crepes but still absolutely delicious! From there we headed to the red light district (you need to go during the day cause at night it’s super sketchy) although not without doing some shopping at H&M (i love seeing the different things they have in each city).
From there we went to the Pancake Factory. It was down the street and had been recommended by some friends. I now know why..the pancakes were amazing! They’re more like crepes but still absolutely delicious! From there we headed to the red light district (you need to go during the day cause at night it’s super sketchy) although not without doing some shopping at H&M (i love seeing the different things they have in each city).
The red light district was a bit disturbing. There are all these different sex shops and sex shows you can go see but to get people to come in they have women in the windows in their underwear. Not exactly what we were expecting but it was quite an experience. On our walk back we stopped off at Chipsy King which is a french fry place where you can get any topping you want and they are SO GOOD! I’m still dreaming about them.
Dinner we went to Wok to walk which is chinese and was so good. you get to choose what kind of pasta and meat and toppings you want and they make it for you right then and there. It started to rain while we were eating which put a damper on our night so we decided to grab some Ben and Jerry's and head back for an early night. We were then introduced to our newest roommate, a girl from Austria who was SO WEIRD and drunk and high. It was pretty uncomfortable and only got worse when she went into the bathroom and was throwing up for a good 20 minutes. None of us knew what to do so we all just put in our headphones and went to bed hoping she wouldn’t wake any of us to chat.
Saturday:
We started our morning at the Pancake Corner, another pancake place that was phenomenal and down the street from our hostel.
Van Gogh museum: We got there at the worst time and ended up waiting about an hour and a half in the freezing cold. By the time we got in we could barely feel our bodies but the museum itself was an awesome museum with tonsss of paintings by him and other artists that inspired his works.
We cabbed it to the Heineken Experience because we were all waaaay to cold to walk and obviously didn’t do the best job packing.
Heineken experience: super cool and tons of fun! We got to taste a beer and then 2 free beers at the end. I obviously bought a bunch of completely unnecessary souvenirs but I was so fascinated!
Starbucks, again. I just can’t get enough of it over here!
Jamin: this awesome candy store that was near our hostel that had a great selection of delicious treats!
After our busy day we headed back to rest and await Julie’s arrival (she was in Prague and came to meet up with us).
Dinner that night was at Sumo, a japanese restaurant where I FINALLY had sushi. At home I eat sushi at least once a week, so not having it for 2 and a half months had been a pretty big struggle. It was so good and hit the spot!
After dinner we went to the Bulldog to hang out and then went for drinks and caught up with julie.
Sunday: We started the morning at Royal Bagels. enough said. Anyone who’s anyone knows my love for bagels is a borderline obsession so I was on cloud 9 eating my beloved jew food. From there we went to the IAMsterdam sign and took the obligatory tourist photos for a bit.
It was a lot nicer out and not as cold as it had been the past could days so we headed to Voldenpark, a gorgeous park also pretty close to our hostel. We were all sitting in the park relaxing when these 2 guys came up to us, 1 with a camera. They started talking to us and one of them sat down and started applying athletes foot cream on the bottom of his feet. I seriously thought we were on punk’d or boiling points or something. They were so weird and I was waiting for the rest of the cameras to come out, but that didn’t happen. It was quite possibly one of the weirdest things that hands ever happened and after about 30 minutes they finally left us alone. Only in Amsterdam. We then went back to Chipsy king and Jamin because we loved it so much and ate dinner again at Wok to Walk. We spent the rest of our night at Tops just chatting away before heading back to the hostel since we had an early flight the next day.
It was a lot nicer out and not as cold as it had been the past could days so we headed to Voldenpark, a gorgeous park also pretty close to our hostel. We were all sitting in the park relaxing when these 2 guys came up to us, 1 with a camera. They started talking to us and one of them sat down and started applying athletes foot cream on the bottom of his feet. I seriously thought we were on punk’d or boiling points or something. They were so weird and I was waiting for the rest of the cameras to come out, but that didn’t happen. It was quite possibly one of the weirdest things that hands ever happened and after about 30 minutes they finally left us alone. Only in Amsterdam. We then went back to Chipsy king and Jamin because we loved it so much and ate dinner again at Wok to Walk. We spent the rest of our night at Tops just chatting away before heading back to the hostel since we had an early flight the next day.
Back in Florence I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Fainerz, who would be staying with me all week followed by us going to Rome to visit 2 of our other friends. I was absolutely exhausted but the excitement of the upcoming week kept me going...well almost.
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