We arrived in Amsterdam late that night, stumbled around the train station trying to figure out how to get to our hostel, then decided to walk in the opposite direction. After about 5 minutes, we both got a little nervous, called a cab, and got to our hostel just in time to crash.
The next day, we woke up and walked around the city. Everything was already starting to be decorated for the Queen's Day festival the next day, but it wasn't that crowded yet. Needless to say, I was still glad that I'd been to Amsterdam before -- there was a carnival set up in the middle of Dam Square, which was great the next day but not so great for touristy sightseeing.
We decided to start the day off by purchasing matching orange cowboy hats and sunglasses for Queen's Day and then wandering around the canals (that's code for "getting lost").
High on my list of things to do was to visit Anne Frank's House. I had missed out on it when I went to Amsterdam my Junior year of high school and it was probably my only regret from the trip. Being able to go inside the house was a really great experience. I know everyone says this, but it's true -- it was so small! The father decided not to replace the furniture inside the house after the Nazis found them and confiscated everything, which made it a bit eery... but in an appropriate way. The most interesting room to me was Anne's room, which still had the original decorations (mostly clippings from magazines of her favorite actors and actresses).
Next stop: the flower market! Vanessa and I walked past it, thinking it was a stall (we didn't look down the street... where it continued for 3 blocks), but finally found it. Hooray! It's the perfect place to go if you're interested in buying tulips or cannabis starter kits. I liked the tulips, haha. The flowers were all arranged well and the market itself was really colorful. There were also lovely souvenir shops. This was my favorite display:
After wandering around the flower market and getting lost again (neither of us are the best with directions... oops), we found our way to the Heineken Brewery!
Yummm. =) What a delicious experience. The Brewery was just like any other -- a tour of the brewing process with taste tests and interactive things but they really seemed to go above and beyond the norm. They had a bunch of displays up of different things made out of Heineken cozies, labels, and bottles and had a video room with commercials from ad campaigns over the decades. One of my favorite displays was the "world bottle," where Heineken designed a bottle that could be stacked on itself to build affordable housing in lesser developed countries. Personally, anyone who can drink a house worth of beer and then build a house with the leftover bottles has my respect.
The karaoke station was the best part of the Brewery by far. We thought it would be in English and were more than a little surprised when it turned out to be in Dutch...
I may regret putting this online, but it's almost too good not to share. The best we could do was, "blah blah blah Amsterdaaaam!" Seriously, Dutch is one crazy language.
After our trip to the Heineken Brewery, Vanessa and I bought tickets for a canal cruise and had a nice dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was as delicious as it was expensive (very), but at least it was kind of cool to go to an international Hard Rock. The night cruise was fun, and by the end of it both of us were wiped so we went straight back to the hostel and crashed.
The next day was Queen's Day! The two of us dressed in all orange and walked to the tram station by the hostel. When we got there we ran into a bunch of nice Dutch guys from Rotterdam. One of them was named Barney, so we decided to refer to them as Barney and Friends (haha). They showed us how to get to Central Station, but we lost them after a little while. It was hard to keep track of people when there were literally millions of people wearing orange wandering through the streets.
Vanessa and I spent much of the morning watching the constant stream of party boats in the Canals. They were insane -- tons of people packed onto tiny boats with huge speaker systems blasting music and lots and lots of alcohol. Lots.
After wandering around town for a while (we went to Meseumplein to see part of a concert and found the famed Bulldog coffee shop), we returned to the Canals with a six pack to try to bribe our way onto a boat. It nearly worked, but in the end we just decided to drink our beer and people watch. What a good decision! We met a bunch of nice people (mostly people with boat trouble) and even saw a live band perform on the water.
Our orange outfits were fabulous. We got compliments on the matching hats and glasses all day. ;)
After a while we decided to wander again and ate dinner at a cart in the middle of the street. I had an amazing hot pastrami sandwich with some sort of mustard on it... it was absolutely incredible so when I finished I insisted that we walk back so I could get another. ;) Next, we went to the carnival in Dam Square and rode a swing ride. It was a blast, plus it gave us a great view of the city! Our next stop: dessert in the form of warm waffles from a cart in the carnival. DELICIOUS!
Before we turned in for the day, we decided to take a walk through the Red Light District. It was definitely an interesting experience - much different from how I remembered it in high school, although I'm assuming that our tour wasn't very in depth.
Sexy. One of the best parts of the Red Light District was the tranny dressed like the Queen and his friend who traded Vanessa's hat for an orange boa and danced with her in front of another sex shop. It was hilarious!!
We left Amsterdam the next day and took a train to Rotterdam, home of crazy architecture. Rotterdam was pretty much demolished during WWII, so they used it as an opportunity to experiment with incredible architecture.
Vanessa and I visited these cube houses. They were just as crazy inside and it was surprising that people actually lived there.
After the cube houses, we walked through the city and to a park just beneath the Euromast. Rotterdam has really great parks, too. I think I prefer London's, but theirs was still absolutely beautiful. I wish we had had more time to explore it, but we wanted to get to the Euromast before it closed.
An obligatory tulip picture. There were thousands in all sorts of different colors - it was stunning!
Once we got to the top of the Euromast (basically a huge viewing tower), we were able to see the whole city beneath us. I really liked the Erasmus Bridge (the white asymmetrical bridge in the center of the picture) because it's different from any other bridge I've seen.
The viewing platform at the top also had these really cool signs facing North, South, East, and West. On each of the signs were pictures of famous monuments, architectural feats, and important sites all around the world that were that direction from Rotterdam. It was really fun finding the ones that I'd been to (especially the places I've just visited this semester and the Christo Redentor statue in Rio!).
Afterwards we had dinner at a DELICIOUS Chinese buffet, complete with a wok and a grill. We ended up staying there for at least 2 and a half hours, taking full advantage of the unlimited food and three free drinks. =)
The next day we took a train to The Hague to see the sights and visit Vanessa's grandmother's old apartment. The Hague is where all the foreign embassies and ambassador's houses are located in the Netherlands. It's also home to the Dutch Parliament. It was really cool to walk down the street with all the foreign embassies. Everything was fancy, the streets were lined with beautiful trees, and it all looked extremely well-kept. What a beautiful city!
Some very expensive housing near a bunch of embassies. We walked down this street for about a half hour, but it was so relaxing and the houses were so pretty that I'm really glad we didn't take a tram.
After we found Vanessa's grandmother's old apartment, we took a tram to Madurodam, a kind of theme park that had miniature models of famous Dutch architecture. It made me think of a more sophisticated Legoland, haha.
Look, it's a tiny version of St. John's Basilica! The detail on this was amazing. Also, please disregard the giant Elmo in the background...
This is the interior of the Dutch Parliament. The little soldiers and the tiny carriage were the most impressive part in my opinion.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Vanessa and I are adorable! =)
These fish were probably the most exciting thing about Madurodam. I was more fascinated by them than I think I should have been. But, I mean... they would come up to the surface with their huge mouths and stare at you!! What isn't exciting about that?!
Ok, so these wooden shoes are much heavier than they look. I was trying to lift one of them in this picture (with limited success).
Vanessa and I ended our day by finding our way to the real version of one of the most impressive miniature buildings in Madurodam: the Dutch Parliament! The International Relations major in me (or what's left of it after the IR office screwed me over -- but that's another story) geeked out. It was pretty in person, too!
We took a train back to Amsterdaam the next morning and flew back to London that afternoon. My time in Holland was a bit of a whirlwind experience, but it was definitely a ton of fun. Plus, having some one-on-one time with Vanessa was absolutely wonderful!
The karaoke station was the best part of the Brewery by far. We thought it would be in English and were more than a little surprised when it turned out to be in Dutch...
I may regret putting this online, but it's almost too good not to share. The best we could do was, "blah blah blah Amsterdaaaam!" Seriously, Dutch is one crazy language.
After our trip to the Heineken Brewery, Vanessa and I bought tickets for a canal cruise and had a nice dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was as delicious as it was expensive (very), but at least it was kind of cool to go to an international Hard Rock. The night cruise was fun, and by the end of it both of us were wiped so we went straight back to the hostel and crashed.
The next day was Queen's Day! The two of us dressed in all orange and walked to the tram station by the hostel. When we got there we ran into a bunch of nice Dutch guys from Rotterdam. One of them was named Barney, so we decided to refer to them as Barney and Friends (haha). They showed us how to get to Central Station, but we lost them after a little while. It was hard to keep track of people when there were literally millions of people wearing orange wandering through the streets.
Vanessa and I spent much of the morning watching the constant stream of party boats in the Canals. They were insane -- tons of people packed onto tiny boats with huge speaker systems blasting music and lots and lots of alcohol. Lots.
After wandering around town for a while (we went to Meseumplein to see part of a concert and found the famed Bulldog coffee shop), we returned to the Canals with a six pack to try to bribe our way onto a boat. It nearly worked, but in the end we just decided to drink our beer and people watch. What a good decision! We met a bunch of nice people (mostly people with boat trouble) and even saw a live band perform on the water.
Our orange outfits were fabulous. We got compliments on the matching hats and glasses all day. ;)
After a while we decided to wander again and ate dinner at a cart in the middle of the street. I had an amazing hot pastrami sandwich with some sort of mustard on it... it was absolutely incredible so when I finished I insisted that we walk back so I could get another. ;) Next, we went to the carnival in Dam Square and rode a swing ride. It was a blast, plus it gave us a great view of the city! Our next stop: dessert in the form of warm waffles from a cart in the carnival. DELICIOUS!
Before we turned in for the day, we decided to take a walk through the Red Light District. It was definitely an interesting experience - much different from how I remembered it in high school, although I'm assuming that our tour wasn't very in depth.
Sexy. One of the best parts of the Red Light District was the tranny dressed like the Queen and his friend who traded Vanessa's hat for an orange boa and danced with her in front of another sex shop. It was hilarious!!
We left Amsterdam the next day and took a train to Rotterdam, home of crazy architecture. Rotterdam was pretty much demolished during WWII, so they used it as an opportunity to experiment with incredible architecture.
Vanessa and I visited these cube houses. They were just as crazy inside and it was surprising that people actually lived there.
After the cube houses, we walked through the city and to a park just beneath the Euromast. Rotterdam has really great parks, too. I think I prefer London's, but theirs was still absolutely beautiful. I wish we had had more time to explore it, but we wanted to get to the Euromast before it closed.
An obligatory tulip picture. There were thousands in all sorts of different colors - it was stunning!Once we got to the top of the Euromast (basically a huge viewing tower), we were able to see the whole city beneath us. I really liked the Erasmus Bridge (the white asymmetrical bridge in the center of the picture) because it's different from any other bridge I've seen.
The viewing platform at the top also had these really cool signs facing North, South, East, and West. On each of the signs were pictures of famous monuments, architectural feats, and important sites all around the world that were that direction from Rotterdam. It was really fun finding the ones that I'd been to (especially the places I've just visited this semester and the Christo Redentor statue in Rio!).
Afterwards we had dinner at a DELICIOUS Chinese buffet, complete with a wok and a grill. We ended up staying there for at least 2 and a half hours, taking full advantage of the unlimited food and three free drinks. =)
The next day we took a train to The Hague to see the sights and visit Vanessa's grandmother's old apartment. The Hague is where all the foreign embassies and ambassador's houses are located in the Netherlands. It's also home to the Dutch Parliament. It was really cool to walk down the street with all the foreign embassies. Everything was fancy, the streets were lined with beautiful trees, and it all looked extremely well-kept. What a beautiful city!
Some very expensive housing near a bunch of embassies. We walked down this street for about a half hour, but it was so relaxing and the houses were so pretty that I'm really glad we didn't take a tram.After we found Vanessa's grandmother's old apartment, we took a tram to Madurodam, a kind of theme park that had miniature models of famous Dutch architecture. It made me think of a more sophisticated Legoland, haha.
Look, it's a tiny version of St. John's Basilica! The detail on this was amazing. Also, please disregard the giant Elmo in the background...
This is the interior of the Dutch Parliament. The little soldiers and the tiny carriage were the most impressive part in my opinion.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Vanessa and I are adorable! =)
These fish were probably the most exciting thing about Madurodam. I was more fascinated by them than I think I should have been. But, I mean... they would come up to the surface with their huge mouths and stare at you!! What isn't exciting about that?!
Ok, so these wooden shoes are much heavier than they look. I was trying to lift one of them in this picture (with limited success).Vanessa and I ended our day by finding our way to the real version of one of the most impressive miniature buildings in Madurodam: the Dutch Parliament! The International Relations major in me (or what's left of it after the IR office screwed me over -- but that's another story) geeked out. It was pretty in person, too!
We took a train back to Amsterdaam the next morning and flew back to London that afternoon. My time in Holland was a bit of a whirlwind experience, but it was definitely a ton of fun. Plus, having some one-on-one time with Vanessa was absolutely wonderful!
