Amsterdam dreams

For the second time this year, I visited Amsterdam.
The first time I went was back in March, where I only managed to spend 5 hours wandering around the Rijks museum and Hard rock cafe before we were forced to head back to our coach.
Although my time was so limited, I felt like I got a real sense of what The Netherlands was like; efficient, yet laid back. Vast, but littered with narrow streets. And of course, beautiful. 

(Back in March, looking like a dork 😎)

This time, I went with my best friend Annie. On the Sunday I headed down to London to stay with her and prepare for our journey on the Eurostar the next morning.
The weather was great, blue skies and sunshine. Like any other holiday, it felt like forever getting through customs and passport checks before we got on the train.
I was exhausted from the night before, so for most of the journey I had my sleeping mask on and my head down. Annie was practically vibrating with excitement, painting her nails and reading her book. Her joyfulness was infectious, I have to admit, even though I felt like I had been awake for a hundred years! 😴

                                                                                                                  

(Me being a lazy trout)

Once we got to Amsterdam, we headed straight to our apartment which wasn't too hard to find. We were in the Erasmusgracht area which had an enormous park and gardens to wander through. It was so beautiful. We headed down steps to our street past lavenders, hibiscus sunflowers and roses. There was a calmness that emanated from this particular part of the city. A young girl pulled on her grandfathers hair whilst sitting on his shoulders. Mothers strolled down the streets with empty prams whilst their babies walked beside them, curious and bending down to look at things in the grass. The sky was a pale blue, and seemed to go on forever. I was trying to taking everything in all at once 😍


Our host was the wonderful Hanneke, a small blonde woman wearing a multicoloured scarf and welcoming smile. She gave us a tour of the place, and showed us how to use everything; the dryer, washing machine, dishwasher etc. And she saved the best until last; the balconies and their views. Here is a picture of ours!

By 5pm, I was ready to collapse, so I put my head down for a nap whilst Annie sunned herself on the balcony. She looked ever so European sat there with the sun gleaming off her sunglasses, and a book under her nose! Once I awoke, we got dressed and headed out to find a grocery store to get some food for the apartment. Again, it wasn't hard to find. We ended up in Albert Heijn, a store which we would later discover was like a Dutch version of Tesco. They were everywhere!
We picked up some of the most typical European foods you could think of; Brioche, Salami, Dutch cheese, Belgian waffles, Coconut macaroons and of course, Twinings English breakfast teabags because that was the closest thing to Yorkshire tea they had 😅

Once we got back to the apartment a couple of hours later, we made some pizza and ate it out on the balcony. Below us a group of friends were laughing and drinking on a little boat. There were groups of people sat on picnic blankets, eating, drinking and talking by the canal whilst the sun went down. I watched plane after plane after plane jet off in the sky, only just missing the buildings underneath it. People sped past on their Vespas and bicycles underneath us, every now and then ringing their bike bells. Rose ringed parakeets flew past from tree to tree, singing their songs. We watched a cute little moor hen collect twigs and leaves, then paddle along to its nest and place them there. The water was serene and languid, the food was delicious and the air was still warm. Once it went dark and chilly, the bats came out and we headed back inside, watched some Dutch t.v and slept the day away.

The next morning, we had breakfast and headed out to the city. We hopped on the tram (a public transport service that I highly recommend!) and first visited Primark. (You can take the girl out of Britain but.... 😏)

I picked up an Amsterdam necklace, some perfume and an off the shoulder top, before we headed to the Van Gogh museum. Silly, silly mistake if you think you can just walk in without pre-booking a ticket. Tickets had completely sold out for the day, and it was only noon! The queue was about 1 mile long for tickets for the Wednesday, so we agreed to just forget about it and got ourselves a Pannini and a hot dog and sat under some parasols whilst the rain poured down around us.

We headed back into the city and wandered around in the rain, taking in the views of the canals and hidden streets, taking shelter under Annie's umbrella. Then we found a little corner cafe and ordered a tea and a hot chocolate 🍫

We talked and watched the rain outside then headed back to the Rijks museum gardens. We took some pictures of the sculptures and watched people jumping in and out of the floor fountains. Some poor souls got absolutely drenched! We went into the nearby cafe and ordered some dutch pancakes. I am telling you right now, they were absolutely DELICIOUS. By far the best pancakes I have ever had. They were sprinkled with icing sugar and melted butter. Almost drooling just remembering them! Here's an embarrassing picture of me enjoying them 🙈

Once we had devoured those lovely, tiny little cakes we went for a walk to De Pijp, an area in Amsterdam which is less 'touristy' if you're after some peace and quiet. It was quaint and lovely, dotted with little bistros, bars, independent businesses and there was even a park slap bang in the middle. Annie bought a custom made necklace and earrings which were sooo pretty and not at all expensive! We went for a couple of drinks at a couple of different places, then wandered around in search for a nice restaurant. We stumbled across Cannibale Royale on Handboogstraat. I ordered myself some chicken wings and chips, and Annie got an enormous burger, it was almost bigger than her head 😂 and she finished it! The whole thing! 👏 Yes gurl 💁

After gorging on food, we walked back to the city centre, in search of The Anne Frank house. We took lots and lots of beautiful and of course, obligatory canal pictures. Here's a few:

We got to the Anne Frank house, and oh my word...the queue for that went round two different streets! It was past 9pm and it was still open! We decided not to bother, as we were both wiped out! And this was the end of day two. Of course, I have way more photos than this but I'm just picking some of my favourites!

Although the entirety of our trip was amazing beyond what I could imagine, day three was definitely my favourite. We were on our way to get our matching Tulip tattoos before we took a quick detour to Dam square. Although it was so vibrant, and interesting (and typically beautifully Dutch), it was chaos! There were thousands and thousands of tourists. (You're probably wondering why I'm so shocked at the amount of people who were in Amsterdam when we were, and the answer to that is I kept forgetting it was summer holidays. Definitely a rookie mistake we won't be making next time 🙈)  

We found a cute little bakery place, and ordered a mini pizza and a cheese pastry, both with freshly squeezed orange juice. I'm gonna go as far to say that the orange juice in The Netherlands is by far the best I have ever tasted in Europe 😍 we continued on until we got to Hanky Panky tattoo studio (in the red light district if you were wondering!) and asked for a couple of tulip designs. I chose a single tulip with one leaf, and Annie chose a single tulip with a couple of blossoms coming off the sides. I went in first, and was out within 5 minutes (€60 for 5 minutes of pain, yeesh!) which was no big deal as I already had 6 tattoos,but it was Annabel's first so i was trying to cheer her on and reassure her that it didn't hurt, like at all 💁 That was it! We walked out and explored the red light district, which let me tell you, is NOT for the prudish (me 🙈) or the faint hearted! In one shop window we saw a dildo attached to a thrusting machine with a sign simply saying: "Fuck machine". Have a look for yourself 😂😂

We walked past one prostitute who was just stood casually scrolling through her phone with duct tape covering her nipples and vag 💁 pussy power right? There were also live porno shows. Like actual people actually fucking that you could pay to watch on a stage. I found that absolutely insane! Imagine the dregs of society you would be sat next to, bleurgh! 😳 I think I saw enough dildos, flesh lights and butt plugs to last me two lifetimes!!

'Pussy Pendants'

(With our matching tattoos! 💓🌷)

We had another brew and chocolate milk before heading to Centraal station to Utrecht! (Why do I look so smug here? 😄)

We purchased our same day tickets to Utrecht and headed to our platform. The train pulled in within 2 minutes and it was a double decker train!! I have never seen one in my life, I was sooo impressed! Of course I made us sit on the top floor haha 😁 

30 minutes later we were in Utrecht! We got lost in this enormous shopping mall which was randomly attached to the station and wandered into H&M. We found the most, absolutely amazing fur coats we had ever seen in our lives! Of course we had to try them on like plebs...

....aaaaand we got bollocked off staff for trying them on! She was all like, "Excuse me, I know you think this is a bit of fun but some people will seriously want to purchase these and it's not right that you're just playing around in them." Annabel gave her the ultimate death stare, and I apologised profusely. I should have told her to stick the coat up her ass but because it cost €99 for ONE jacket she probably wouldn't have 😝 Ha!

After 30 minutes of being lost, we finally found our way out of the mall! We sat down and enjoyed the scenery first, taking in the stunning canal views and bicycles and trees and flower baskets hanging over the bridges. Although those things were every where in Amsterdam, the two cities just felt so different. 

We ended up in a burger joint called Meneer Smakers. We both ordered the same beef burgers with pickle, lettuce, cheese, tomato and their 'special sauce' with fries. The fries, were absolutely divine, but the burger....not so much. With every bite we had to stop and pull gristle out of our mouths, until it got to the point where I just pulled the whole patty out and filled the bun with chips. (Again, you can take the girl out Britain...right? 😋)

After our food we headed into Olivier's for a quick drink and dress change, where Annie stumbled across the house cat. A beautiful white fluff ball that went by the name Guus. He was adorable! Olivier's itself was an absolutely beautiful building. It's a church that has been renovated into a bar, and I later found out that it was used in World War 2 as a shelter for the people of Utrecht. It still had its organ pipes in tact. A delight for the eyes for sure! 

We continued to explore the city before settling again at a little ice cream parlour. Annie ordered melon and mango flavour scoops, and I got banana and sprinkles! I'm not even exaggerating, it was the best ice cream I have ever, ever had!  We sat and people watched whilst the sun was slowly setting before meeting my friend Stephan for drinks. He took us for a short walk around the city, pointing out churches and buildings and talking a little about the history of the place. 

Then we went to another bar and ordered some Martini Bianco's and beers and sat in the twilight of the city. Annie made friends with the local cat (again!) This one went by the name Pluk 😻

 Again, the air was warm and people cycled passed us, the streetlights twinkled up and down the bridges, and the birds chirped on into the night. We chose the most magical spot in the city for a drink and a laugh, and I couldn't help but fall a little in love with the place right there and then. And dare I say it, I enjoyed it more than Amsterdam! 🙊

After our drinks we decided to head back to Amsterdam. We were all wiped out! We got the double decker train back (Of course) and stayed up even later in the apartment, eating pasta on the kitchen floor and giggling and talking about the day. It was such a perfect end to a perfect day with my bestie. Sorry if that sounds a little corny but it really was. 👯The next day was our last, and was a little chaotic. We got up late, checked out of the apartment late and cured our little hangovers with English Breakfasts which I personally preferred to the ones we have here! (Soz but the Dutch food trumps ours every time 💁)

Because we only had a couple of hours left to do last minute gift shopping whilst dragging our luggage around, I didn't manage to get any pictures of our last day in Amsterdam but I don't mind too much because it was chucking it down and there were people all over the city smoking spliffs in our faces so, ya know 💁 

We made our Eurostar in perfect time and headed back to our mother land. 

Although I had plans of seeing the Van Gogh Museum, and Annabel's of seeing the Anne Frank house, I think we were both just really happy wandering around and exploring the city by ourselves. It felt so lovely and freeing to just wander in and out of the shops we wanted, having drinks, taking out delicious food and just generally living in that moment we were in. It is by far, the best holiday I have ever had in my life, and I feel so ridiculously blessed to have done it all, with my bestest friend. I'm still on a high (honestly, nothing to do with the weed 😅) and all I wanna do is go right back and stay there forever. If any of you who are reading this have ever travelled somewhere and just felt like, 'This is where I belong. This is where I wanna be.' That's what the Netherlands is like for me. Proven by the fact that this is the second trip there this year. Next time we want to explore more of NL like Rotterdam and The Hague and definitely Utrecht again. I would recommend Utrecht to any one who has never been to NL before, and especially if you wanna avoid the touristy side of things. I'm sure in my life time I will go to NL another 50 times so there's plenty of time for me to visit the Museums! 😅 Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Violet x