Amsterdam
Last weekend I spent exploring the beauty of Amsterdam with my housemate and her friend Pat. Although it was wintry cold, the sun shone brightly most of the time which meant that I could meander around the cobbled streets, getting myself lost and somehow stumbling on everything I planned to see., without following a map. Which is not to say I didn’t try, it was just hard to follow so I gave up and it all worked out anyway thank God.
After being told out flight was over sold and we didn’t have a seat we were luckily upgraded to business class together with a rare beef salad and champagne and real cutlery, which was a nice surprise. And it was probably lucky we did for upon arrival at our hostel we had to ascend a very long, steep, narrow climb to our room as seen in the pictures to follow!
We checked out the local pub scene on Friday night where we met a lovely Dutch lad called Tristan who kindly offered his assistance in planning my itinerary, and ate dinner at probably the most dingiest, dirtiest Chinese diner that ever was, where we debated the role of cup holders/ashtrays in the toilets and where Rochelle got food poisoning. Great start.
Following the seedy dinner, we continued the seedy theme and took a stroll around the red light district expecting to be shocked, stunned and somewhat appalled, however it was actually disappointing very tame….. Well what we saw that night was anyway, what I managed to stumble across on Sunday afternoon was a different story….
taking a more cultural role, on Saturday I visited the Anne Frank museum which I loved, I had no idea the family lived in hiding for about 18months and that Anne, being only 12 yrs old was so wise for her years. I also wondered all round vanderpark and pondered the artworks of Van Gough before sitting and people watching for a while in the musuem shop, while my legs recovered. Then it was onto the hip university area of De Pijp for some market browsing and then back up to Centruum where I was determined to find somewhere nice to eat, this time possibly the best Asian cheap eat restaurant there is, and then I climbed back up the mile long staircase and collapsed into bed. Sunday was spent Christmas shopping, checking out the Rembrandt memorial and waiting for santa to arrive up the main street.
The to top it all off I mistakenly assumed my flight home was the same as Rochelle’s, but alas it was not, it left an hour before we even arrived at the airport which meant it would normally of cost me 350 euros for anew ticket, but the flight was full so I was stuck……until the friendly check in guy said his manager understood my situation and kindly put me on an early flight into Gatwick, so after all I got home at a reasonable time whilst Rochelle’s was delayed….hmm someone as definantly looking out for me that weekend :)
After being told out flight was over sold and we didn’t have a seat we were luckily upgraded to business class together with a rare beef salad and champagne and real cutlery, which was a nice surprise. And it was probably lucky we did for upon arrival at our hostel we had to ascend a very long, steep, narrow climb to our room as seen in the pictures to follow!
We checked out the local pub scene on Friday night where we met a lovely Dutch lad called Tristan who kindly offered his assistance in planning my itinerary, and ate dinner at probably the most dingiest, dirtiest Chinese diner that ever was, where we debated the role of cup holders/ashtrays in the toilets and where Rochelle got food poisoning. Great start.
Following the seedy dinner, we continued the seedy theme and took a stroll around the red light district expecting to be shocked, stunned and somewhat appalled, however it was actually disappointing very tame….. Well what we saw that night was anyway, what I managed to stumble across on Sunday afternoon was a different story….
taking a more cultural role, on Saturday I visited the Anne Frank museum which I loved, I had no idea the family lived in hiding for about 18months and that Anne, being only 12 yrs old was so wise for her years. I also wondered all round vanderpark and pondered the artworks of Van Gough before sitting and people watching for a while in the musuem shop, while my legs recovered. Then it was onto the hip university area of De Pijp for some market browsing and then back up to Centruum where I was determined to find somewhere nice to eat, this time possibly the best Asian cheap eat restaurant there is, and then I climbed back up the mile long staircase and collapsed into bed. Sunday was spent Christmas shopping, checking out the Rembrandt memorial and waiting for santa to arrive up the main street.
The to top it all off I mistakenly assumed my flight home was the same as Rochelle’s, but alas it was not, it left an hour before we even arrived at the airport which meant it would normally of cost me 350 euros for anew ticket, but the flight was full so I was stuck……until the friendly check in guy said his manager understood my situation and kindly put me on an early flight into Gatwick, so after all I got home at a reasonable time whilst Rochelle’s was delayed….hmm someone as definantly looking out for me that weekend :)
posted by Sophie at 11:01 am
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