Amsterdam 2016

Where? When? Why?

As the title suggests, I went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and we stayed in Zeeburg in the East of the city. We went last weekend! I flew in on Friday and we had two full days and then headed back on Monday afternoon. The trip was because it was my friend’s 26th birthday so three of us headed there for a weekend of fun!

Friday 20th

Snack pack!

I loved the teeny water.

I had a great flight to Amsterdam from Leeds and spent the whole flight reading Breakfast at Tiffanys and planning my blog postss for the next month.

Once we got to Amsterdam we failed at public transport and managed to go in the complete wrong direction. But, when we finally found our houseboat (yes you read that right, we stayed on a houseboat!) we chilled out with some beers and had a long catch up.

Living on a cargo ship!

Entrance to our quarters.

Such a cute place.

Saturday 21st

Breakfast!

After an amazing breakfast we headed into the city centre and took a walk around the Red Light district. We spent most of the day in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam which used to be the working class area but has become gentrified in recent years. it is so pretty with lots of houseboats on the canal, little cafés, and cute shops.

Before taking a canal cruise, we checked out the Westerkerk and the Homomonument. It took us ages to find the monument as it had lots of people sat on it but it was built to commemorate anyone who has suffered persecution because of their sexuality. It was a really nice part of the city.

Homomonument

Westerkerk

In the evening we went to some great bars in Rembrantplein: Vive la Vie and Queers. We stayed at Queers until 2 in the morning drinking beer and dancing away to 70s and 80s classics and lots of Dutch Eurovision entries from years gone by. It had such a great atmosphere and the bar staff were so much fun.

Sunday 22nd

I may have felt less than fresh on Sunday morning but after a lazy start we headed back to the centre of the city.

We started out day at the Sex Museum. It was a huge museum and you definitely got your 4 euros worth! Didn’t take many photos as they were NSFW but it was lots of fun. Loads of old school animatronics with some interesting elements (I don’t want to ruin the surprise!). Probably don’t go there with your grandmother.

Cake!

We had a coffee break at De Koffie Salon. I had the most amazing cake with a generous helping of whipped cream: possibly ingested more whipped cream on this holiday than ever before.

Monday 23rd

Monday was our last day here so we decided to spend a huge chunk of it eating pancakes.

We found this amazing place called the Happy Pig and boy was I!

We went there twice: once on Saturday and again on Monday. On the Saturday we were given some chalk and a huge blackboard to draw on whilst we waited for our order. We decided to draw pictures of each other and I somehow managed to end up looking like John Lennon with blue hair. We were rather impressed that when we went back on the Monday the pictures were still there and that no one had sabotaged them!

After gorging ourselves on more whipped cream we had to head back to the airport. We had such a great trip but it would have been good if we’d made it to a couple more museums and seen a windmill up close. Also, we didn’t eat out much to save money and it would have been great to try lots of Dutch food. Next time!