I started my new year with my new age, 24! My birthday is the 3rd and I flew out to Amsterdam on the 4th. I have been to Amsterdam twice now and I love that it is a very unique and different city. It’s also a city that’s run by cyclists and your neck gets sore from having to check them coming out of nowhere - but we'll get to that later. This trip was more exciting as I was reunited with a favourite someone from down under (STRAYA), after 4 months apart. What a great beginning to my year!
Our trip began by trying to figure out where our accommodation was from the airport. We stayed in a hotel called Sara’s Boutique, which I would highly recommend. It was central and everywhere was so easy to get to. The tram stop was a 5-minute walk away and that tram got you into Dam Square. If I remember correctly you can get tram 1,2 and 5 from there. Shops, cafes and nightclubs were just a 5-10-minute walk away from our hotel as well, so the location really was fantastic.
On our first night we were pretty exhausted from dragging our luggage around the city as our map reading was slightly off, so we got a burger from 'Burger & Fries' - very ‘to the point name’, and exactly what we wanted, done the job, and called it an early night.
Our second day was a big tourist adventure. We explored the Dam Square and accidentally found the Amsterdam sign so got the signature photos taken there and then checked out a couple of museums and nice cafes. As I said earlier, this city is one where you have to check the road at every cross thoroughly, because there are more cyclists than cars and they come out of nowhere from every direction, definitely treat yourself to a nice neck massage afterwards.
Third day we had another tourist day where we repeated what we done the day before but with new museums, cafes and tourist spots. There are lots of lovely places to check out. This was also photo shoot day where we got lovely photos by the beautiful canals and we also checked out the Red-Light District. We went on a bar crawl in the evening, hosted by the 'Ultimate Party Day & Nightlife Tours'. The meet up point was just a ten-minute walk from our hotel and so was all the bars and clubs we went to. This was really fun and a great way to meet other tourists.
On our last day we went on our final day of sight-seeing and decided to have an early rise. We grabbed some croissants and patisseries and headed to the canal for sunrise. We didn't realise how freezing it was at that hour of the morning so had to go to Starbucks after to get a hot chocolate to warm us back up. January is one of the coldest months of the year in Amsterdam so pack appropriately if you’re going then. On our last evening we went to a traditional Dutch restaurant called 'Brouwerij'tij', to try out the local cuisine. We ordered Stamppot’s which were delicious and had the best mash ever, mine was spinach infused.
Amsterdam was a beautiful, fun and vibrant city but a few tips... Pack warm if you’re going in January, watch out for cyclists and try the pancakes!
