Struggled up the steepest and narrowest staircase of my life in the hostel, trying not to overbalance backwards! My dorm was on the very top floor and I sat in there alone for one minute looking at the map and wondering what to do, when two beautiful Australian girls giggled into the dorm and I knew straight away we were going to get along so well! Lilly is from Byron and Hana is from Adelaide, and they met each other studying in Japan (and are now traveling together in Jap uni hols. ) Chris, a 19yo Australian boy came in next, then Yuta (a guy from Japan who was shy but the girls were happy to practise speaking in jap to him), and finally Anna a Swedish girl completed our dorm.
We went out on a big pub crawl as a whole dorm that night to celebrate Hana's 21st birthday that day! Had lots of fun despite the cold rain as we ran across canal bridges from one bar to the next in the leidsegracht area. Hana celebrated her big day in style and for the rest of our time we kept bumping into people who recognized her as 'birthday girl!' including restaurant owners, bartenders, hostel staff, pub crawl organizers, randoms..!
My friend Matt (from Adelaide who I met in Asia and again in London) joined our dorm the next morning and for the next few days our dorm operated as a unit, eating and going everywhere together which made it so special; I was so lucky to be with a great group because it would be a completely different city on your own! Reminded me yet again that it's the people you meet (or don't meet) that can make or break an experience. Plus it means never having to go home alone if you're out with dorm ppl, or worrying about waking people up when you get back, if they're all out with you!
Amsterdam is such a strange city. On one hand it's so beautiful and picturesque with cobbled streets, canals and bridges and flowers everywhere. Then there is intense bike and tram traffic which makes every road crossing a brush with death .. And as the bike lanes are always paved more nicely than the footpaths, we kept accidently gravitating into them and nearly getting mown down by locals! They even have their own bike traffic lights.
On the other hand, due to several substances being legal in this liberal city, there were so many freaks around! Lots and lots and lots of freaky people, especially at night I was glad to always be out with my dorm group!
We found the IAMsterdam letters and tried to climb on them, had a picnic in Vondelpark (big botanic gardens) on a hot and sunny afternoon surrounded by sunbaking locals, found Anne Frank's house which looked modern, and had a tourist queue about 10kms long...
At night we explored the red light district which was so bizarre and surreal because there were so many gawking tourists (like ourselves) that it felt like a carnival or something, there were even adults holding hands with their kids walking along the canal, the brown water turned red with neon reflections! As for the girls jigging in tiny bikinis, half opening and closing their glass doors... Some were really attractive, some old, some large, there was even a ladyboy. Something for every taste!
We discovered FEBO, a Dutch fastfood chain which sells hot food out of tiny vending machine windows... Dodgy looking but cheap and hot- just insert coins and open the hatch! We kept returning to the same Italian restaurant for €5 pizza/ pasta and one morning Lilly & I shared Dutch poffetjes (which didn't taste as good as the ones from the market at home!)
Amsterdam was so expensive, even worse than Paris and London. It was my most expensive dorm room so far, even though Anna and I were lucky enough to have bedbugs included in the cost :) we were absolutely ravaged by them!!! But I don't regret staying there and wouldn't change it for the world because of the great friends I made and amazing memories I have! It was sad to say bye to those 2 gorgeous silly Aussie girls!
We went out on a big pub crawl as a whole dorm that night to celebrate Hana's 21st birthday that day! Had lots of fun despite the cold rain as we ran across canal bridges from one bar to the next in the leidsegracht area. Hana celebrated her big day in style and for the rest of our time we kept bumping into people who recognized her as 'birthday girl!' including restaurant owners, bartenders, hostel staff, pub crawl organizers, randoms..!
My friend Matt (from Adelaide who I met in Asia and again in London) joined our dorm the next morning and for the next few days our dorm operated as a unit, eating and going everywhere together which made it so special; I was so lucky to be with a great group because it would be a completely different city on your own! Reminded me yet again that it's the people you meet (or don't meet) that can make or break an experience. Plus it means never having to go home alone if you're out with dorm ppl, or worrying about waking people up when you get back, if they're all out with you!
Amsterdam is such a strange city. On one hand it's so beautiful and picturesque with cobbled streets, canals and bridges and flowers everywhere. Then there is intense bike and tram traffic which makes every road crossing a brush with death .. And as the bike lanes are always paved more nicely than the footpaths, we kept accidently gravitating into them and nearly getting mown down by locals! They even have their own bike traffic lights.
On the other hand, due to several substances being legal in this liberal city, there were so many freaks around! Lots and lots and lots of freaky people, especially at night I was glad to always be out with my dorm group!
We found the IAMsterdam letters and tried to climb on them, had a picnic in Vondelpark (big botanic gardens) on a hot and sunny afternoon surrounded by sunbaking locals, found Anne Frank's house which looked modern, and had a tourist queue about 10kms long...
At night we explored the red light district which was so bizarre and surreal because there were so many gawking tourists (like ourselves) that it felt like a carnival or something, there were even adults holding hands with their kids walking along the canal, the brown water turned red with neon reflections! As for the girls jigging in tiny bikinis, half opening and closing their glass doors... Some were really attractive, some old, some large, there was even a ladyboy. Something for every taste!
We discovered FEBO, a Dutch fastfood chain which sells hot food out of tiny vending machine windows... Dodgy looking but cheap and hot- just insert coins and open the hatch! We kept returning to the same Italian restaurant for €5 pizza/ pasta and one morning Lilly & I shared Dutch poffetjes (which didn't taste as good as the ones from the market at home!)
Amsterdam was so expensive, even worse than Paris and London. It was my most expensive dorm room so far, even though Anna and I were lucky enough to have bedbugs included in the cost :) we were absolutely ravaged by them!!! But I don't regret staying there and wouldn't change it for the world because of the great friends I made and amazing memories I have! It was sad to say bye to those 2 gorgeous silly Aussie girls!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment