Amsterdam Bound

                                 

The time has come to end my stay in London, with mixed emotions about how I felt I knew that once I was on the plane I’d get excited. The week before was filled with catch-ups, farewells and tears as I finished up work and said goodbye to the many friends that I have made along the way. I realised that I had been focusing so much on going home lately that I forgot what I was actually leaving and now it hit me hard, the 4 days I return to London to pick my bags up will definitely be tough. However, the next 6 weeks ahead is filled with travelling to a few countries I still haven’t experienced yet and taking some time to view the sights, learn the culture, get back into photography and ultimately just relax. First stop- AMSTERDAM and what better person to experience this with than Lozzy, who coincidentally joined Toma and I on our first Euro adventure to Turkey.

We met at St Pancras and made our way to the airport, enjoying a few drinks before we boarded, toasting to a long awaited holiday! 45 minutes later we landed in Amsterdam and then made our way to Bob’s Youth Hostel. Forgetting to change our pound to euro we attempted to check in at 8pm and were informed that unless we paid in euro we weren’t checking in. Loz couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t accept the pound or our passports until the morning but the guy was pretty rude and shut her down, clearly telling her that there was no bed for her unless she gave him euros, like a total meanie he then made us panick saying that we had 10 minutes to change money over in the exchange near the canals, providing little help with directions or any care factor-great first impressions.

Off we went and managed to stress free change some money and decided to check in later, after finding ourselves some dinner but not before a visit to the coffee shop. Amsterdam is famous for its legalization of weed and one of the major reasons many tourists stop by. I, myself am not a fan of smoking pot, maybe on the very rare sociable occasion, but this trip certainly asserted the reasons why I didn’t and do not like it. However, when in Amsterdam do as they do I guess. The weed is sold in any coffee shop either by itself, as a cake, cookie or joint. This is any pot smokers paradise, you can even smell it just walking down the streets and after a few days it was kinda gross. Loz and I shared a joint then got the highly recommended Wok to go. At 12 euro my expectations were high and it definately met everything and more than I expected. Australia really needs something like this and would surely be my Friday night take out for a while!

Instead of ‘wasting days’ we decided that this trip would also include lots of sight seeing so our next day we hired bikes and cruised the ‘dam’, heading to the beautiful Vondell Park where we laid in the sun, something London was only just beginning to finally get, yet it was still a tad chilly here and lets just say the shorts and singlets Loz packed were sadly, not going to keep her warm. Next we found the Iamsterdam sign and as expected it was filled with tourists. The sign was in an akward position this time and was hard to get a decent photo which included all the letters. Not satisfied with capturing just a few letters I unfortunately had to admit defeat on this sight and give up, realizing that this was definitely not a postcard shot. Loz, however was adamant that these were school children and families, not tourists and if we came back after Queens Day it should be ok (it wasn’t). I wasn’t so sure but was worth a try. We spent the afternoon buying our Queen’s Day outfits ready for tomorrow and then headed to the canals for a few beers and to experience the red light district. The girls were actually pretty and anyone who went to the doors were certainly not shy, I thought they would be more discreet but as we sat in the pub n people watched we saw many people going in and out of the many doors. Curious about how much they make we questioned going up to ask them but soon decided to give it a miss and potentially just google it (as google knows everything!).

The next day was intended as our final sight seeing day before the madness and hang overs begun. Museums are abundant in Amsterdam and you wouldn’t think that such a small place was home to many famous figures such as Anne Frank and Van Gogh. Both these museums had extremely long lines and cost a little too much for our budgets which was rather upsetting as I really would have loved to go to these two and love museums, however we did mange to find a museum with no lines and much more in our budgets…the Sex Museum! This place is odd and definitely an experience for anyone who passes by. Filled with people’s private photo collections and basic definitions, descriptions and examples of various sexual positions, fantasies, fetishes and whatever else it is quite a laugh and after a while you feel like a bit of a creep as you read and look at other peoples sexual encounters so publically.

Queen’s Day had finally arrived and what a special one we went to. Today the Queen was officially handing over the throne to her son, William and his wife Maxima and this would be the final Queen’s Day for who knows how long as next year will mark the first King’s Day since the 1800’s. We dressed ourselves in all things orange (the Royal colour) and brought some of the many silly accessories to get in the mood. The day before Loz informed us about how we should buy alcohol because the off licences had a one drink per person rule so we had stocked up on wine and a bottle of vodka for the day.

We soon hit the canals to join in the celebrations, truthfully we didn’t quite know what was going to happen and when we asked people they couldn’t quite tell us, explaining that everyone just drinks and enjoys the streets. We found a café that had a live band out the front and sat down to join them, filling our drink bottles with wine. We watched as the crowds began to thicken and were envious of the boats that went by on the canal. Moving on to explore the city and what it had to offer we soon ended up at a jetty where all the boats gathered to party.  

It was crazy! By night time we were pretty inebriated and joined the crowds in the streets for the music concerts but once the alcohol ran out and our vision became blurry we danced it off for a bit and decided that it was home time, stopping at Burger man for the best burger I have ever had! This was insane and had the lot, another great recommendation.

Queen’s Day was great but in some ways I do wish we did it with a tour group so there was a bit more direction as to what was actually happening on the day. We also found out that there was a huge music festival with a great headline, tickets only 40 euro and spewing it was sold out! It also heavily reminded me of Distortion in Copenhagen but if I had to choose I’d say Distortion was a bit better. If planning to go to Queen’s Day I would suggest you do some research prior to it and have a plan of what you want to do because for a small group like us (sadly pretty much all the people in our hostel were boring or stoners not participating) you do have to search a little harder I think.

Hungover we spent the next day laying in the sun and managed to fit in a decent steak and veggie dinner (my first non-junk food meal since I left London) and hit the sack ready for early flights the next day. It was here that I said my good byes to Loz and won’t see her now untilshe (finally) returns home (it looks like October guys!) so a sad farewell for me followed by the excitement of the next destination- Paris!

In our dorm we had met a Kiwi, Tracey, who coincidentally is doing the same Egypt and Jordan tour as me and is even flying out from Paris as well so I booked my hostel as the same as hers and it turns out I’ve not only made a friend but a travelling buddy for the next 2 weeks! Brilliant start to my 6 weeks of relaxation…stay tuned for Egypt and Jordan as well as a review of my short Paris stop overs and sight seeing.