Hello lovelies,

the next city I visited was Amsterdam. It was actually the city were I would meet my so and B. who would both fly in from Vienna. But no. My so god covid the day before he was to leave and had to cancel all of our plans. That meant Amsterdam, our trip to Paris and Disneyland. I was really sad but at least B. was healthy and decided to join me.

Day 3: Amsterdam

In my last post I mentioned of a small odyseey with the train. It was such a weird situation. While I was in Bruges I received an email that the Thalys the next day from Brussels to Amsterdam was cancelled and I should instead take an IC to Amsterdam, which would make my journey about an hour longer. Slightly pissed I cancelled the reservation and looked for a new train. There was an IC going just 10 mins before the Thalys would have left and that was the one I decided to take. 

So, the next day I stood at the, very, ugly train station (sorry to all Belgians) and what to my eyes see? The Thalys train was listed. Confused I asked the information and they said that they do not know of any cancellation but I should ask the conducter of the train. So I went up and waited in front of the train, as it already stood in the station. A security came and I asked her but she said, she knew nothing of a cancellation and should ask the conducter. Once again I waited until the conductor came. He told me, that the train was not cancelled and I could buy a new reservation on the train. 

It was almost eery how empty the train was. I was the only one in the first class and I just saw a small family boarding the train in the second class. But other than that, I didn't see anyone. It was after the train left the station that I found myself sitting alone in the compartment. That's a first. 

The steward was so friendly and we chatted a bit about the train and the mysterious cancellation. He then served me breakfast which, honestly, was so great that I felt like I could never fly again. Riding the train in the first class was so comfortable, I had space, I had good food, I could look out the window and enjoy the landscape. No pesky security controls and no freaking weight limit on the baggage. Train > Airplane.

But in the end, I had to take back my thoughts because the train didn't go further than Rotterdam and I had to leave the nice, plush and comfy seats :(. I took the IC to Amsterdam and arrived just a bit later than planned. But that was alright because I anyway had to wait an hour until B. arrived at the Amsterdam centraal station. 

It was so nice meeting her again and roaming around the streets of Amsterdam with her. The first thing we did was going to the hotel and boy that was farther than I though, plus, google maps sent us on a way longer route. I was so hot and sweaty when I finally arrived at the hotel. But the guy at the reception was really nice and we could rebook our room from a three bed to a double bed room. It was about 100€ cheaper and that was very kind too. 

The room was at the bottom of some stairs like a cellar flat and it was very cool during out stay. We didn't even turn on the fan. After a short rest we explored the city and even though Amsterdam felt small, there was so much to see. I am a big fan of small details and there were so many details hidden around the city. Usually my friend passed them without noticing them and I had to call out for her to stop so that I could take some pictures. 

I also fell in love with the canals, or gracht as they are called in the Netherlands. We often sat down near the water and enjoyed our drinks. I had enjoyed them in Denmark too when I visited back in...was it 2012? 2013? 

It was after lunchtime and we hadn't eaten yet and decided to get some Burgers. 

 

Because for an unknown reason, Amsterdam has a ton of Burger joints. The burger was not that great though, the meat was not seasoned enough but it was fine. We walked around and somehow landed in front of the Anne Frank house.

 

We returned to the hotel and rested a bit. Then went to a bar for a beer and snacks. I finally had some nice cherry beer again, yum!

I ate bitterballen for the first time, even though I didn't know what it was the first time. I thought it was mushed and fried champignons. Oops. 

Day 4: Amsterdam

We wanted to go for a ride in the canals and went to the next boat station in the south. It must have been one of the more expensive ones because we paid 20€ for 75mins. The tour was really nice though, our captain had a really great humor and we went all the way to the other end of the city. 

There was more traffic in the gracht than I had expected and we were even rammed once by a small boat driven by a tourist. Our captain took it with a lot of humor and lectured the man that driving a boat was like driving a car, then turned to us and told us, that he had a lot of hair when he started to work as a captain and pointed at his bold head. 

After the tour we went south to the inner city again and suddenly we were in the red light district. I was flashed a few times by women who suddenly appeared behind a red curtain wearing nothing but underwear. And of course, it was then again that my feet died again and we both needed a bathroom break so we stopped at a cafe and I had a scoup of ice-cream. It was Kinder Bueno flavoured! I love all Kinder chocolate. Good it doesn't sound that weird saying it in english. Later on I also bought a bubble tea but the flavour was a bit boring, probably because I got a strawberry tea as I didn't want to risk getting something with milk and maybe upsetting my poor tumtum. 

We turned back after a while and at landed at Kalverstraat and in the Vans store. My friend wanted to buy shoes and I just followed. And there I saw...

the Vans X Sailor moon collection. DAMN. And it was there that I bought my first Vans. B. teased me a bit about never having had vans before but I am used to her teasing. We tease each other a lot. 

After spending 140€ for shoes, we sat down at a Gracht and I put them on. It was really nice walking in them even though it's always a bit weird walking in flat shoes. I am really only used to walking in my higher heeled shoes.

For dinner we went to a greek restaurant called meat & greek and I accidently ordered a big portion of the hot greek and I coudn't finish it. 

The food was amazing and the sauces were really good but it was just too much. 

After dinner we took a short walk then returned to the hotel

Day 5: Amsterdam

 

 5 hours. We stayed in the Rijksmuseum for 5 hours. Although I have to admit that we had longer sitting breaks and had a small lunch at the cafe. I finally had a portion of Bitterballen and I thought it was mashed and fried mushrooms. Turned out it's meat? 

There was so much to see and I am pretty sure we only saw 2/3 of the museum. They had a wonderful medieval collection and of course Rembrandt/Vermeer. The rococo collection was a bit small and more centred on furniture than on paintings. Nevertheless, it was a great day at the museum I had longed to visit for such a long time. My poor feet had to drag me back to the hotel where I tried to elevate them a bit. But that didn't really help.

For dinner we ate Indian food which we both really enjoyed. I had a chicken thali and it was a bit different than I was used to.

Just around the corner of our hotel was a small ice cream shop and we treated ourselves to two scoops.

Day 6: Amsterdam

It's funny, after four days in the city my friend still got lost and didn't know where we were. I often took charge and told her were to go and were we'd land.

For breakfast we wanted to eat pancakes and there were a few shops in the south of the city. We went there but didn't find the shop we were looking for and just went to the next cafe. The food was not that great but it was food and I was so hungry that I didn't really care. We went north again and there was a vintage store that had really great clothes. But they were so expensive that I left without buying anything. At Kalverstraat we bought Bubble teas and tried to loose ourselves in the city. Later on I finally got pommes frites and B. got herself coffee at Dunkin Donuts. 

 

Day 7: Amsterdam

B. and I finally ate pancakes for breakfast! Hooray! I ordered them with cheese and ham and it was quite good. 

After breakfast I brought B. to Amsterdam Centraal and walked back to the hotel, picked up my own luggage but took the tram to Centraal. A ticket was 3,20 which was so freaking expensive for just one ride. (it's 2,40 for a ride in Vienna, and 1,90 in Paris) But I bought it because I did not want to walk all the way back with my very heavy suitcase. B. was at tthe airport 4h before her flight because it was recommended as the security lines were so long, but in the end, she only waited an hour and then had to wait 3h for her boarding. Oh well. 

I waited two hours for my Thalys train to Paris but the ride went smoothly and I was at the hotel in Paris around 8pm.