Amsterdam

This weekend I went to Amsterdam and if I were to sum up the weekend I would say that it was absolutely incredible. Amsterdam is such a beautiful city and I had such a great time! We arrived on Friday in the early afternoon and happened upon a Christmas Market just outside the train station. We were feeling pretty peckish so we took advantage of the big barbecue and had a Bratwurst each and a little later an Appelbollen. Obviously both of these were delicious and all of the stalls put me in a very Christmassy mood. We walked around quite a lot because we couldn't find our hostel but I didn't mind because we got to see lots of the city and take some classic canal photos. After successfully finding the canal we wandered around Dam Square and went to the Anne Frank Huis. I thought it was incredibly interesting and moving to be able to walk where she walked, see the posters she put up still there and see the actual pages of her diary. That evening we sampled Amstel and Heineken in a little pub before going to the Ice Bar. The ice bar was unfortunately a major disappointment. It was a bar with ice sculptures and drinks in glasses made of ice and we had to put on coats and gloves since it was -10 in the bar (not so shocking to a Canadian). That was all OK but the 'show' which they played up a lot was a 3D movie more suitable for children. The first night in the hostel was OK but not great. We had a 6-person room but we had it to ourselves which was good. In the early hours of the morning we had the joy of listening to a guy throwing up loudly and repeatedly in the toilet just outside our room and when I went to the bathroom later his sick was all over the floor and toilet seat. Lovely!

The next day we had a delightful breakfast in a little cafe. We chose a seat in the corner overlooking the street and had coffee, a stroopwafel and a ham and cheese frittata. We took a canal cruise that day which was amazing. The views of the streets and bridges were great. There was an audio tour hosted by a couple who had lived in Amsterdam for 60 years. I'm not sure if they were real or not but their banter was incredibly cheesy. After the tour we went to the Heineken Experience. It was cool to learn how beer is made and there was a fun ride which took us through the process of being made into beer by heating us, throwing water at us and pushing us around. We tried to go to the Van Gogh museum but sadly it was closed. That night we had a great meal at a steak restaurant called De Nachtwacht. The steak was amazing - the best I've ever had and it came with a baked potato, fruit, pepper sauce and garlic sauce. That night in the hostel was unfortunately even worse than the night before. There was a kerfuffle coming from across the hall and it turned out there was a man in one of the beds that wasn't supposed to be there and he was with a prostitute. They got kicked out after lots of shouting but it was pretty scary! A bit later two Spanish guys came in to sleep in our room which was fine, they turned off the light pretty quickly. But just as I had fallen asleep a man from the hostel came in and started shouting at one of the Spanish guys saying that he was in the wrong bed. There was a lot of communication problems going on between the man (who was speaking English) and the Spanish traveller but eventually it got sorted and I managed to get some sleep.

Other than the hostel issues, the trip was absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed it and I think Amsterdam is a beautiful city. I hope I can go back there some day. Now it's back to reality and I've got a stats assignment due Thursday that means I've spent the last two days in the library. Exams are coming up as well which is daunting but at least it means that Christmas is soon! The Christmas market in Amsterdam really got me in the holiday mood! The Edinburgh Christmas Market on Princes Street opened last weekend and I'm planning to go sometime this weekend!