The lovely Grace and I booked a very expensive weekend to Amsterdam at the last minute after she found out she was leaving grey old England to return to the motherland for sunshine and medical school. I shall miss her! You all will too – there will no longer be a steady stream of photos going up on Facebook!
We stayed in a less-than-luxurious hostel by the Van Gogh museum (very cool, go early in the morning to beat the crowds) and within walking distance of the city centre. Lesson learnt – book as far in advance as possible, and try to go during the week – hostel prices were around 30-40 pounds a night! We spent hours walking the city, getting lost, eating my bodyweight in waffles and pancakes, and generally giggling our heads off the whole time. It was very cold, the Dutch have fabulous hot chocolate, and we drank a lot of gluvein(sp?) (mulled wine) and ducking into little cute design shops that are everywhere, because they’re so hip and coooool. We visited the zoo, tried to avoid being killed crossing the street but paying attention to trams, bicycles and cars (all which seem to be on different sides of the street in different directions,) went to the Anne Frank house for a more sobering side of the weekend. We seemed to be one of the few groups of girls visiting, mainly because of the massive numbers of stag-do groups that were on our flight I think.
There’s not a lot I really want to write about except that it is a fantastic city, and I’m glad I went – it actually was never on my list of places to visit, but maybe that meant I had no expectations. And I’m going to get a bike now!
The above right is a strange Dutch Christmas tradition which I am yet to be enlightened about.
