14 June
I can't even put into words how excited I was on Saturday morning to be leaving for Amsterdam. It's a gorgeous city, one that I truly could not wait to visit and was sure to fall in love with immediately. I was so excited, I was even willing to spend 17 hours on a coach each way to get there affoardably.
I can't even put into words how excited I was on Saturday morning to be leaving for Amsterdam. It's a gorgeous city, one that I truly could not wait to visit and was sure to fall in love with immediately. I was so excited, I was even willing to spend 17 hours on a coach each way to get there affoardably.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), I had a layover in London, so the journey was broken up a bit. I enjoyed a Costa panini at the train station during the wait, but when I boarded the main coach for the night at 9:30 pm, I readily downed sleeping pills and prayed for slumber.
Unfortunately, our itinerary had different plans for me. Even apart from the countless borders we would have to be examined upon, we first had to ferry the coach across the water between England and France.
As we approached the docks, I was reminded once again of how much I love English culture. As soon as we stopped at the border and the driver was able to talk to people there, he came over the intercom and said, "to those interested, the score is..." (I swear the half-asleep people surrounding me visibly sat up at this point) "... 1-England, 1-Italy". The score had been posted on the electronic billboards in London (and various parts of Europe, I would later notice) and similar updates from the driver occurred on the various stops of the night. It brought a smile to my face every time as I listened anxiously with everyone else.
About 30 minutes later, we were finally driving onto the ferry and dismounting. Now, lemme tell you, this thing was a whole lot bigger than I was expecting. Not even counting the areas for cars, I would estimate that there were over 25 coaches on this thing. When we got off, we wove our way through the maze that had been created and the crowd swarmed to the upper decks, featuring an arcade, two food courts, a bar, and much more. Excited though I normally would be to explore around/brave the open deck, it was currently 1 am, and the powers of the sleeping pill were overtaking me, so I attempted to escape the crowds as much as possible in order to sleep some of the 1.5 hours the captain predicted we would be aboard.
Following that ferrie ride - for most of which I was mercifully asleep - we were loaded back onto coaches and shipped off once again to Amsterdam.
Even though it would have been nice to see some of Belgium, even if only as a passing glimpse, I was asleep virtually the whole way through.
15 June
When we did arrive in Amsterdam, the coach dropped us at the station (which honestly looked more like an abandoned car park more than anything else) and instructed us to take the 26 tram into city centre. So, locationally confused as I was, I followed his instructions until I got off at Centraal Station.
Now, this was hardly the true city centre, it was very early in the morning (especially for Amsterdam, which generally doesn't wake until later), I had my huge rucksack and I was tired. As a result, though I wanted to explore more than anything, I told myself that I must first find my way to the hostel.
In an effort to save some money, I decided to walk there, assisted by Google maps. This entailed about an hours walk through Westergasfabriek park. Though it was beautiful and refreshing, in hindsight that time might have been better spent on exploring the city. But I mean, we all know that hindsight's just out to ruin things like usual, so nevermind. It was a nice walk.
I did finally find my hostel, which was right next to Sloterdijk Station. I got checked in and (though I obviously couldn't get to my room yet) was able to change in the WC (#thebackpackinglife) and leave my bag in the luggage room.
Honestly, it could have been the relief of having fresh clothes on me, or the weightless feeling of no longer having my rucksack, but map in tow, I was practically skipping to go see Amsterdam.
I arrived at the tram station, which was super conveniently placed right on the other side of the train station from the hostel, and boarded the 12 tram, buying a 48 hour pass.
First stop: Vondelpark. Or at least, that was the first planned stop. I accidentally found the Rijkmuseum on the way (not that I'm complaining) and decided to stop at the supermarket while I was there. Apparently my old water bottle - sticking in the side pocket of my rucksack - hadn't made the journey at the bottom of the coach. Poor water bottle. You were a dear friend. You shall be missed.
When I had finished taking in the beauty of this area, I explored around a bit more, found the Van Gogh Museum (to which I would return later) and finally made it to Vondelpark.
Because I was looking for a specific area, and because it took me 1.5 laps around the rather large (much larger than I was expecting) park, I got a really good view of the place and already knew I loved it.
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| My "wrong coffee" in Vondelpark |
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| The cafe next to the old film museum. |
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| I found the places where loads of things from TFIOS were set! |
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| Peter Van Houten's House |
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| The Hotel de Filosoof |
The next item on my itinerary was the Van Gogh Museum. It was pretty great, but kept in the tradition (as museums do) of not allowing pictures to be taken inside.
At this point, I was seriously hungry, so I stopped in the park in front of Rijkmuseum to eat some of my apples with a snack from the supermarket.
Though I wanted to continue seeing Amsterdam, my phone was officially at 1% battery and my feet were killing me, so I decided to head back to the hostel in order to charge both literal and figurative batteries before plowing on.
My room turned out to be really nice, shared with five other girls (who weren't there at the moment) and on the top floor of the hostel. When I slept in the bed later that night, I found that it was significantly more comfortable than the one I had in Bristol (though that's not saying much).
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| Here's a really bad picture of the view, as taken the following morning. |
When my phone battery was charged to a certain level of satisfaction, I departed again to see more of the city.
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| I found the library where John Green wrote a large part of TFiOS! |
Now, when you really want to see both the Red Light District and the Jordaan at night, your in a European summer, and the sun doesn't set until 10:45, some issues may occur.
However, due to my complete inability to find the Red Light District in a timely manor, when I gave up sand headed back towards the Jordaan district, it had finally become dark.
Yeah, so because my camera sucked at a picturing the truly breathtaking beauty this view was, let's just pretend the next picture wasn't stolen from Google. (Disclaimer: the next photo is Google's.)
I mean, before this point, I was already pretty sure I was in love with this city, but this really made me certain.
Had anyone ever seen anything so beautiful?! Really, please tell me, because I think my life has just reached its pinnacle.
Well, once I had seen that, I was more than ready to stay staring and exploring forever, but it was 11 pm. So with the intention of getting up for the first tram back into the city in my head, I made my way back to the hostel and into my bed.
16 June
All my research of Amsterdam had told me that this city likes to sleep, so you shouldn't expect any activity until 9 am. But when you've only got 2 days in the city you've so quickly come to love, there is no time to waste. Plus, I was rather looking forward to having some time to explore around while the city was peaceful (not that it's particularly buzzing normally, as city's go). So, though I snoozed through my 5:00 alarm, I was up at 5:30, showered and was ready for one of the first trams into the city at 6:45.
I went to the Anne Frank House first, that being my first concrete planned activity of the day. I knew it didn't open until 9, but it was a good idea to make sure I knew where it was first before moving on.
I spent the next hour and a half just exploring. I seriously cannot express enough how much I love Amsterdam.
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| This picture also does I just want to be able to express how beautiful everything is. These pictures just do a better job at that than the ones taken from my camera. |
In other news: the blisters that were being resurrected on my feet were not happy with the fact that my plan was literally just walking for 1.5 hours. I told them to deal with it because (in case I hadn't mentioned it earlier) I love Amsterdam.
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| Amsterdam. Is. Beautiful. |
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| Fun fact, I found the place where they filmed some of the TFiOS movie :) unfortunately, the movie hasn't premiered in Europe yet, or it would be awesome to see it while I'm here. |
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| Me sitting at the bench used in the movie. |
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| Actually, the spot right next to me was where the bench was. Apparently they had it removed in favour of this strange bush. That seems like a good idea. |
What can I say, I'm just doing my part day by day to help out the fellow nerd.
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| Did I mention it's beautiful? Because it is. |
I made my way back to the Anne Frank Huis (once I was able to drag myself away from the view of the canals) and thought I was there in good time, as it had only just opened. I was very, very wrong. There was already a two hour wait. This was obviously not ideal, but I still got in it happily; it was bound to be more than worth it. I had a book to read on my phone, but I really needed my battery to not die today, so instead I listened to the beautiful Dutch being spoken by the adorable family in front of me (and wrote this part of the blog :P).
Eventually a lady came around asking for languages and handing out guides accordingly. So that was entertaining... as were the looks on people's faces as arrived and made their way down to the end of the queue, realising just how long it was.
It was cold and windy, but at least it wasn't raining (after living in England, I don't think I will ever again take for granted the absence of rain). Until it was raining, then that sucked.(... but was still so worth it!)
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| These shops by the queue really knew how to capitalise on our pain. |
I did eventually make it to the front and was extremely excited to go inside. Spoiler alert: yes, the stairs were steep, but I refuse to geek out about that any more here :)
Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed (seriously, I had such a hard time not pulling my camera out).
When the tour was finished, I had to drag myself away from the book store because I just couldn't afford to but her diary.
I did, however, go to the cafe to get a cheese toastie, look over the guide, and get a view of the Prinsengracht canal.
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| Seeing as that - until this point - virtually the only food I had eaten since leaving for this trip was a sack of apples, some real food was much appreciated. |
I seriously considered going through the house again, and I definitely would have, but I didn't want to miss my walking tour.
So, begrudgingly, I headed of to Dam Square to meet the tour guide. Being a little early, I did some shopping while I waited. Then, upon learning that my hostel had given me false information and I was actually an hour early, I did a little more.
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| Look what I found! In Amsterdam! |
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| Adorable. Just adorable. |
When the tour had ended, I went back to the Rijkmuseum area to get food from the supermarket there, pick up my luggage from the hostel, and make my way back into city centre.
Deciding that I would seriously regret it if I didn't, I hopped of the 13 tram and did one last short lap around the Keizergracht canal. I sat down next to it at one point, ate one of my apple pastries, and just took in the view.
It took everything in me, but at some point I had to realise that, no matter how long I sat there, no amount of time would be enough, and I just had to go.
So I got back on the tram, transferred at Centraal Station, and checked out of the tram for the last time.
I was exhausted in almost every way (I don't think I've ever appreciated the true beauty of a full, uninterrupted nights sleep as much as I did by the end of this trip), but still didn't really want to leave. Then I realised, I'm leaving to go back home to England, things could definitely be worse.
