My apologies if it seemed like I was MIA from this blog but I was just in Amsterdam for a long time catching up with Trisha Dalke (a friend from high school), touring around, and taking time to recover from the burnt-out travel energy and then getting caught up with the rest of my travel plans.
I arrived in Amsterdam on the 17th and Trisha and I just spent time catching up and meeting people in her building. Because she has been living her best life in Europe and only comes home during the summertime for short stints, the last time we saw each other was TWO YEARS ago! It's wild how fast time moves in your adult years. She was there when I learned my nephew was born and now he is almost two! But that's getting off-topic… back to Amsterdam!
On the 18th I toured the Anne Frank house. Took an audio tour through the warehouse and got to walk through the Annex where she and her family hid from the Nazis. History to me is a crazy thing because I learned about the holocaust in school and in your mind growing up it seems like a distant past but it was quite recent compared to the pyramids. So being there in the house and seeing the actual bookcase that hid them or the actual stairs to the attic that Anne would walk or the clippings they hung on the walls was just surreal. It wasn't a replica it was the actual thing you learn about! I feel this way in almost all the museums I've gone to as well, like the British Museum! The story of Anne Frank and her family is quite sad but I'm sure we can all understand the strength and resilience she embodied during the times when she was writing in her book (which was also on display in the house). There were school groups when I was there so it was very crowded but I tried to block them out and just sit with the fact that she used to walk around those rooms and exist in that space. Very different from the life I'm used to and I am so grateful to live in a place where I don't need to worry about being systematically killed based on a religion or political standing. I am quite privileged and fortunate. My heart goes out to those in our past and present-day who are battling with living a half-life like that. After the walk through the house, I found a coffee shop to sit in for the afternoon and the coffee shop cat befriended me despite me being allergic and trying to ignore it.
On the 19th I just had a rainy day indoors. Really sick and tired of cold rainy days. It was so nice staying with Trisha because her flat was comfortable and homey and I felt like I could relax without the stress of sharing a room with random people in a hostel. Trisha made the tastiest Middle Eastern dish and we watched Heartstopper with some of her friends. If you haven't seen Heartstopper then you haven't experienced the wholesome friendships and storyline of that TV show (it's on Netflix go and watch it!).
The next day, we had a slow start to the day but ended up day-tripping to Zaandam. This is a place in Holland with active working windmills! We went into a woodworking one and an oil-pressing one. Both are really cool and gives you a taste of what life was like back then! Including the working conditions! We walked around and ate stroopwafels and cheese and finished the trip with a beer and bitterballen snacks.
On Sunday, Trisha had a field trip with her school planned so I went out and did some touring on my own! I bought an I Amsterdam card for 5 days which gives me access to a lot of attractions and acts as a transit pass as well! I used the card to go inside the Windmills the previous day. On Sunday I took a canal boat tour, went to the NEMO science museum, went to the top of the A’DAM Lookout, and walked around the city. It was a beautiful sunny day and the sunset was making all the buildings around Central Station glow in pink.
I like to have lazy mornings and then try and catch the public transport into the city centre wherever I am touring that day! On Monday, I toured the MOCO Museum of Modern Art. There was this one painting the artist made to represent his anxiety. He gave her a crazy personality and named her Blanche. I like that! These days I feel like we all have some form of anxiety so by giving it a persona it is no longer separate from who you are but rather someone who you will say hi to when they come around. I liked parts of the modern art museum, but I don’t think all types of art make me feel something. Pretty hard to feel something when you are standing in front of four Mickey Mouse-like figurines that look a little creepy. My favourite part was the immersive experience! There was this room that was panelled with mirrors and hanging from the ceiling to the floor were these coloured diamond shapes. Because the mirrors covered the walls, ceiling, and floor it made it seem like you were in the deep blue sea with colour jellyfish or something. It was really trippy!
I also toured the botanical gardens after the museum. Lots of walking and finding places to eat food takes up time so I only had about 2 hours to explore the botanical gardens. They were beautiful! The tulips were blooming, there was a nice tropical greenhouse that was good for reading a book and escaping the cold, and there was a butterfly greenhouse! The zoo is also on my list to see which happens to be right next to the botanical gardens, but I ran out of time for the day.
On April 23rd, I spent the day walking around the Rijksmuseum. There are some old pieces of artwork there that are quite something to marvel at. For some of the bigger paintings, they had guides pointing out and describing parts of the painting. Help non-painting connoisseurs to understand the lighting and placement of certain things.
The next day I did a day trip to Haarlem. It was my last day with the I Amsterdam card. Haarlem was a blend of Amsterdam and Bruges. Beautiful spot and happy to spend some time in the sun touring around but it just felt like another city, unfortunately. I did go into this cool domed church. I used an audio guide to get the full experience and the architect who designed the church wanted to use light and stained glass to give the church as much colour as possible. A lot of thought went into warm and cool colours for the north and the south. There were bands of writing wrapping around the church. The lower one was red and represented the earth and the higher one was blue and represented heaven. I climbed the stairs to the dome and had to walk through this sketchy scaffolding-looking bit to get to the dome. It was spooky because the tops of the smaller domes of the church were visible in this dark, barely lit scaffolding part. Once I got through I was standing on the balcony faced with warm colours of yellow, gold, and teal blue. The archways around the dome were barely big enough for me to squeeze through!! Then on the other side, there was another doorway that was even creepier than the last. Similar setup but felt like a ghost was hanging out there.
The Netherlands' oldest museum was in Haarlem, the Teyler Museum, but I was okay just to walk around the town and grab some ice cream before heading back to Amsterdam.
April 25th was the BIG DAY! The day I was getting my first tattoo! I got it done at Studio Sailor which specializes in fine line tattoos. I worked with my artist to create the perfect tulip arrangement. It all has a meaning to me but I’m not going to share that here. It hurt but I’ve had laser hair removal done which I think hurts more than the tattoo did. Uncomfortable but doable!
Afterwards, I meant to go to the Van Gogh museum but in classic me fashion I left the ticket till the last minute thinking it wouldn’t be busy… it was busy! So I just hung around the museums, checked out some bookstores, and got another stroopwaffle from this market in The Pipe. Key tourist tip! Do not spend €5 or more for a stroopwaffle!!! There are cheaper ones that are waaaaaay tastier in the market!!
Did something on Friday but honestly can’t remember what that was! I am making a detour on my way home so maybe I went shopping for that? Yes! I think that’s what I did! I just hit up a bunch of vintage shops. Also was trying to find orange things to partake in Kings Day which was happening the following day.
Kings Day is like Canada Day in Amsterdam. Everyone dresses up in orange, because that is the King's colour, and they head out for a day of drinking. It is also the only day you can sell anything without needing a permit so people were packed in Vondelpark trying to sell old toys or gag gifts. We also biked down to Vondelpark but honestly could not move our bikes any further so the rest we did on foot! We walked around town trying to meet up with Trisha’s friends. We stopped at a restaurant to pay €2 to use the toilet. Honestly worth it too since the toilets outside were probably disgusting! Kings Day is not a balloon-free event! Trisha is deathly allergic to latex so we were dodging balloons wherever we went! Once we finally made it to our spot it was fun seeing people singing and dancing to songs I couldn’t understand. After a while though I found myself not being able to breathe air without consuming cigarette smoke. It made me feel nauseous and by that point in the day I had sobered up so I left everyone to continue partying while I navigated my way back through the crowds to get to Trisha’s house. I made a yummy pasta and cheese dinner, showered, and went to bed before 11 pm. Overall it was a great day!
The next day was recovery. Trisha and I went out to get our bikes from the previous day and bike to brunch. I had THE WORST breakfast. It was so gross but of course, I was starving and didn’t want to tell our server it was trash so I ate only the good stuff. My fault for realizing at that moment I don’t like smoked salmon. I really only like candied salmon or if the salmon is more dried out I don’t like uncooked, cold, salmon. Then it was on two brioche buns which were just average, the mayonnaise was gross, the eggs literally had no taste and the top it all off the lettuce was just too crunchy for what the dish needed from it at that moment. Felt like I was chewing water it was not the best. We got some snacks because I was still hungry and went to sit in a park and just chat. We went back to Trisha’s place and I had an amazing nap! We got takeout from KFC which was actually my first time eating it and it was really good. I heard a traumatizing story about KFC when I was younger so I think I just avoided eating there altogether. We finished watching Heartstopper and then called it a night.
Monday was a holiday for Trisha so we had the day to spend together uninterrupted by school. We went to the zoo! So cool! Loved the zoo! We saw elephants, giraffes, seals, baboons, wolves, a sleeping puma, capybara, toucan Sam and a bunch of other animals! Afterwards, we had a flight at a brewery that is based out of a windmill. Then we met up with Trisha’s friends to watch/ talk about Twilight the Eclipse. Everyone brought something for the girls' dinner (a bunch of snacks).
And last but certainly not least on May 1st, we went to the tulip festival at Keukonoff! I was expecting rows of tulips in a field but it was a massive curated garden similar to Butchart Gardens. So many different varieties and smells plus it was a sunny day so perfect for walking through the garden taking photos! I thought we would spend 3-4 hours there… nope! We spent like 7 hours! We hustled home because Trisha and I had a canal tour to attend!
P.S. Earlier in the day for breakfast I tried a Dutch pancake and to me, it just tastes like an American pancake in crepe form. Not sure if that is on purpose but it wasn’t filling enough similar to the waffle place in Bruges.
We gobbled down our sushi and hustled to the canal tour. We made it on time and with time to spare. Our host was funny and there were about a dozen of us on the boat sharing a plate of cheese and crackers with whoever we came with. We also got to have a couple of glasses of wine which was fancy. We just cruised down the canal in the evening so all the tunnel lights were on. It wasn’t raining either so we got a nice experience of it all.
This was my last day in Amsterdam, for now… before I headed to Germany the next day and it was an action-packed Netherlands kind of day! Pancakes, tulips, canal tour and cheese! Mmmm, yummy!
Thank you for reading along. This one is definitely longer because I was in Amsterdam for almost two weeks visiting Trisha and recovering from my burnt-out travel memory.
See you at the next post about Germany!
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