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Published: April 16th 2012
I've spent the last two days in the capital of the Netherlands and I must say, the city is gorgeous! Getting here was a bit stressful as for a brief moment, I thought I was going to miss another travel reservation! Russell drove me to the airport and we left quite early, giving ourselves good amount of time to get to Heathrow. On our way, we came across an accident and had to take a detour on a road he had never took. Additionally, I didn't know my terminal, so we went to the wrong one, and had to drive to another terminal. Luckily, I made it in time with 30 minutes to spare 😊
Once arrived, it was pretty darn good. We landed early and I took the train from the airport to Amsterdam Central then the tram to my stop Jacob Obrechtstraat for the Omega Hotel. My room is quite small, similar to the one I had in London. I can't complain though, as I scored with a double bed 😊
I dropped off my stuff and headed out for a little 4 hour adventure of exploring the city. It was freezing...extremely colder than London and Chichester.
I think it was 40 degrees throughout the day with wind blowing in my face! I needed to be indoors somewhere with heat and since it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed and I had a plan to make my way on foot to the Red Light District. I was a bit hungry and I passed by a restaurant called Sucre with desserts that were to die for. So there it was: Sucre for dessert prior to dinner (
http://www.sucrerestaurant.nl ). The dessert I had was absolutely delicious and beautifully presented. After I licked my plate clean, I continued to walk in the cold and finally reached my destination: the Red Light District. All I have to say is the place is quite interesting, especially with girls trying to lure me into their room. I got a lot of looks and stares...but I continued to carry on. By then, it was about 8:30pm and I was starving! Oddly enough, there are some pretty good looking restaurants surrounding the area and steakhouses on every corner. I decided to try Alberto's Carreta Uruguayan Steak House since I've never been to a Uruguayan steak house before. The place was quaint and the
food didn't seem much different to Argentinian steak houses I've been to. The only downfall was that my entire dinner consisted of a weird guy staring at me and watching my every move. Another guy, an Italian, sat down at my table and tried to chat me up asking me if I was traveling alone. I could feel the weird guy listening intently and made up a story of how I was visiting my friend, but she couldn't join me for dinner because she had loads of studying to do. That moment was the first time I felt uncomfortable on my trip and I hope I don't feel like that again.
So that was yesterday, and being that today is my last day here in Amsterdam, I tried to make the best of it. I went to the Van Gough museum and walked over to the Heineken Brewery and then had lunch at a little cafe for some cheese pancakes. I then walked some more to the Anne Frank House and had fries with garlic mayo for a snack. Next thing I know, it was 630pm and realized I had been walking for 7 hours +. No wonder my
feet were slightly hurting! I wanted to do a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant I had seen near my hotel, but there was no way I could walk that far again. So, I saw another steakhouse called Cau and stopped in for another steak house for dinner. The ambiance was awesome and everyone was super friendly to me. I even got a free drink courtesy of the bartender 😊 YAY for being a girl! When dinner ended, I tried to walk back to my hotel, but my feet continued to hurt and it was still freezing outside, so I decided to tram it to my hotel and make it an early night.
Traveling to Amsterdam was the first time where I felt I was traveling alone. I don't know anyone in this city. It's been different. I can honestly say that I have met more people alone than I would have if I was traveling with others. I don't hate it, nor do I like it. It's just...different with different feelings and looking at the world through different eyes. There were times when I wish I could share an experience with someone, but I quite like roaming the
city alone.
Its now 11:43pm and I must call it a night. I need to wake up early so I have time for breakfast and enough time to make it back to the airport tomorrow morning. Wish me luck....taking the bus to the airport this time!
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