Advertisement
Published: March 18th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Our stroll: I had actually planned for us to go to a park called Vondelpark to feed the ducks but the park and all the ducks were closed off to the public 😞 so we sat on a bench and ate Subway then went exploring around the trendy neighbourhood the park was in. We felt a bit poor so we decided to walk back. Along the way we bumped into three really cute cats - one who I decided to call Princess Marmalade. I sat on the pavement like a hobo and played with the cats. Far out, this blog is not turning out very interesting so I'm sorry and WAKE UP, it's almost over. On the way back, we went to a cafe for a beer and a hot chocolate, I love that all the cafes here have the chairs for their outdoor tables next to each other and facing forward so you can sit next to each other and people watch. That night, I was craving a big chunk of meat so we went to a student pub called "CafĂ© De Schutter" and got steak - the service and food was sooooo so so good. They put the
weirdest object in my orange juce - I guess it was a stirrer but I'm not sure. YUM!
Smic: Steak was amazing.... We hadnt had proper meat for a while haha we had eaten a lot of maccas and cheap food for the past week.
Other things worth mentioning: We stayed at the "International Budget Hostel" which has the scariest flight of stairs I've ever seen in my life, it was like a freakin' vertical walkway of doom. For the most part we shared our room with a French hippy and a really blissed out American guy. The American guy had been in Amsterdam for a couple of weeks and was eventually like "Woah...I better go home now man" so he booked a plane then left to go to the airport the next day. He came back a few hours later after going to the airport where they told him his flight was actually the day AFTER so he spent yet another day at a coffeeshop, hehehe sooo funny! They do the BEST frittes (fries) ever in Amsterdam. You get them in a paper cone and mayo is the most popular topping but you can get some
pretty weird toppings like peanut sauce. Seriously, they are really good.
The Magic Mushroom Gallery along the Singel Canal is a fun store to look in + one of the biggest of it's kind I think. It had all things herbal such as mushroom growing kits and fresh mushrooms, some cacti - it really worried me to think they sold cacti legally although we had no idea what type it was, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas anyone? They had seeds to grow your own pot and you could choose from hundreds of different herbal concutions and apparently, hundreds of different feelings. This is a good place to look at some interesting stuff and to people watch the people coming in to actually buy this stuff 😊
The restaurant Asian Kitchen near Magic Mushroom Gallery is hands down the best value for money food you're going to find in Amsterdam. You can get a massive noodle box for 4.95 Euro and their other meals are huge and super tasty. Europeans countries don't have the best rep for Asian cuisine but this place is actually really good 😊
They have cages on the street where boys can just
go in and pee. It is so gross! I'm assuming they were put there because you have to pay to use the toilet in most places so boys just peed on the street.
BIKES...so many bikes, there are also lots of roads which look like the footpath so people and bikes come at you from every direction hehehe.
Okay so Amsterdam wasn't exactly how I expected it. I expected it to really stand on its own two feet as a unique destination and I really thought we would become more involved in an eye opening and more open culture. Instead, I felt as though I were in a bit of a tourist trap and that all the culture had been just about sucked out of this little place. However, we'll be going back soon to attend an event nearby and I am looking forward to going back to see what we think of it this time 😊
Smic: Amsterdam wasnt what I expected, I think it had been built up so much by people I knew on how awesome Amsterdam was, and how it will be the highlight of our trip. My opinion was very different, it
was nice but definitly not worth all the hype. Its full of stoned, drunk people who just seemed to annoy me and its quite pricey. Bee was right, it might have been different at one stage, but when every third store is a tourist merch store selling T-shirts saying stoned in Amsterdam or having a big Marijuana leaf on it the place just isn't that appealing. We are going back for a few events but I dont think I'll ever put Amsterdam high on my revisit list. I still had a good week though, dont get me wrong there are parts which are really nice and I suppose if you went with a big group of friends and went out every night your opinion would be different, but for me there are other parts of Europe more interesting.
Bee Dandy, P.S: We sound like we're about to cark it! We're not old people, I swear...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.28s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0561s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Sam
non-member comment
hahaha i love that you keep playing with random stray cats! hahaha