Amsterdam

Hello friends! If you're following me on Instagram (@sadhbhers) or even here on my blog, then I guess you already know that I started my Summer with a four week trip around Europe. Between the people we met and the places we experienced, the trip was definitely one of  lifetime, so over the next few weeks I'm going to be sharing a few snaps and stories from my favourite places, starting here, with Amsterdam.

Back in April, Eoin and I went into a flurry of trying to organise our trip in under a month. However to say the trip itself was a super organised affair would be a complete and utter lie. In a flurry and booking flights far too close to our departure, we decided on the cheapest flight we could find out of Ireland and onto mainland Europe. Amsterdam hadn't really appeared on my interrail bucket list until then, but in hindsight I'm so glad that fate (or once again my complete lack of funding), brought us to Amsterdam! Nonetheless, here's some of my favourite pictures, memories and things to do in Amsterdam.

Monday 14 May, 2018

Our flight arrived in Amsterdam early on Monday morning, so we were excited to spend our day exploring before an early bedtime. Being completely broke, we decided to stay in hostels throughout our trip. We booked the Amsterdam Meininger City West Hostel through Hostelworld, costing us about €27 per night. The hostel is a quick train away from the city centre, and it suited us perfectly! After dropping our bags we decided to head into the city to explore. We decided to start off without any Google Maps or GPS - just following the streets - but unfortunately neither I nor Eoin had a great sense of direction, and we quickly gave up on this when we hit the start of the Red Light District! 

Take two, we grabbed breakfast and made our way to the park by the I Amsterdam sign. I had booked tickets for the Van Gogh museum online weeks before we left (you can't by them on arrival, so if you're an art lover make sure to book online early to get times/tickets that suit you!). The Van Gogh museum is a must for any Art lover. It was so exciting to see all the paintings I had learnt about in school in real life. That evening we got takeaway noodles for dinner and sat in the centre to eat. Amsterdam is the best place to people watch, so it's so nice to just pick up something quick and eat on the streets. That night we met our hostel dorm-mates for the first time. At first I was so apprehensive about the whole hostel vibe, but we were so blessed to be staying with two lovely Americans, who really made our stay.

Tuesday 15 May, 2018

We planned day two a lot better than our first day in Amsterdam. Rising relatively early, we headed straight for the city centre. We grabbed some pastries and shared an overpriced freshly squeezed juice for breakfast by the canal. There's something so relaxing about sitting by the water early in the morning before the crowds of tourists make there way through the city. 

Afterwards we grabbed a pair of rental bikes to test out our cycling skills in the city. It's surprisingly easy to navigate through the city by bike (or at least to navigate from the bike rental place to the park), and I am not a good cyclist. We spent two hours cycling around the Vondelpark, stopping along the way to take in the scenery (and to get out of the scorching heat!). 

Myself and Eoin aren't mega boat tour fans. I guess living on an island, I'm on a boat most days anyway! But we still wanted to see Amsterdam from the canals, so we settled on pedal boating instead. Pedal boating is surprisingly more difficult than it looks, and also surprisingly more uncommon than you would think. So many people stopped to take pictures of us on our little pedal boat, so if you're not up for getting papped then definitely give this a miss! 

Later that night we decided to walk through the Red Light District. While you'd expect somewhere like this to feel slightly unsafe, it was so full of tourists that it didn't seem sketchy at all. It was so interesting and unusual to see a place like this, all lit up in red, and even more unusual to see so many men knocking on doors. Nonetheless I feel like seeing these things opens our eyes somewhat to the world, which is not all it seems on the surface.

Wednesday 16 May, 2018

On Wednesday I lived through my insta-dreams. We picked up a bunch of tulips at the Bloemenmarkt and wandered through some of our favourite places we had visited. We found a really nice place for lunch, serving and selling fresh fish. Unfortunately the name escapes me, but when I remember it I will edit it back into this post! We wandered through some of the outskirts of the city on our last day, discovering that this was where most of the nicest places for food were located. For dinner, we found the coolest Food Hall (called Food-Hallen). It was basically a glorified food hall, serving all kinds of different fresh foods and craft drinks. 

After dinner we visited the Anne-Frank Haus, ending our trip with a little bit of history. You have to book this months in advance, and you can't buy tickets at the door. It was definitely a worthwhile experience, so if you can go then do!

While Amsterdam only made our interrail bucket list by default with the cheapest flight, I am so glad that we could spend some time there during our adventure, meeting some of the loveliest people and seeing some of the most amazing things along the way.

Until next time,