Amsterdam (city trip)

17 GBP with Ryan Air (2015) 

I was used to travelling by myself in Malaysia, but it was my first solo trip overseas back then and I was nervous but I made it! If you are female, you actually CAN do solo travel with enough research. You'll meet people along the way, meet new friends, talk with the locals and learn the culture more, it's all just amazing. You can do it. It's frustrating to not feel safe just because you are not born a male. But you don't have to be frustrated, if many people can do it, you can definitely do it too!

I went in March when it started to get nice and warm by European standard but still Alaskan cold to me. I traveled from Manchester Airport to Eindhoven Airport, took a bus to Amsterdam and walk to my hostel from where the bus stopped. I made the mistake of not using google maps to the hostel when I arrived and I kinda get lost by myself. But I'm grateful to only meet nice people along the way.

About Amsterdam. It's so interesting how the entire city can actually smell like weed. And their biggest retail supermarket chain is Albert Heijn as told by a friend of mine. I wouldn't know Albert Heijn is a retail chain, because it has this blue dim exterior that looked nothing like our 7 Elevens.

Amsterdam is well-known for their tolerant culture and easy going attitude towards life. It has a long painful and beautiful history alongside it's brick elongated buildings and dimly lit canals. It is one of the cities I aspire to live when I was a teenager.

Have you heard of Red Light District? It is an area with brothels, strip clubs, and other sex businesses. During the day it is just a peaceful area with a lot of sex shops but during the night it is full of (drunk) people gawking at girls in the glass wall. I walked there briefly at night, it was very interesting to see girls displayed like an exotic animals in the zoo. It was one of a kind experience and I do not feel like experiencing it again. 

There are a lot of museums like The Tulip Museum, Rijksmuseum, Jewish Historical Museum and a lot of musical concerts to see. You can see a lot of world renowned paintings or get glimpses of the history of this country in these places. If you do not prefer those you can opt to do bike tour, canal tour, walk in their beautiful parks, and of course, eat their food. Similar to other cities, there were a lot of activities you can do other than these obvious tourist activities. 

It is a great city to travel by yourself because you can reach almost anywhere by foot and their public transport is efficient if you prefer to use them instead of walking. I would recommend for you to walk because then you will see a lot of thing you would otherwise miss if you just go straight to their touristy places. 

Here's some of my photos of Amazing Amsterdam.

Nice looking cafe alongside the canal

Amsterdam Canal

Canal tours of Amsterdam 

There were a lot of cruise tours alongside the canals that you can choose from. Back in 2015 my tour was 16EU per person. It was lovely because you can see the whole city in about one hour on the boat. The trip I chose was the cheapest one without any meals or performances throughout.

Cannabis lollys

This city is famous for their weed culture so you can find a many cannabis flavoured food and drink in the city. My friend who lived there said that weed was not exactly legal in Amsterdam, however there were no enforcement of this activity therefore you may use, buy and sell it openly.

The Anne Frank House. She's the very famous author of Diary of a Young Girl, one of the victims and the said voice of the Holocaust. It is a small house and Anne used to live in hiding while writing her world famous diary in the annex here. It is all very sad things that would be great for you to know.

The Anne Frank Statue

In one of these to the right if (I am not mistaken!) is a place for Muslim to perform their prayer. I went in and it was big, nice and clean. 

Do people still read newspapers these days?

A week beforehand, there were student demonstration on political issue held here. 

In the market there were all types of cheese in that shape you can try and taste. I do not like cheese as much as other people so I am not crazy about this. However I heard a lot of people bought cheese from Amsterdam as souvenir because it is really good. I tried some but they were so weird. Some even tasted like uncooked meat. Maybe you would like it, but I am not used to eating cheese yet.

These handrails all over the city were so charming 

This photo made the city seemed like a nice, calm and slow paced city. Isn't it?

Vondelpark

Vondelpark was so beautiful but I went when the leaves and flowers have not woken up yet. But taking it for what it was, the park was like a charming bald guy.

I had croissant and strawberries for breakfast and ribs for lunch. There goes my aspiration to become vegan. It's okay I still have tomorrow. 

They are also famous for their "french" fries. You can have it with choices of more than 25 types of sauces! Malaysians are going to love this. I know it is not the healthiest thing but I love love love love love french fries. 

Fun fact : French fries originated from Belgium, the neighboring country of Netherlands. 

I saw a lot of bicycles in Amsterdam. There were 13 millions bicycles in Netherlands. It was nice to see the locals cycling instead of moving in fast cars in the city. 

Another fun fact: each year between 12,000 and 15,000 bikes are stolen from city's canals. The fact that there are so many bikes there makes stealing bikes a new career for some. 

National Monument

There were also some nice statues in Rembrant Plein near the flower market for you to take photos.

That is a peep of Red Light District for you, can you see peepshow signboard there?

From where I stand, this place was my favourite view. It made me feel; "yeah, this is why I came here, to see and feel this."

They have a lot of performances and these type of entertainment for you to see near the city center.

The Concertgebouw where they hosted grand concerts. I heard on Wednesday they have free lunch concert but I didn't get to see it because I have to catch my flight at the airport in Eindhoven. The building is huge and majestic.  

Cafe near Van Gogh Museum

Europeans cafes are so nice. It would be impossible to have these open air cafes in Malaysia because you would melt after only 10 minutes sitting.

It's always the case where we think Museum can be boring, but how can I not go to Van Gogh's. He was a unique character. Ever heard of anyone who cut their own ear? Yep, he did. He was also so poor, that was why he would almost always painted his own picture from the reflection in the mirror because he can't afford to hire anyone. In addition, after my trip, in April the entrance ticket will be increased to 18 euro so why not just go?

My favourite from his paintings was the vase of Irises against yellow background. It is special to my eyes.

Last tips for what you should do in Europe? Eat a lot of their bread because it's so much better than home's. I would love to go again just to eat their bread and dessert. Our food in warmer climate tend to be a bit saltier than the rest, my palate changed to be more sensitive to strong taste after some time in Europe. Well, to know that there were more option to food than fried chicken (yum) definitely helped. This is a good thing because salt is not that good for your body if taken in excess like we always do. 

And always go to their local market. It's has a quite different vibe than their lavish tourist attractions.

I am grateful I was given the opportunity to go. :)