AMSTERDAM 2015

Oh my gosh this city. How pretty and how pretty chilled it is. I would move in a heartbeat yano. Just stepping out of Centraal Station and seeing the immediate gorgeous buildings I knew I was going to fall in love. I've been wanting to visit Amsterdam the whole way through university. It seemed like everyone had been but me and it had always been on my list. I know many people see it as just a place to smoke weed and maybe that's why my friends shied away from going but it is so much more than that, so much more. I didn't even smoke a cigarette never mind anything else and it was still an amazing experience. The opportunity came up because my friend is currently inter-railing around Europe and I thought it would be nice to meet him out there for a few days. My friend from home Michaela came with me which made all the travelling a lot easier.

We met Gareth in Durty Nelly's, an Irish pub/hostel which would be our home for the next two nights. It's perfect location, rooms are a bit small but it didn't bother us as we only used it to sleep. If there was a bigger group of us and we were there for longer I would opt for an apartment.

We tried to do as much touristy stuff as we could, sex museum, I Amsterdam sign, canal ride which all lived up to my expectations. My favourite had to be the canal boat ride, it was our last day so it was super nice to relax on the boat for an hour and be told snippets of cities history. The first night we arrived we participated in the red light district pub crawl which started right outside our hostel. It took us to different bars with free drinks on entry. We met people from all over the world, particularly a girl from San Francisco and a boy from Perth, who we stayed with towards the end of the night and became Facebook friends, how cute.

We didn't eat much while we were there, it was mostly liquid meals but we did try Holland's best fries and had dinner at the Hard Rock Café, both were delish! I'd advise buying alcohol in the duty free because we could only find one off-licence that only Gareth knew about because he had been there twice already.

We spent quite a bit to be fair, I think all in all the trip cost £400-450 but it could defiantly be done for cheaper if you book well in advance and just watch what you spend. I would budget £400-500 for a weekend away anyway just to be safe. A weekend in England cost just as much so might as well spend it on a country in Europe I've never been to.

I will take away such great memories of Amsterdam and I am so positive that I will be back. Maybe for longer this time so I can have chilled days just living in the city.