Audacious Adventures in Amsterdam

Unlike when I went traveling to Paris, before I went to the lands of the Nether I didn't really have any preconceived ideas about what Amsterdam was going to be like. Although extremely naive and narrow minded that sounds, all I really had in mind was smoking weed, walking around the red light district and sitting in coffee shops all day. Instead of flying to Amsterdam, my friend Zoe managed to find a cheap and different way of getting there, which was by ferry. On a Thursday night, my three American pals and I jumped onto the overnight ferry from Newcastle which arrived in Amsterdam on Friday morning.

When we arrived, it was raining and continued to do so for most of our time there... In saying this, I loved Amsterdam so much in the end that I would say it is probably one of my favourite cities I have been to whilst in Europe that the rain didn't even matter. Contrary to what I thought Amsterdam was going to be, it is a beautiful city which is filled with lovely people and lovely buildings and lovely cafes all situated along lovely canals. When we reached the city from our coach the first thing I noticed was that there were bikes EVERYWHERE! ...seriously, everywhere. They even had U-Parks just for bikes it was pretty crazy.

When we arrived into the city, the four of us went off to find our apartment which ended up being a loft basically in the city centre. It was really funky, appropriately named 'funky chicken apartment' and the lady who owned it was super friendly and helpful. When we settled in, she showed us a number of things we can do on a map she gave us and then left us to experience the city. The first day we decided to walk around the city and get a feel for where everything was and what the city was like. It is safe to say that I was instantly in love, and remained in love with the city until we had to leave. Our apartment was surrounded by an abundance of funky cafes and bars and a short walk to everything. 

After walking around the city for a while, we scouted out the red light district to see what it was like followed by settling in at a cool lookin' bar. The red light district was actually much more confronting than I thought it would be, walking past the windows where girls would literally be doing anything to get a passing person's attention. I say person because they weren't shy to even give the girls a tap on the window or blow them a kiss. I later learned that the eldest prostitute working in the red light district is in her 80's, and we really did see girls of every shape, ethnicity and age... The bar we went to claimed to have over 100 dutch beer being sold so we thought it was a pretty good place to experience a bit of Dutch culture! After the bar, we headed back to our apartment for dinner, wine and some serious chill out time. 

 

 

The first day of being in Amsterdam we also discovered that it was a city that loved it's cheese. Every corner you turned there was a cheese store which let customers sample all most all of their produce. Amazing for us, maybe not so good for the store as we never bought anything. But none the less, it was incredible. We all became so obsessed with the cheese and all wanted to take so much cheese and mustard home to our families. Unfortunately we couldn't, but a few of us bought a little bit of produce to sample back at home. Our next few days in Amsterdam were equally as good as the first and were filled with a lot of walking. On our second day in Amsterdam we decided to go to the Anne Frank Huis which was well worth it. Before heading into the line that seemed like it would take forever we decided to sample a dutch delicacy - chips with a ketchup mustard on top. There was actually stacks of sauces you could choose from for the chips including curry sauce and fried onion, but we chose the traditional one of the lot and it tasted soooo good! It ended up being a really good decision as the line to get into the Anne Frank Huis took about 45 minutes. After reading Anne Frank's diary when I was younger, it was amazing to actually see where her family hid out and what they experienced throughout their time in the hideout. It was a very sombre experience but definitely awesome to see a small piece of what was a significant time in history. One of the most interesting things I never knew before going to the Anne Frank Huis was that Anne actually wanted to be a writer when she was growing up, and eventually intended to use her diaries as a basis to a book she wanted to publish about her time during the war. When the war was over, Anne's father came across her diaries in the few belongings that were left of the family and after reading them, decided to publish them in her honor.

After the Anne Frank Huis we did some shopping and finally made our way to china town for some delicious Thai food. It was the first time I had Thai since being away from home and my god it was SO GOOD. Later that night we decided it was time to indulge in some typical Amsterdam culture and head to a coffee shop. We didn't stay too long in the end but it was pretty cool to chill out and delve into a bit of Amsterdam life! A couple of the girls decided to head back to the apartment so Zoe and I headed to another couple of bars before home. The first bar we went into was one down the road from our apartment as we thought we would stick close to home. Straight away, Zoe noticed that it was a gay bar so we bailed pretty soon after but it was something to laugh about! We ended up settling in at a super cool bar close to our apartment and had a few drinks and a bit of a chat to the not so bad looking bar tender before heading home.

 

Our last day in Amsterdam was an early one as we still had things to see and do before we got back on the ferry to Newcastle. On our way to find the I AMsterdam sign we came across a few markets that had some really cool Dutch souvenirs and other goods! After a bit of walking we finally made our way to the sign and loved it. It was pretty hard to get a good picture unless there were a bunch of other people in it, but it was still good to see! After the sign we walked to Rembrandt's former house which was simply an exterior unless you wanted to pay to go inside the museum but we decided it was good enough to just see the outside. Not only was it Rembrandt's house but it is also the oldest house in Amsterdam which was pretty cool. After a few photos and a quick look around the gift shop we meandered around a few more markets before lunch in a cafe along the main canal. It ended up being a really nice lunch and we were all full and satisfied afterwards. Before heading back to the connecting coach taking us to the ferry, we picked up our bags from our apartment and before we knew it we were back on the ferry to England. I would have loved to stay in Amsterdam for much longer because it is such an awesome city, but I know I will definitely be back one day!

 

Broken Brights

I have been loving this song so much lately. Angus Stone's latest album is so great, it gives some of his previous records with his lovely sister a run for their money.

STIMULUS

 

 

Winter Wonderland

As I am in the process of writing another few blog posts about my recent travels to Amsterdam, Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow, I have been dousing myself up on tunes which will motivate me to do some uni work and stop obsessing over recent snowfall. Yesterday was the first day which it has properly snowed where I am living in England, and put into the words by my flat mate Katie, "all you could hear for about three hours was Alana running around the house yelling IT'S SNOWING!!" Although I have been skiing in the snow before, I have never actually seen it snow down. After taking copious amounts of pictures and skyping everyone I know to tell them it was snowing, I convinced Katie to come outside and she helped me build my first snowman. She started rolling around the snow into a massive ball and I was amazed. Apparently this is a known thing, that when you roll a small ball of snow on top of more snow, it sticks together to make a massive ball. Katie seemed to find it hilarious when I was surprised that this was a known method to make a snowman.. Living in a country where you have to drive hours and hours to even see snow has it's disadvantages I tell you! After throwing a few snowballs around we headed back inside for some hot chocolate and a session of Harry Potter. I don't think I could have been happier....

t w e n t y

The weekend before commencing on three consecutive weekends of traveling, I celebrated my twentieth birthday. Twenty years old. I still cannot believe it. It's so strange how I still remember my eighteenth birthday like it was yesterday, and now I am twenty! Before I came to study overseas I was so concerned that my birthday was only one and a bit months into me being in England and I would have no close friends yet to celebrate with... but I couldn't have been more wrong! My flat mate Jackie and I are born two days apart so basically as soon as we found this out, we knew that we wanted to have a raging combined flat party. On Friday night of our birthday weekend we went to a lovely Italian restaurant with all of our pals to celebrate Jackie's birthday. Coincidentally on the same night, we also had been invited to a Halloween party at our friend Alice's house. So, due to not having enough time to go home between festivities, we all decided to go to dinner dressed in our Halloween costumes. For most of us this wasn't really an issue as we wore semi normal clothes and added the extra bits of our costume when we got to the party. For some of us it wasn't so easy. Daniel and Viktor decided that they wanted to paint their entire faces in face paint, so there we were, sitting in the restaurant, half of us dressed up! It was such a funny sight, the waiter couldn't even stop himself from laughing. The Halloween party which followed was so so so much fun! It was the first night it snowed since I had been in England, but it was so much fun to celebrate the first night of mine and Jackie's birthday weekend with great company, tunes, dancing, drinking and dinner.

The following day was Saturday, and that night was our party. Because our friends are so great, they wanted to do something special for us, hence I wasn't allowed to go downstairs or into our kitchen for the entire day. At first I felt a bit lost but quickly learnt how to use it to my advantage, I had the girls making me sandwiches for lunch in no time hehehehe After occupying myself for the day, Jackie and I were allowed into the kitchen. 7pm sharp. We still had no idea what was going on but it ended up being great. The girls had decked out the kitchen in English flags, balloons and a hand drawn London skyline! It looked so good and it was topped of with a brownie birthday cake, appletini cupcakes and champagne! After an hour or two, our flat was feeling good, coming off of a number of drinking games. The rest of the night was so much fun, some of it is a bit of a blur, but what can I say, I was no longer a teenager! At 12 o'clock friends from a flat across from us brought in another birthday cake which was apparently so good that it was gone in seconds! (I wouldn't know because I didn't get to taste it, it was gone that fast...) but it was so nice and made my birthday one I will never forget.

Parlez vous Francais?

The time between the last post and this one has simply seemed to fly by. I can't even describe how fast the last month or two have gone, I just know that they have managed to disappear!
Over the past month, I have managed to fit in A LOT of traveling, especially as it has been between uni classes and assignments! Needless to say, I have been to some of the most amazing places lately, and have had the best of times!

The first of my trips out of the UK began when my flat mate Katie and I decided spontaneously to go to Paris. It was such an unreal experience, and the fact that Katie and I had never been to a country that didn't speak English as their first language was both extremely scary and enlightening. Although we realised it would be different, the fact that every sign, map, television and menu was written and spoken predominantly in French was so strange and daunting at times. I know it was expected because c'mon, we were in France! But, needless to say it was something we didn't really consider at all until we actually arrived. When we first arrived in Paris we took a taxi to our hotel which was in the district of Gare Du Nord. This was the first shock of the trip, realising that we had booked a hotel in the central ghetto district of Paris. Lets just say that it was an experience in itself... The hotel  was absolutely lovely though with it's typical French winding spiral staircase and indoor courtyard.

On our first day in Paris we woke up early to ensure that we could see as much as possible. After about a thirty minute treck into the city from our hotel, past the countless "Black AFRO" and "AFRO's R US" stores, gangs dressed in bright yellow tracksuits and stores pumping Kanye West at 10am, we reached the city centre. When we arrived we decided it was time for breakfast, and of course we couldn't go past a croissant and French cappuccino in Paris! So, we settled in at one of the cafes on the way, and ordered just what we wanted. When people said that the pastries are actually better in France, I obviously didn't know until that exact moment that they weren't joking, but they definitely weren't! The croissants were absolutely amazing, and the coffee was also THE BEST. I think it was at this moment I decided I never wanted English coffee never. Ever. Again. The day followed with Notre Dame, Lover's Lock Bridge, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre and A LOT of walking. First stop Notre Dame was amazing to actually see in real life, and the gardens surrounding it were also so pretty. After Notre Dame, our next goal was to get the the Eiffel Tower. After a quick glance at the map, we stumbled upon the lover's lock bridge which was incredible. The Bridge is covered in padlocks which are all different sizes and colours. Lovers write on them to symbolise their love and lock them to the bridge so that their love will last forever, something very fitting to see in the city of love. After getting absolutely lost as we thought it would be fun to just find our way to the Eiffel Tower without paying much attention to where we actually were, we became engrossed in all of the little shops and patisseries along the way, when we came across a French macaroon store! It smelt and looked sooo good, so naturally, Katie and I went in and  bought a pack to share immediately. Behind the Eiffel Tower we found a street market which was awesome! We had French stall holders yelling at us in every direction about their cheap produce (I am assuming as I had no idea what they were saying most of the time)... but then we finally saw Eiffel ahead in the distance. When we were in Paris we were lucky enough to have amazing weather, somewhere in the low twenties which was great after coming from chilly England, although because it was Katie and I traveling together a.k.a the bearers of bad luck, as soon as we reached the tower, the sky became grey and gloomy and started spitting. Obviously it was still amazing to see the Eiffel Tower in real life, but consistent good weather would have been nice! Needless to say, it was so awesome and surreal to see it with my own eyes after so many years of wanting to come to Paris. When we were there, we had planned it perfectly so that it was time for lunch. As we were in France, we HAD to get baguettes, so that's what we did... and we sat in front of the Eiffel Tower whilst eating baguettes. It is incredible that now I can say that I casually sat in front of the Eiffel Tower and ate a French baguette. Cliche, yes... but so cool.

After sitting there in awe for however long it was, we made our way toward the tower for a closer look. It's kind of different to what I expected it to be like, I imagined a really tall structure which was made out of flat metal but on closer inspection, it looks like a bunch of wires have just been put together to build the tower. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to climb the tower because once again due to our amazing luck, the lifts were not working that day, hence the lines to climb the tower by steps was longer than ever. Once we left the tower we mapped out our way to the Arc de Triomphe and set off along the Champs Elysees. All I could think of at the time was THE CHAMPS ELYSEES IS A BUSY STREET! My American bud Katie thought this was hilarious even though she had no idea what I was on about until I later forced her to watch the music video by Art vs Science (which we now enjoy to crank every once in a while). Once we got to the Arc de Triomphe we had a bit of a freak out because we thought that we would have to run across the entire round about to get to the middle. Not only was the traffic driving on the opposite side of the road to both Australia and England, but it was absolutely mental. Cars were just shooting around the roundabout like there was no one else on the road. It sure gave the good ol' Britannia round-about a run for it's money. Finally after almost willingly flinging ourselves into a death trap, we realised that there was a tunnel which went under the road to the middle of the Arc. The Arc was so much bigger than I expected it to be after seeing the Marble Arch in London which is tiny in comparison!

The next stop on our list was the Louvre. We walked through the massive park and gardens in front of the Louvre which was beautiful! Finally after trekking around Paris all day, we had made it to the Louvre. Although we knew there was so much to see there we headed straight for the Mona-Lisa. As I was told by stacks of people, the Mona-Lisa was a tiny painting in comparison to what I expected it to be, yet it felt like she was watching us the entire time. Freaky stuff! After walking around a few of the different galleries in the Louvre we decided it was time to head back for a bite of dinner. The walk home was a bit of a different experience to the walk into the city... Gare du Nord had come alive during the hours that we had been away and it was pumping. Even more brightly coloured tracksuits, Afro stores and pumping toons were out to play, guys cooking corn over a hot tin can in trolleys were on every corner and by the time we got back it was folky, funky and freakalicious. After dinner at an adorable cafe near our hotel we followed it up with THE BEST chocolate croissant and cappuccino I have ever tasted. It was the perfect way to end a perfect day in Paris.

Our second day in Paris was my favourite, not only because the weather was beautiful and sunny and warm, but because we went to the area of Montmartre which was so wonderful. As we were walking to Sacre Coeur, we stumbled across a street market which went for miles. Lucky we went early so there weren't too many people around but by the time we got to the end, we were surrounded by bargain hunters. The markets had so many amazing things, from old records to vintage clothing, antique telephones to absolute junk, it was fab as. I ended up purchasing a few pieces of jewellery and some mint jackets both for 5 euro! After restricting myself from almost buying everything (only being allowed to have one small carry on bag helped a lot), we made our way up the hill to Sacre Coeur. The streets surrounding Sacre Coeur were filled with trendy cafes, wonderful little sweets stores and bits and bobs everywhere. Eventually we made it to Sacre Coeur and were blown away. The church is perched on top of a hill, and behind is more of the area Montmartre. From the top of the steps, there is an amazing view of the Paris city skyline. As the weather was so nice we were able to see so far into the distance it was breathtaking. After hanging out in Montmartre all day, consuming French wine, traditional quiche, gelato and taking in all of the beautiful artwork on display by the artists in the area, we headed back to the airport as it was time to leave. Although we were only there for two full days, it felt like we accomplished everything we wanted to do, and saw all the sights! I am lucky enough to be heading back there in February so that will be awesome to be able to experience Paris in a complete different climate and with a different group of people, and see some of the city again!