A Weekend in Amsterdam

31/3/2018

It's weird that it's cheaper and quicker for me to get to Amsterdam from London than it is to get to my parents' house - 50 minute flight to go to an entirely different country. It took me until the age of 26 to get to Amsterdam - I felt like the only person to have never been before. It's not somewhere I'd ever really thought about going though, even though it's so close. I didn't know much about the Netherlands or what there was to do and see in Amsterdam (apart from the thing that most people go for!). Anyway, I'm a big Oasis fan and in particular Liam Gallagher, I missed out on tickets to his UK tour and the European dates were sooo cheap, so a trip to the Dam to see the biblical man himself sounded ideal. It didn't take much to sell it to me! Me and a friend booked our flights (dirt cheap, £45 return!) and a hotel and we were off in a month's time. We stayed at the Golden Tulip hotel (or maybe it was called XO Park West - it seemed to have two names) just near Sloterdijk, it wasn't overly close to the centre but it was a really nice four star hotel and had a tram stop right outside the door. To be honest we could have stayed more central for the same price but the hotel wouldn't have been as nice, and I do like a posh(ish) hotel when possible!

We arrived about dinner time, so didn't have overly much time to do anything, so we went to the hotel for a freshen up and to drop our bags off, we then went for food at the Hard Rock Café (they added a new mac and cheese side with pico on the top!!) and then out for a drink. We had the full next day to have a look around the city, to be honest I hadn't done as much research as I should have, as I didn't really know what I wanted to do or see. We got the tram from the hotel to Leidseplein and had a slow wander towards the Bloemenmarkt. Someone had told me that the tulip market was a must see, so I was expecting walls of flowers on some sort of huge scale (imagine the type of flower walls the Kardashians have at family events - ha!). It was pretty, and some of the shops had some really nice things, but it mainly sold seeds and bulbs.. and wooden flowers, so as you can imagine I was a bit unimpressed, still worth a wander around though!

We spent most of the day strolling and shopping, I really wanted to take a photo of the Amsterdam sign, the one you see on everyone's Insta! It was easy to find, just behind the Rijks (beautiful building! Would go in if I went again with more time) but I honestly have no idea how people get good photos with it. It was crawling with tourists, literally hundreds of people climbing all over the thing - I don't really know why I thought it wouldn't be because it seems that every tourist in Amsterdam had the same idea as me. After the bustle of this seemingly landmark sign, we headed off to look in some of the small art galleries dotted around the city, we did have one objective though and it was to find a liquor store. Coming from a country where it's pretty easy to buy alcohol, I found it really odd that you can't buy booze in the supermarkets there, but apparently it's not the norm FOR it to be sold in so many shops! Soon enough our quest was finally complete and we found a nice little basement shop selling more gins than I've ever seen in my life. Aladdin's cave for gin enthusiasts for certain. We went back to the hotel for a few pre-drinks and then we headed back out a couple of hours later and went to the gig. I absolutely loved the atmosphere, it was so good to see Liam Gallagher perform so many Oasis bangers in a relatively small venue. I'm not sure there was even any Dutch people there either - every voice I head was Scottish or Northern!

With a fuzzy head the next morning (I lie, the room was spinning and I thought I was going to die) I got up and we had a few hours to kill before our flight. So we went in search of hangover food and fresh air - the day wasn't overly productive but it was nice to just be somewhere new and see different things. We went to the airport and our flight was three hours delayed. Last thing I needed with an absolutely minging hangover, but self inflicted I suppose so I shouldn't moan!!

All in all, I absolutely loved Amsterdam, I wish I'd gone for longer and I can't wait to go back. In hindsight I wish I'd done more research as there's so much more I want to see. It's not far from the UK so I'm not concerned that I'll never be able to go back anytime soon.