05-05-18

Third stop: Amsterdam, The Netherlands / 3 nightsOh my goodness. Absolutely beautiful. In love. I have to live here.I could easily just end this post there because I don’t even know how words can describe this city.When people rave about Amsterdam they are totally not lying. I don’t think you could even make a place more picturesque with the quaint houses on the canals, people driving by on their boats complete with music and bottles of wine. All the bicycles perfectly lined up over the bridges. is a dreamland.

The difference in transportation is something I loved so much about this city. Everywhere you look there are people on bicycles or mopeds all cramming into the narrow bike lane. Next to them are trams wizzing by (a very cheap mode of transport which we used all weekend). Then you have everything from a dingy boat to a 15ft long canal cruise boat. For me this creates such a buzz in the city which I live for! The water ways is what I loved so much about Venice when I visited. It creates such a tranquil space and then when you top that with pastel coloured bicycles and flowered baskets hanging on the front how can you not fall in love!To get a great view of the whole city, head over to A’DAM Torren in North Amsterdam. You can easily head over to Central Station on a tram and then its a free 15 second ferry ride over the water. The tower offers a great lookout on its highest floor as well as a super swanky bar serving Aperol Spritz which really does complete the picturesque moment.

We stayed about a 15 minute tram ride away from the city centre in a town called Pretoriusstraat. I would seriously recommend staying this far out of the centre as it’s nice to get out of the hub of the city and also it’s so residential we were really the only tourists in this area which gives you a great perspective on living life out here. Plus, the tram is only €12.50 each for a 48 hour ticket which you cannot argue with! We endured a canal cruise by a company called ‘Cruise like a Local’ which is a much smaller boat than the other cruises meaning you can go down smaller, less populated canals getting a feel for the real Dutch experience of living on these waterways. At €24.50 each you get a 75 minute tour with 2 alcoholic beverages or you can have non alcoholic if you don’t enjoy the wine life like myself.The red light district. I don’t even know where to start explaining this one. A definite must see, a definite eye opener and prepare for a few jaw dropping moments. That is all I can say about that, you’ll have to see it for yourselves. Finally the most important thing I recommend for Amsterdam: hire a bike! Ride until you get lost because that’s definitely what we did. Before we knew it we were 2.5 miles away from the city and it’s so much fun! There are so many pretty streets to ride down you don’t ever want to turn around. Really is wanderlust at its best!

I could really talk about Dam for so much longer but always good to keep it somewhat short and sweet. The only way I can sum it all up is: where can I sign up for an apartment?

Peace and love,

Yasmin x