Amsterdam

After a very emotional afternoon leaving Helena at the airport to head home I hopped on my flight to Amsterdam. A quick and exciting flight landed me in this beautiful city, and after coincidentally bumping into our lovely host Dani, I was reunited with my dear friend Lori! 

Lori, Dani and I met in India last year on a 1 month whirlwind adventure. I promised I'd see them this year and I totally kept that promise! 

We stayed up super late catching up and had a good rest in preparation for a long weekend of sightseeing and debauchery!

Day 1 - 

Lori and I hopped on a tram to the museum district and got the standard Amsterdam photograph 

And we quite literally walked ALL over Amsterdam. 

We started off at the markets to buy a traditional Amsterdam treat - stroopwaffles! Except we bought them fresh made. Stroopwaffles are like really thin waffles with caramel inbetween, this started our love affair with sugar for the long weekend 

We bought some pre made ones to take home too.

We also made friends with a super gorgeous female local,

From one market to another we stopped for macarons, Lori tells me she has NEVER tried one?! We must stop 

This is the look of a woman in love 

We ventured into the Amsterdam flower markets and marvelled at all the beautiful tulips (and clogs)

And decided to grow our own cannibas 

...joking 

Amsterdam is actually so beautiful, so it's kind of sad that people only talk about the "coffee" shops and skip how incredible this place is 

However we are tourists so we had to atleast check out the red light district.

And let me tell you, after spending 2€ on a peep show, our collective eyes will never be the same again! 

CANT BE UNSEEN

After being sufficiently disturbed we decided to go home and re collect ourselves before going out again. But let me tell you, the comfort of a big couch in a beautiful warm apartment and the knowledge that we had to get up at 6am was too much to handle, so we didn't venture out....and had a sleep instead! 

Day 2 -

This morning we got up at 6am to join the golden oldies on a tour to Keunkenhof and the flower fields outside of Amsterdam. 

Some stroopwaffles for breakfast 

And an hour trip later, landed us at the flower fields 

It was soo beautiful and I'm a crazay flower fiend so it was the best way to spend our Sunday morning 

We had a tasty warm ham roll and wore some big clogs too!

Keunkenhof is the single most photographed place in the world, as it has 4.1million tulips in one field all together, so you can imagine my excitement to take some photos of this place right? 

And when we get to this magical field that's the most photographed place in the world, we see 4.1million stems...as the tulips have been decapitated...

Dammit!! 

But it's a very successful day and we loved seeing all the prettiness of Holland

In the evening we were revitalised and ready to hit the town! After taking a selfie

We head to the red light district to make some friends! 

After stepping foot in one bar, we stumble across a well of British people (Lori is from the UK) and make friends pretty quickly. The friends shout us drinks, 

(Guess who Lori decided to nick name "will smith"?)

introduce Lori to tequila, and take us to a club with quite literally 15 people

But we make it fun 

At 4am we decide it's time for sleep, so we say goodbye to our new friends and say goodnight to Amsterdam 

Day 3 - 

I feel like I was more optimistic about my ability to wake up last night and set my alarm for 8.30... But cheap wine, many beers, tequila and jäger bombs decided otherwise.

When we hazily got up for our last day, we decided to see the Anne Frank huis. 

Oh accident we managed to do this on the day of liberation, so the museum was passing out strawberries to honour the day. 

The line was HUGE 

Purple dot is the house, blue dot is us

So I purchase us some tasty cake pops to make the time go quicker 

When we get into Anne Frank house we are astounded by the feeling of actually being inside her house. We saw the original bookcase that hid the secret annexe

Anne's room, the kitchen area and a special display about Auschwitz which was really intense. Unfortunately Anne died only 3 weeks shy of liberation.

Right at the end we saw her original diary and notes as well - just an incredible
morning.

We've been really lucky with the weather here and it's been super sunny, so we spend the rest of the day exploring

And have ENORMOUS pancakes for lunch

But sadly it comes time to grab our things and head home. A very tired Gabby and Lori grab our things, say farewell to Dani and hop on a flight back to the UK. 

Once again, I have left a little piece of my heart in yet another city