a cliche amsterdam trip!:

Last weekend, my best friend Tom came to stay with me here in Leiden for my birthday. On the Saturday, we headed off to Amsterdam! It was a bloody freezing day, and in stark contrast to when we first visited Amsterdam – when I was a naive eighteen year old with one of our other friends – which was in the middle of summer and was so boiling hot we could barely walk around in just our t-shirts. This time we were wrapped up warm!

We started off with a trip down the Damrak, which is an incredibly tacky touristy street, which leads from the Red Light District to the train station. It was full of girls from the UK who were wearing their curlers still – please tell me that I’m not the only one who thinks that it’s socially unacceptable to do that, no matter who you are, where you’re from or what a T.V show tells you? Every Dutch person I have ever spoken to has detested that street, if you ever visit Amsterdam, don’t judge it based on that street! The Damrak is full of postcard shops, which are like no other postcards in Europe (see below, me and my brother have a competition on who can send the rudest card – moving here means I win quite a lot!). We stopped in Dam Square, which is where the Palace is, and had a McDonalds – I know, I know, bad tourists! But we did have McKroket, so at least we were trying! The last time we sat on Dam Square all those years ago we watched as a man walked past the police smoking a joint and the police didn’t even bat an eyelid. It is never not weird.

Afterwards, we headed to do some touristy stuff. We first headed off to the Waterlooplein market. Amsterdam is supposedly famous for it’s amazing vintage clothes and incredibly flea markets, but this is something I haven’t quite managed to experience yet. Unfortunately we got to the market too late to see it in all its glory, but it did look quite promising and I’ll have to head back at some point.

After that we headed to the Jewish Memorial, Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein. We did a lot of walking and relived some memories and tried to see parts of Amsterdam that weren’t all about prostitutes and weed! We also took some time out to visit Vondelpark and watch all the cyclists.

After that, we became the cliché tourists and we headed to the Red Light District. I don’t like people who assume this place is going to be bad, I honestly think you have to experience it before you judge it. It really isn’t like anywhere else in the world, you would expect it to be seedy but I’ve never felt unsafe there. We headed for a drink at the Winston, which happened to be where we stayed last time we were here. Our room overlooked an alleyway full of red lights, and if the boys were lucky they would catch a glimpse of a prostitute who’d left the curtains open just a little bit too much wondering around naked. Occasionally we’d catch their pimp counting his money at the end of the night. The Winston does two for one spirits, and we grabbed a Jameson’s and coke – it must have been at least a triple measure. The atmosphere in there is always amazing.

Afterwards, we wondered around and headed to the Hill Street Blues coffee shop – like I said, going for the full touristy experience! When you’re in there you’re actively encouraged to write on the walls, but unfortunately neither of us had a pen! My friend smokes quite a lot back at home, but even he found the stuff in Amsterdam quite strong! Back in the 70s, a guy at the University of Amsterdam did his PhD on creating the strongest strain of weed for the coffeeshops in the Netherlands, and even Snoop Dogg has been rumoured to pass out in the Bulldog coffeeshop.

Anyway, don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot more to do in Amsterdam than just look at prostitutes and smoke weed. If you’re from the UK and you haven’t been yet, why not? You can get flights for £90, and it’s 45minutes away. Go go go.

Follow me on Twitter // Follow me on Instagram