When I first visited the Netherlands, it was an absolute dream. Everything was green and warm! The Italian pizza and pasta here are to die for ( I honestly think it’s better than actual Italian food) and the gelato is mmph! too good. Friendly cats wandered the streets and happy dogs sat by the dinner table. Biking was incredibly dangerous, but almost falling into a canal didn’t stop me and my friend, Ivanna, from navigating Amsterdam the right way.
Here is a recap of my first time in Netherlands during the summer:
Day One –
We Arrived in Amsterdam and checked into our AirBnB. We checked out bikes and enjoyed our most comfortable bike ride through Vondelpark. We then ate at Vondelpark3 (something like that). I had the best Gnocchi along with a Heineken. Ivanna had crustacean soup with berry Heineken (she did not receive spoon until end). We were also surrounded by so many dogs. Ugh! Heaven! We discovered the people were so nice they give blankets when you were cold during dinner.
We then rode around for ice cream and ended up getting some from Monte Pelma. We explored De Jordaan and pet many cats. We then went to a “coffee shop”, met a parrot, and I humiliated myself when didn’t know how to roll a joint. We smoked Lemon Haze and headed home.
Day Two –
We ate decadent pancakes at Mook Pancakes and shared a glass of watermelon juice. We learned the difficulties of biking when we trekked to the Van Gough Museum. While we were there, we also got to see Parisian printmaking of the 1900s. Afterwards, we went to the Rjiks Museum, but we were tired and in too much pain (ass) to enjoy the museum. Instead, we made memes of all the pieces and held a contest to see who could find the most dogs.
After this, we made our perilous journey towards the center for money exchange. After the stressful experience, we skrrted out of there to return to De Jordaan. We spent five years searching for food. Eventually, we found people to lead us to incredible pizza near Monte Pelma (which we got more ice cream at hehe). We walked around for shopping. This time we purchased Strawberry Haze. We then biked back to room to shower. Afterwards we ate at Edel and drank alcoholic Cranberry Punch. We ended the night with a smoke session at Vondelpark
Day Three –
We decided to sleep in (well deserved). We returned to Vondelpark where we finished off our Strawberry Haze. We found this beautiful enclave and were in awe…until we saw the open condom. We then followed the river to find a willow which we climbed. Ivanna has some not so graceful footage of me getting past the trunk.
After a delightful morning, we walked through Leidsplien to the Bloemen Markets. Then we made our way through the Red Light District. We got ready for dinner cruise and were bougie on it with Brazilian couple we had met. At the end of the night, we saw the famous prostitutes. They seemed unbothered, haha.
In regards to my second visit, I went during a much colder time. However, returning to my favorite city in Europe was wonderful. I revisited some of the places Ivanna and I stumbled upon over the summer, but unfortunately, I was on a study tour so my group moved pretty fast. We went to SO MANY museum and studios.
In Amsterdam, we visited –
- FOAM Photography Museum
- Frame Publisher Studios
- Stedlijk Museum
- Anne Frank House
- EYE Film Institute
In Utrecht, we visited –
- Clever Franke Offices (so cool!)
- Centraal Museum
- Miffy Museum
In Rotterdam, we visited –
- Markthal
- Studio Spass
- Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
- Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam
- Fenix Food Factory (had some bomb ass pita!)
- viewed Loving Vincent
below are pictures from my second visit to the Netherlands:
Archived Travels 