Hello babes, I'm back and with an adventure! I was lucky enough to have an amazing trip to Amsterdam back in November with a friend. I write this post 3 months later because of different difficulties BUT all the things that we did were perfect for every time of the year so you can read this as a guide for a 5 day-long trip to Amsterdam!
This post it's going to be quite a long one, in a diary type of way to show you all what we did for 5 days and how we kept busy all day! Still, you should keep in mind that we went from Thursday to Monday so it's kind of a weekend plan.
DAY 1:
On the first day, we arrived at the city early in the morning so we got an Uber to our hotel so we could leave our bags there. We stayed at the "Hotel ABBA" in Overtoom, a cheap hotel option for those who are traveling ina budget but still want to try an enjoy the stay, It is quite close to a lot of things like Vondelpark or the "IMamsterdam" Sign and it is comfortable and clean, so it was perfect for us.
We went for breakfast at "Sticky Fingers" which was quite close to the hotel and it was a cute café with nice coffee and an aesthetic wall lol. After that, we went for a walk through the Vondelpark and had lunch at The Avocado Show which was DELICIOUS (I have a highlight on my Instagram -@africaouass- where you can see more pictures of the city and of all the food we eat!). We walked all day because everything was pretty close by and we really enjoy seeing the streets of the cities we visit to see more of it and feel like a local.
In the afternoon we visited The MOCO Museum which had incredible art of Banksy and Ley&Sot (who I didn't know before) and decided to "get lost" through the street and enjoy the view of the IAM sign and the beautiful Christmas lights that were already on!
We then went for a lay-down to charge our batteries and relax for a bit because it was still quite early at the hotel and got ready for dinner at the FoodHallen which had a very cool atmosphere with a lot of young people and every type of food you can imagine!
DAY 2:
Our second day was spent on a lot of Trams which were quite expensive but quick enough.
First, we went to the Magere Brug aka "The Skinny Bridge" and from there we went straight to the Bloemarket which was beautiful and where I found the BEST shop ever called "The Christmas Palace" that had everything you can imagine Christmas related. We then had "brunch" at a coffee shop called Toast It that was super cute and small but had amazing food and I just can't wait to go again so I can try more off the menu...
After our nice brunch, we went to the famous "The 9 streets" which were full of people and shops to just get lost there and buy EVERYTHING, at lunchtime we didn't know where to eat so we ended up in a Dutch restaurant called "De Vergulde Lantaarn" and it surprised me for good! We then started walking through the streets to see what we could find and ended up seeing the Dam Square, had a stroll through The Red District and had a quick visit to some famous "Bulldog Coffeeshops" which means we just got in to see how they were because we don't consume that kind of things tbh.
After all that walking we went to Leidesplain to keep exploring and have dinner. We were looking for something cheap enough and also nice aka not Mcdonalds and ended up in a cheap Italian restaurant called "Il Palio" which was quite nice food for just 5€! We were impressed and we would definitely go back...
DAY 3:
On the third day, we started off by going (with tram) to The Anne Frank House Museum which left me quite anxious but still was worth it for all the story told there and just to see how she lived I guess...
After that, we took some photos and walked through the streets (as always) and a beautiful brunch at "Pluk" which is a cute café with a lot of different things to eat sweet or sour and still manage to do it all nicely, if you wanna go there, which I recommend, you should know that it takes a little bit to grab a seat because the place is quite small and it gets full pretty quick, still I went there on a Saturday and I guess that it make sit fuller on the weekends.
We, then, had a fast visit to The Cheese Museum, which is a little cheese shop with some history on the floor below. We strolled around until we found Damrak a super instagrammable place with houses and boats!
We went for a short trip to Utrecht which is a cute town 30 minutes away from Amsterdam so we got to the central station and once we arrived at Utrecht we wad lunch at "O'Tacos" which I thought I would love but it was surprisingly good and something I NEVER tried before tbh but would repeat now that I know what it is! We wandered through town a bit until it got quite dark (In November it was dark too early!) and decided to stop at the Pret a Manger that was on the station that I love because we don't have them in Spain I go every time I see one and also it was so cold we needed a hot drink!
We then got back to Amsterdam and had Dinner at an old Italian Restaurant called "Trattoria Toto" which was close to our hotel and we called it a night because we were exhausted.
DAY 4:
On Sunday we expected everything to be closed and we didn't have that many things to see so we booked a guided tour through northern towns: Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam & Marken! And we had so much fun!!
First, we went to Zaanse Schans, the town full of windmills (reminded me of the "The Vamps" song lol) The streets smelt like chocolate and there was a wooden shoe workshop that was super cute too!
After that, we went to Edam, the town of cheese aka my friend's dream town! We had a tour for the cheese factory and then had a taste of a lot of different cheeses and they were all DELICIOUS! I wish I could have taken some with me home honestly!
In Volendam, we had lunch at a Dutch restaurant full of tourist and I had their special dutch fish which was super nice and very tasty! For dessert, we had some Stroopwafels and some Small Pancakes (my friend and I are used to sharing our food so we can try more of one thing, hacks!)
Our last Stop was Marken, a small isle full of small houses and nobody was around lol
Every single town we visited was adorable and we also had a great time thanks to our tour guide who was hilarious!
Because of all the walking and the bad weather, we had dinner at our hotel room. We ordered some pizza from Papa John's which we never tried before! Not the best, but still pizza lol
LAST DAY:
On our last day, we chilled a bit. First, we did our check out and decided to leave our bags at the hotel while we end up exploring (The hotel was cool enough to have a closed room for our bags, for free!)
We had some trouble with a boat that we had booked because of the bad weather but still ended up getting another one that went through the famous canals and then had some small pancakes at a restaurant called "The pancakes Restaurant" so it was about right lol
We walked through leidesplain to find a cheap bike rental called "the green bikes" or something like that and had a go for an hour! It was fun but stressful at the same time because we were not used to cycling right next to cars and we obviously didn't know where we were going... and to be frank we are not that good with bikes lol
We ended up having lunch at "Home Burger" which, again, wasn't the best but still a burger. We went back to the hotel to take our bags back and with an Uber arrived at the airport and had dinner there while we waited for our flight.
Overall it was an amazing trip with fantastic company and obviously would do it all over again! Can't wait for the next trip this 2019!
