after a couple of days in belgium, the next stop was amsterdam.. and for new year's, no less!
as expected, my time there was pretty crazy.. i was hosted with 3 other great people from couchsurfing, and after a free 4-hour walking tour (given by a kiwi couchsurfer), we got home only to find people were already there for the huge CS NYE party our hostess was throwing..
well, about the party, i'm going to leave it to your imagination.. i'll just say it was.. memorable (what i remember of it, anyway!)
the weather was bad when i was in belgium, but it was a little worse in amsterdam.. still, during most of the tour, the worst it got was some intermittent light rain..
we still managed to see/walk through dam square (with the royal palace and the new church), the red light district, spui, the jewish district, nieuwmarkt, chinatown.. which is almost all i had on my 'to see' list.. all that with some interesting information and fun facts/stories given by our guide..
did you know every year around 10 thousand bicycles are removed from the canals of the city? did you know the longest bridge in amsterdam is right beside the narrowest house? did you know there's a church in the red light district (this one is pretty well known)? well, yup.
also, after the NYE party, we managed to go to the leidsplein, where the nightlife happens.. it was crowded, despite the rain.. most of the clubs and bars were charging unreasonable entrance fees, so we ended up leaving after a while.. and the battle for a taxi was a hard one (no worries, we won!)
i still had a free morning before taking the train to hamburg, and the weather helped for a couple of hours, and i could finally take some pictures.. blue skies, sun and all.. but by the time i was leaving, heavy rain and even some light hail.. crazy amsterdam..
i lost my voice there, and it didn't come back for about a week.. also, i'm pretty sure that's when i got sick (i finished the mini eurotrip with a nice cold), but still, i loved the vibe of the city, and i'll definitely be back, hopefully with some sun!
--
the good old cliche shot (sorta)
--
dam square: the royal palace and the new church (actually, the oldest one in amsterdam)
--
church | canal
--
statistics say there are 3 bikes for each amsterdammer
--
street art next to the few remaining squat houses
as expected, my time there was pretty crazy.. i was hosted with 3 other great people from couchsurfing, and after a free 4-hour walking tour (given by a kiwi couchsurfer), we got home only to find people were already there for the huge CS NYE party our hostess was throwing..
well, about the party, i'm going to leave it to your imagination.. i'll just say it was.. memorable (what i remember of it, anyway!)
the weather was bad when i was in belgium, but it was a little worse in amsterdam.. still, during most of the tour, the worst it got was some intermittent light rain..
we still managed to see/walk through dam square (with the royal palace and the new church), the red light district, spui, the jewish district, nieuwmarkt, chinatown.. which is almost all i had on my 'to see' list.. all that with some interesting information and fun facts/stories given by our guide..
did you know every year around 10 thousand bicycles are removed from the canals of the city? did you know the longest bridge in amsterdam is right beside the narrowest house? did you know there's a church in the red light district (this one is pretty well known)? well, yup.
also, after the NYE party, we managed to go to the leidsplein, where the nightlife happens.. it was crowded, despite the rain.. most of the clubs and bars were charging unreasonable entrance fees, so we ended up leaving after a while.. and the battle for a taxi was a hard one (no worries, we won!)
i still had a free morning before taking the train to hamburg, and the weather helped for a couple of hours, and i could finally take some pictures.. blue skies, sun and all.. but by the time i was leaving, heavy rain and even some light hail.. crazy amsterdam..
i lost my voice there, and it didn't come back for about a week.. also, i'm pretty sure that's when i got sick (i finished the mini eurotrip with a nice cold), but still, i loved the vibe of the city, and i'll definitely be back, hopefully with some sun!
--
the good old cliche shot (sorta)
--
dam square: the royal palace and the new church (actually, the oldest one in amsterdam)
--
church | canal
--
statistics say there are 3 bikes for each amsterdammer
--
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment