I recently took a little trip over to Amsterdam with my best friend Amy. We had been talking about going for sooo long, so we treated ourselves to 3 nights away with our sparkly new student loans in our bank accounts! naughty naughty. Although we did get an amazing deal, £220 each for flights and our hotel.
During our time there we really wore ourselves out trying to see as much as we could, leaving the hotel early each morning, returning late afternoon for a little refresh then heading back out each evening.
In the day times we enjoyed little cafes for lattes and tasty things like bagels or pastries. This is one of our favourite things to do together and we managed to find some lovely places, either tucked away in a cosy corner or sat outside enjoying the sunny and surprisingly warm autumnal days.
On the evenings we wandered around looking for nice bars to have a few drinks and listen to live music. We found that because it was during the week a lot of places were closed and we couldn't go to clubs (boohoo!) but there were some nice bars with heated outside areas where plenty of people were out enjoying a casual beverage too.
On the 1st October we decided to venture down to the Theatre Carre where Jason Mraz had been playing. Unfortunately I couldn't get tickets to the gig but I hoped we could meet the man himself, so we got a bike taxi over there - which was an experience in itself - and waited around the back of the theatre with a group of fans.
After waiting there an hour or so (it was about 12.30 at night) we heard that taxis had been called for Jason and the band and we rushed round to the front of the theatre to find two taxis waiting, but the drivers said that Jason had already left in a previous car! We were pretty devastated! I did enjoy hanging around with some fans like myself though, and we made a new friend named Kevin who wore a turtle backpack which is awesome in my book!
After the excitement and anticipation we didn't really know what to do with ourselves, so we wandered back into the centre of Amsterdam and I took some pretty cool night time pictures on my SLR on the way. After a stop off at a cute little bar we headed back to the hotel for the night.
Our hotel was the
Hotel Maxime which we were a bit apprehensive about after reading some dodgy reviews online, but it was fab!! It's really modern, and it doesn't have a reception you just get given codes to get through the doors, so it feels like your own little apartment. It's also located on P.C. Hooftstraat which is where all the designer shops are! We were above Prada and opposite Gucci and Chanel - well impressed! The location wasn't bad either, near the 'Iamsterdam' sign where there are some nice coffee shops, and you only have to walk a little way to the main road up into Amsterdam central which is a lovely route to walk anyway.
The shops in Amsterdam are absolutely brilliant, especially Monki which is one of my favourite stores EVER I have decided after this trip. We only have one in the UK and it's all the way in London, so I rarely get to shop there. I filled my arms up with clothes and was in despair in the fitting rooms because I loved everything and couldn't buy it all because it wouldn't fit in my case!! Definitely a Monki post to follow ;)
So I'm going to wrap this post up here with some of the photos I took during our trip, a lot of which I'm smugly impressed with! Absolutely love getting out there with my 'proper' camera instead of iphone photos all the time.
Enjoy! Oh, and if you want to see any of the images larger, just click on it :)
Laura Olivia xx
