iamsterdam

Aboard the bus to Amsterdam at 11pm from the Eurolines terminal in Paris. Our bus ride was only $50, return trip!

6 hours later, we arrive in Amsterdam... It was FREEZING, probably 5 degrees, and it was also 5:30am. Not a single car on the road. So we take the train from Amsterdam Amstel station to Amsterdam Centraal station, and then the streetcar to Leidesplein (where we were staying).

Our street.

Walking around at 6 in the morning.

Our first real meal since we landed in Europe... a cozy overpriced breakfast.

During our stay, my friend's mom was also in Amsterdam so we hung out with her and her old friend + his wife who live there. This was their beautiful apartment. I would've taken more pictures but I felt kind of creepy.

The famous Dampkring coffeeshop (also seen in Ocean's Twelve)

We basically wore the same thing every day. Not just in Amsterdam, but on this whole trip. I did not need to pack so much because I didn't end up wearing more than half of my stuff.

My friends got famous Vlaamse frites.

Parking for bicycles.

Bye bye Amsterdam :(

Pit stop in Brussels on a brutal 8 hour packed bus ride. We got into Paris at around 10pm and ended up going out that night... til 5:30am. Oh, and that was my birthday. Crazy European life.

We arrived in Paris on the morning of May 3rd and left for Amsterdam the same night. Talk about tired, cranky, and jet-lagged. And, to make things so much better, we arrived in Amsterdam at 5:30am... in freezing temperatures (we were clearly not dressed appropriately, yet we all wore our warmest clothes). Nothing was open, so we had to do a lot of waiting (we did a lot of waiting on this trip) and finally made our way downtown. Thankfully, we each only had a backpack for our two-day stay so it wasn't tiring getting around. Unfortunately, one can only do so much at 6am when it's cold in a pretty small city like Amsterdam. Jesus, we walked so much that I felt like my legs were about to fall off and I also feared getting sick from walking in the cold for 3 hours.

We managed to find an open Starbucks and chilled there for an hour, watching Sex and the City on my friend's iPad (thank the lord for that iPad, swear to god). Then we got breakfast at this cute little place which was super overpriced (we learned-- that's just Europe) and then took a nice 5 hour nap? at our hostel near Leidesplein.

We walked EVERYWHERE. It's so easy to get around in this city, except for the fact that we got lost a few times because every street and bridge look the same. BUT, we felt like we had been in this city for weeks... everything was so familiar and the people are so nice. Plus, the whole vibe of the city is amazing.. it's so chilled out, laid back, and cozy. Especially loved how literally everyone bikes there.

Setting foot in Amsterdam also taught us straight from the beginning that you have to pay to use a public washroom in most European places, as well as washrooms not being available for use in restaurants, AND how it smells like urine everywhere (um, hello Paris and Amsterdam, lord jesus).

2 days in Amsterdam was not enough.

It was one of my favourite cities (we even ended up liking Amsterdam more than Paris for the most part :x ... ) and I wish to go back soon!

One of my biggest regrets on this trip was not spending enough time in Amsterdam. I wish we could have spent just one or two more days there, and I also wish I had taken more pictures.