Netherlands

Unfortunately time and money could only afford me a quick day trip to the Netherlands. It was originally to spend the day with and re-meet my cousin and her daughter but as complications came along I ended up touring Amsterdam by myself. In all honesty, I loved being able to explore on my own, with my own schedule and destinations and meeting the many generous and welcoming people who helped me in any way.

Day 20, Wednesday

One word: Adrenaline. That is what I was running on as I had not gone to bed from the previous night... clubbing with Fernando at a bar in Copenhagen up until I took a train to Copenhagen airport to catch my flight to Amsterdam. The flight was very quick but during the descent I finally got to see some of the features that my parents had constantly talked about in their many trips to this country/city. First off, when descending you get a glimpse of it's below sea-level status with the many waterways as well as the dense population along its edges.

As soon as I arrived at Kastrup Airport, I had trouble finding my way to the express train that would take me to downtown. This mall is very confusing. It has a mall in it. Talk about airport shopping. I eventually did some airport shopping before I left include some stroopwaffels and cheese for the parents.

In the canal beside the famous Anne Frank Huis (right)

The first thing I decided to do upon arriving in downtown Amsterdam was a canal cruise. As I've been told by so many people, there is no better way to experience this city than doing at least one of these cruises. The boat tour showed us all of the main sights along the canal. I thankfully got a seat in the back so I had a nice breeze as well. I took so many photos along the cruise it was hard to remember what each picture was of. It was a great first thing to do in order to get my bearings of the city and to choose what I wanted to see more of.

After somewhat knowing my way around the city I decided to go off on foot. I headed in the direction of a famous pannekoeken place that I had been told about. The walk to this place was actually quite beautiful (see right photo). Pannekoeken was a must as it is a staple of my Dutch family and I wanted to see if my family's recipe (in particular my Oma's recipe) could compare to the ones in the capital of this country. The journey to this restaurant crossed many canals which offered gorgeous views of the houses, the bikes, the boats and of course the canal itself. Needless to say the pannekoeken was amazing, even though I only ordered the plain jam one. At this restaurant I also tried Poffertjes as I had heard my parents talk about them before and they were delicious (picture on the right).

From the Pancake Bakery, I continued along the Singel Canal to make my way to the Bloemen market. The Blomenmarket ended up being really amazing. This is the place where all the deals were as well as tons of flowers, cheese and other goods. I even bought myself a Netherlands soccer zip up haha. Just to feel a little bit more Dutch lol.

After the Bloemenmarkt I had a  croquet at Van Dobben, famous locally and abroad for their croquets. It tasted amazing, like everything else I had tried here. Van Dobben was located very near to the national monument and Dam Square. This is a central part of Amsterdam as the Royal Palace is located here as well as the famous Amstel River.

Red Light District

From Dam Square I headed toward the ever-famous, Red Light District. This place is not as sketchy during the day time and I was flying back to Denmark in the evening so I decided that light or day, I had to visit. When walking in to the Red Light District from the area by the train station you actually find some restaurants advertising the Green Light District and special coffeehouses for smoking pot. There were a lot of people smoking pot that I think I may have gotten second hand high, which gave me a headache. Yes, there were alleyways with half naked, or pretty much naked woman trying to lure you in to the buildings, and yes, there were sketchy people here but it was fine. I found it ironic that some of the borders of the Red Light District are different churches.


After leaving the Red Light District I headed back to the train station as I had learned shortly before that, that my "second-cousin" Diana, or something like that, was going to meet me at the airport to see me off. I had not seen Diana since she came with her family over to Canada to visit us back when I was 5ish. Now she has a daughter, Jasmine, and she is pregnant with another! It was weird at first since I don't have any huge memories with her but it was definitely interesting and fun to re-meet her and her daughter. She is the one who convinced me to smuggle cheese through 3 countries (Denmark, Iceland, and Canada) to eventually get back to my parents. I hope I will get to see her again in either Amsterdam or go visit her in Egypt!


1 day in Amsterdam was definitely just a taste for the city and I know for sure that I will be coming back here in the near future!