Whenever anyone says they have been to Amsterdam, the usual response is a question of how much weed you smoked, let’s be honest. People are just waiting for you to start a story off with ‘So I was totally and utterly baked and…’ They truth is, myself and Jenna probably slept more in Amsterdam than we have ever slept in our lives. Luckily I had been few years before with my father and seen Anne Frank’s house and all the other sights.
Jenna has some family friends who live in a gorgeous house in the centre of the city, so we took them up on their offer of free accomodation. We were fed and offered a bedroom of our very own, with no check-in or check-out times, no snoring strangers and no ruckus like you get in a hostel to keep you awake at night. In fact, literally nothing kept us awake. Just getting into the swing of being on the move all the time, we needed it.
Whislt we were actually conscious, we spent our time there wandering through The Nine Streets. This gorgeous shopping area consisting of, funnily enough, nine streets, entertained us for hours with it’s boutiques, cafes and, to my delight, vintage stores. I’ve never had to show quite so much restraint.
Episode was a favourite shop of ours, resulting in us returning three times to pick up those items we had seen hours before and finally decided we must have. With rails and rails of colorful, flamboyant and unique items for both men and women, this place will not disappoint, I assure you. Episode have stores in several other European countries such as Paris, Brussels and London.
Laura Dols is also another popular haunt of the vintage set in Amsterdam, offering a more classy twist to second hand clothing. Evening and cocktail dresses from every era, from classic 20′s sophistication to 80′s prom nightmares. I’m pretty sure this is the store where we found a mound of old fashioned swimming caps, ruffles and all. They were truly exceptional.
But, for those of you not interested in vintage clothing, there is one more recommendation I have and that is you must visit Pancakes! Amsterdam. More pancakes than you could ever dream of. Savoury, sweet, deluxe, breakfast, dutch, world, the lot. My mouth is literally watering looking at the menu and remembering my first bite of that goats cheese, spinach, garlic oil and pine nuts dutch deluxe. Right now, I’d quite fancy the apple, mixed nuts and cinnamon. Or even go way out there and check out the chicken curry, chick pea and mango chutney extravaganza.
For those of you who couldn’t give a hoot about what we ate or where we shopped, here is a photo of a naked bike ride protesting traffic in the centre of the city. I am told that the writing on the back of the gentleman in the centre reads ‘I am not normal’. Probably could have guessed that.
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