Hallo Amsterdam!

When a friend tells you she wants to spend her birthday weekend in Amsterdam, how can you say no?

Back in early October, my group of friends started planning a trip to celebrate our beloved Katie H. (as opposed to our other beloved Katie D., who is equally great but was not having a birthday the following month). We spent weeks booking tickets, finding accommodation, and scrambling to get our final papers written in time to leave. And then, last weekend, the day finally arrived.

On Thursday evening, my friend Ben and I boarded a train in Paris and, three and a half hours later, hopped out in another country. I will never get over how cool that is! We arrived late, around 10 pm, but made sure to grab a cone of the famous Flemish fries before we headed to our hostel. They’re literally just slightly thicker-cut French fries, but they were delicious.

The two Katies wouldn’t be joining us until the next evening, so Ben and I had our first day in Amsterdam open to explore and find our footing. We spent most of the morning just walking up and down the canals, visiting grocery stores (there’s just something fun about wandering foreign supermarkets!), and trying to pronounce Dutch words. We ate lunch at the Foodhallen, which is a covered market with over 20 different stall restaurants. We settled on tacos, a first-time experience for Ben! I guess England is pretty far from Mexico…

We also visited Museumplein, which is a large park surrounded by art museums, including the famous Van Gogh gallery (which we tried to visit but unfortunately, tickets were already sold out for the weekend).

One thing the Museumplein tragically lacks, however, is a public restroom. Though Ben and I had plans to keep walking through the city, we ended up paying the entrance fee to the Stedelijk Museum just to get access to the toilets (it was dire). And it was well worth it! The bathrooms themselves were nothing to write home about, but we decided to check out the rest of the museum and I’m thrilled that we did. Much like the Tate Modern, this museum does a great job of explaining and contextualizing the works on display. It also has quite an impressive collection, with artworks that span several genres, time periods, and geographical areas. I would definitely recommend it.

Then, at long last, it was time for the rest of the gang to arrive. Their train got in fairly late, so we all headed back to the hostel (after stopping for fries, of course) and hit the hay on the earlier side. The next two days were going to be very busy!

We started out Saturday in much the same way that Ben and I spent Friday morning: walking. Amsterdam isn’t a very large city in terms of square mileage but it’s incredibly dense. I feel like I could wander the narrow cobblestone streets for days on end and still not see everything. We popped our heads into cute cafes and gift stores, took pictures of canal after photogenic canal, and even took a riverboat cruise! The central part of the city can feel a bit touristy at times, but as we explored a little further out we found some areas that felt more like where the residents of the city actually live. I particularly liked the De Pijp neighborhood.

We also felt like locals whenever we visited Albert Heijn, the chain of grocery stores that has a complete monopoly over Amsterdam. We made several snack stops at Albert Heijn stores throughout the weekend and it quickly became a fan-favorite. I don’t know what else to tell you, it’s just a grocery store with good vibes.

And yes, we also visited the Red Light district. It would’ve been hard to avoid it—you have to walk through it to get from the metro to downtown—and so we ended up crossing through a number of times. The first time we were there, it was certainly jarring. The flashing lights advertising sex, drugs, and bars were initially overwhelming, but the neighborhood lost its taboo shock value pretty quickly. Eventually, it just felt like a tourist trap. I got the sense that it’s not exactly where most locals spend their weekend nights.

Anyway, back to the French (or Belgian?) fries. Look, I’ll be honest with you: I don’t actually know why fries are such a big deal in Amsterdam—I tried Googling it and couldn’t find anything decisive—but I am not complaining. As a long-time lover of potatoes (and a recently-diagnosed haver of Celiac), there are few things in this world more appealing to me than a cone of fries slathered in ketchup. And the little forks they serve them with? So cute! I even got chopped raw onions on mine the last night we were there, and that was a surprisingly delicious addition.

On Sunday, we visited the Bloemenmarkt, the world’s only floating flower market. At this point, most of the stalls sell souvenirs but a few still hawk live flowers.

We also visited the Anne Frank House. I don’t have any photos of the house or the museum inside, but they wouldn’t have done it justice. Despite the fact that I’ve learned about Anne’s story in school my entire life, the visit still left me reeling. I don’t have the words or the space here to sum up all my thoughts on her legacy, but suffice it to say I would highly encourage you to go if you have the chance. Being that physically close to something so monumental and, at the same time, so painfully ordinary is beyond powerful.

Despite the heartbreaking interlude that was the Anne Frank house, we didn’t end the weekend on a sad note. We got yummy (and gluten-free for me!) Dutch pancakes for lunch and made sure to fit in a couple more photoshoots. If you didn’t take pictures, did it really happen? Well of course it did, but it doesn’t make for a very interesting blog post!

Then, before we knew it, the weekend was over. We made one last Albert Heijn run, checked out from our hostel, and made our way back to Amsterdam Centraal for the train ride home.

My time in Amsterdam was a blast. The city is incredibly beautiful, from the architecture to the canals to the abundance of trees. It also has one of the highest concentrations of trendy coffee shops of any city I’ve been to yet, which is probably one of the top things I look for in a new place. Interestingly enough, Amsterdam actually feels a bit like the UK (or at least London), and I don’t think it’s simply the fact that everyone speaks English. My friends, who are all British, also pointed out that it felt strangely like home. Perhaps it was the stores (a lot of British brands), the food, or just the fact that people were wearing colorful clothes (not so common in Paris). I liked that it felt familiar and accessible but with its own strong identity.

And, of course, I had an absolutely wonderful time with my friends. We spent the whole weekend laughing and it filled my heart with so much love. Katie, happy happy birthday! I feel endlessly lucky to have found you three and can’t wait for our next voyage.

In love and adventure,

E