Netherlands - Amsterdam
Original Post: November 18, 2018
“Some of the best days of your life haven’t happened yet.” - Anne Frank
My third trip outside of Ireland was to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands - it seemed like I'd been to many more countries at that point during my time abroad than Ireland, Germany and Greece.
Once we arrived at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), we took a 15-minute train directly from the airport to the city center. The walk from the train station to our hostel, Budget Hotel Tourist Inn, was less than 10 minutes - we were in a prime location, walking distance from restaurants, shops and town squares.
By the time we put our bags down in our hostel and began wandering around the city center, we struggled to focus on anything other than the sounds of our stomach’s growling. We went to a brasserie restaurant for lunch and then explored the city.
Nieuwendijk, a street filled with souvenir stores, restaurants and boutiques, had a similar atmosphere to Grafton Street in Dublin. It was very close to our hostel, and led right into Dam Square, where street performers were dressed in costumes, using devices to create bubbles that surrounded those watching, or showing off their ability to attract hundreds of pigeons.
From there, we made our way to the famous Anne Frank house. Due to the popularity of the attraction, tickets for a tour were only sold online, and sold out quickly - we bought ours months in advance.
The tour offered an audio guide which provided listeners with information each time they walked into a new room of the house. We took the same steps through the house as the Franks and others living there had at the time; behind the movable bookcase to the hiding place in the annex, up to the original bedroom where walls were covered with newspaper clippings and pictures hung by Anne Frank.
We even saw the height chart that Edith Frank made for Anne and Margot to track how much they grew while they were living in the annex - a mark of the small piece of childhood they held on to.
For dinner that night, we went to a restaurant on Kinkerstraat called Jacketz - the only food item on the menu was a baked potato; customers could choose from a list of toppings to decide what they wanted to put on their creation.
The following day - Sunday - after exploring the sights of the city center, we walked to a hotdog bar on Van Woustraat called Bulls and Dogs. All of the sausages were served on a pretzel bun with cabbage, but it was up to the customer to pick what they wanted on their hotdog. The menu offered about 15 house-made options, or the customer could go off-grid.
The way back to the hostel was spent passing the many canals holding boats and buildings; home to residents, shops and restaurants. Sidewalk bridges over each section of the canals were covered with bicycles waiting for their owners to return.
For dinner, we went to Nude Burger Club on Kolsteeg. They had many different options for type of burger - Irish beef, lamb, blank Angus, chicken, veggie - toppings of jalapeños, egg, mushroom, and varieties of cheeses and sauces.
Our final day in Amsterdam - Monday - we checked out of our hostel and left our bags in the luggage storage room. For lunch, we went to Blom on Niewendijk.
We then made our way to the Albert Cuyp Market, the largest market in Europe. Booths lining the entire street were selling food - Stroopwaffle, Nutella, sausages - artwork, clog- and flower-themed items, and more.
We stopped at the stand for Poffertijes mini pancakes with powdered sugar - a popular traditional treat in Amsterdam.
We returned to our hostel to get our belongings and headed to the train station to make our return to Ireland - until our next adventure!