Amsterdam

Bud, bikes & bevs

Amsterdam instantly met every expectation, after hopping off a 12 hour bus, my nose was filled with the smell of pot even at the bus station just outside of town. It was a welcoming 9 degrees- gotta love European summer- so after a momentary attempt of being brave and negotiating the foreign departure boards at the train station, I took the lazy way out and hopped in a cab. Even from the end of the lane way I could hear loud music pumping, but I was surprised to see it was bursting from my hostel, not from a club like I had originally thought. 

Despite the reception being filled with people and loud music I was too tired and grumpy about the freezing cold weather to socialise so I went straight to bed, feeling nervous about the daunting task ahead of me the next day.. Making friends.

Flying solo was not as fun as it was made out to be and my feeble attempt at befriending two Brazilian girls while we brushed our teeth in our dorm, resulted in a 10sec exchange followed by some very awkward silence! I headed down to breakfast honestly feeling sick to my stomach, and invited myself to sit down with two girls who funnily enough turned out to be from Melbourne, Shell & Lauren. I soon found out that they were doing the free walking tour that morning so I decided I would latch onto them and turn their duo into a trio! We headed off on our walking tour and our guide Stefan, started out by telling us we were all going to freeze, and he was right, one jumper was definitely nowhere near enough, I felt as though a few fingers had fallen victim to frostbite by the end.

The tour was a great way to see Amsterdam and more importantly, give me a chance to force myself onto these girls. We walked around for 2.5 hours and pretty much covered the whole of tiny Amsterdam, and I got my first glimpse of the window girls in the red light district... After the tour we went to the pub for lunch and a chance to ask the guide every single question we could think of about what to do in Amsterdam. The girls had really bad jet lag so my plan of hanging with them all day sort of back fired, but I walked back to the hostel with them and then walked around exploring a bit and bought a scarf to try and protect me from the elements. Then I went to sit in my room because I couldn't think of anything to do except feel sorry for my lonely self. Then one of my roomies came in, Calvin from Canada and he invited me to go for a smoke, and considering I hadn't yet and in was in Amsterdam- when in Rome, hey?

I sat and talked to Calvin for a while before I met his buddy Kevin (such confusing names) and then went to grab some food and Kevin tagged along, I was more than happy to have company. We ended up sitting down at a table for 2 in a Chinese restaurant and before it could get too cute I was like QUICK I have to go back to the hostel to meet the girls for a tour, so I grabbed the food and ran back to the hostel only to find a note saying they were tired and would be down for drinks at 10pm so luckily I had Kevin to hang out with, and he had a handy stash of vodka which he kindly shared.

Kevin went off to the toilet and a few Canadian boys came and took his place and before I knew it live music was blaring and we were all doing jäger shots, 4 shots for 10euro, I still cent get over how cheap alcohol is! I was having fun but had to yell so loud to talk to anyone and I needed some gal pals! I kept waiting for the girls to come down and after 4 jäger shots they finally arrived and we headed off to Winston Kingdom for a  dance. The night began with my favourite party trick doing the splits, and then hours of dancing until we were the last people in the club. 

I woke up to a horrible surprise, Amsterdam had not only starved me with it's gluten packed food, but it had also stolen my voice. I literally could not even make a sound, I went to get some water and ran into Lauren at the bar whose voice was completely in tact. I decided to set off solo considering I couldn't speak to anyone so I hired a bike (with great difficulty) and set off! I decided to ride around without looking at a map and with no destination In mind and see where I would end up. Within one minute I was already slightly discouraged as a near collision with a van caused me to swerve, get my tyre stuck in tram tracks and fly over the handlebars onto the road... Slightly embarrassing. I pushed on anyway and took some great selfies riding along, followed different cyclists for 5 minutes each and even found myself at the famous I Amsterdam sign. I finally gave in as light rain turned to hail, and made it back to the bike shop without any map before I got too drenched- success!!

I decided to go and check out some more traditional Amsterdam sights and visit the sex museum, I bumped into the girls on my way so they came along for what was to be the beginning of our sex focused day. The museum was full on to say the least and I left feeling quite dirty. Our next adventure was to FEBO, an amazing vending machine/shop which sells piping hot croquettes- the perfect idea for ending a big night out. To continue on lit sexual adventure for the day, the three of us headed to Dam Square to start our tour of the red light district which was very informative, and made me leave with a very different perspective on the whole thing after I learnt there are 8,000 sex workers in Amsterdam, with the majority being self employed and required to register at the Chamber of Commerce

like any other job. Apparently they are happy and love it, so good on them! We decided considering it wasn't prostitution and they loved it,it was completely okay to complete the last mission of our sex day and watch a live sex show. It was the most up close and personal thing ever and surprisingly I didn't feel dirty but I did feel very overwhelmed and after the 2 hour show was over, I was very ready to leave, so I headed to bed and got some sleep before a big day of travel to Berlin!

London.

And we're off!

In the short time since i have left Melbourne, i have already learnt a few things. 

Firstly, Australia is very very far away, and flying anywhere feels like it takes a lifetime, my numb bum will definitely vouch for that. 

Secondly, Abu Dhabi is extremely hot, which shouldn't have been surprising considering all we could see on our descent was sand dunes. The only thing that made up for the humidity was the free wifi so I could finally check how many likes I had got on Instagram #loser.

Thirdly, plane food really was as bad as I remembered, throw gluten free into the equation and you may as well resign yourself to starvation, or put up with steamed fish and ginger cake.

And finally, although I have been to London many times before, and was sure that I had already seen everything, I quickly came to the realisation that 3 days in London really isn't long enough. 

We arrived at Heathrow after an hours delay, and faced our first problem. Where was our driver? Mish had been excitedly telling us the entire trip we were being picked up and there would be a sign held up with her name on it but as we looked around no signs said 'Michelle'. We were exhausted and slightly delirious but after a very quick and expensive phone call we located our driver casually leaning against an ATM with no sign or uniform, looking bewildered that we couldn't find him....

Day 1 quickly escaped us as by the time we navigated our way through crazy Londom traffic and waited for Mishs cousin to get home and let us inside it was already 4.30pm, so instead of our planned sightseeing we had a shower and headed out to the local pub for a feed. The Pub on the Park in east London was where we started off and after a giant burger and fries (no bread of course) and a cider, I was ready for bed. I managed to fight the fluttering eyelids for long enough to move to the next pub, but soon gave in to the offer of a free cab home to a warm bed.

Sunday was market day, and our first stop was Camden Lock. As soon as we arrived it was clear this was a popular spot. The streets were heaving with tourists and locals alike, with stalls lining every inch of the street. There was a wide variety of people around, including a lot of punk rockers, none of which had flowers in their hair, mostly just Mohawks, fully black attire and some chains... Mish the shopaholic had already made her first purchase within five minutes, but I was just content at looking around. It seemed as though on Sunday the entire town turned into a market and as we continued to walk around the stalls still surrounded us, often with mostly the same stuff on offer- keep calm tshirts, wooden iPhone cases and summer dresses, despite the 15 degree weather.

We turned another corner and suddenly my nose was filled with an incredible aroma, I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Soon I realised we had discovered the best part of the market, as far as I was concerned food! The incredible aromas continued to flirt with my senses trying desperately to draw me in- polish sausages and rosemary buttered potatoes, endless stands of cakes piled high, truffle infused toasties filled with the highest quality cheese and meats, spicy curry... Needless to say, I was in heaven but where to begin? There were probably 30 different cuisines on offer but cautious of my over-sensitive stomach, I went for a safe option, lentil and chickpea curry, despite al,so being won over by traditional English fish and chips on my way over to Little India.

After we refuelled we hopped back on the Tube and headed towards our next destination- Brick Lane Market! We were met at Liverpool St Station by a roar and a hoard of men chanting wildly... Soon we worked out the final 'football' match of the season was on, and the men were joining their fellow fanatics at the local pub. As tempted as I was to sit down and join in the rowdy antics with a beer, Mish was on a mission to shop so we marched omwards. Sun decided to say hello to us for the first time on English shores so we headed to Box Park, a group of shops and rooftop bars/cafes made out of shipping containers to rest our feet for a while. 

After a much welcomed dose of Vitamin D we headed off to search for Brick Lane & Spitalfields markets and I had managed to convince the girls to watch the football at a pub and soak up the good vibe after shopping was done. As we walked along Brick Lane it seemed as though everything was closing, and my urge to run back to the pub grew, however another turn led us to the hustle and bustle and all we had missed was the flower market, a luxury we could not afford anyway. I once again fell victim to the lure of food, this time a gluten free carrot cupcake, absolutely delicious! 

We were all ready by this time to sit down and have a drink after a big day of market crawling so it was time to hunt for a pub. The first one we found was quite packed and had the football on, great vibe, but nowhere to sit so we decided to keep looking. England is meant to be the pub capital of the world, how hard could it be? Very, it turns out. After an hour of walking and travelling through 3 suburbs, not ONE SINGLE PUB was showing the soccer or had more than 3 people inside, I still am confused about this.. Our feet were in agony so we traipsed in the direction of the Liverpool St Station pub, filled with supporters we saw earlier.. When we arrived though, it was awfully quiet and we were told we had missed the game by ten minutes, and if that wasn't bad enough, we weren't allowed to sit and have a drink because the pub was closing in 5 minutes, what a let down! So we headed back to Box Park for a drink and then off to dinner with Mish's cousin for my first taste of Vietnamese food! It definitely didn't disappoint!

Day 3 and already my final day in London and we hadn't seen a single sight or even visited Central London! So despite it being the coldest day yet, we rugged up & headed to Oxford Circus and jumped on board the typical tourist double decker open top sightseeing bus. We whizzed around the whole loop for 2 hours and got a quick glance at all the main sights- St. Paul's cathedral, the London eye, Tower of London, Westminster abbey, the entrance to the Ministry of Magic, Trafalgar Square, the London Bridge, and all the rest of the sights I've forgotten! We also saw Mr Cameron himself emerging from 10 Downing St and then racing down the road in front of us with his police convoy. We stopped for a hot bowl of soup in an attempt to defrost after nearly being blown away on top of the bus and then went to visit Churchills War Cabinet Rooms, underground in Central London where he orchestrated and planned the entire war effort during the Second World War. Being s massive history nerd, I loved it! After a few hours underground it was time for a family reunion, with my cousins who I hadn't seen since I was 13 and my Aunty & Nan. Thai food finished off the day in London along with a few mojitos before I stumbled back along the tube home for my last sleep before leaving for Amsterdam!