hola AMSTERDAM.

96 hours in Amsterdam.

Landed last night from a two week vacation in Ireland and Amsterdam. I flew to Ireland to see my boyfriend and we took a mini vacation to Amsterdam. We had so much fun exploring a city that neither one of us had ever been before. We checked into Room Mate Aitana around 6pm. The hotel was gorgeous, with waterfront windows and interesting decor. It’s a 5 min walk from the Central Station. We were a little hesitant about the location of the hotel because it wasn’t located in the heart of Amsterdam,  but it turned out to be a great location. We were away from the noise and busyness of the city, surrounded by water and boats. 

After checking in we decided to take a night stroll to see what was near us. We noticed Amsterdam isn’t a very well lit city. The combination of poor lighting and small alley ways definitely made us feel a little uneasy at first, but with some time, we felt more comfortable. We wanted to walk to Dam Square, we eventually got there but on the way we stumbled across some red windows. Even though it was the Red Light District, it was definitely a culture shock! We finally found Dam Square, and it was beautifully lit with the dim lighting and surrounded with alleys filled with clothing boutiques. 

After some exploring, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest before a big day of exploring we had ahead of us.

The next day we started the day early and grabbed breakfast at a super cute cafe located across the street from the hotel

After breakfast we headed to the Van Gogh museum, the Rijks museum and the Heineken experience. Each attraction are walking distance from each other and highly recommended to be seen.

The Rijks and Van Gogh museums are the traditional type of museum, filled with people with headsets on admiring art and the Heineken experience was a really fun beer tour/tasting, filled with a bunch of fun media, picture booths, and music. At the end you have a choice of drinking a full free pint or half a pint that you get to pour yourself and receive a certificate. After a few hours of museums and tours, we were starving and found a restaurant with the best jalapeño burger and they had my favorite beer, Leffe Blonde!

After an early dinner we grabbed ice cream and just walked around enjoying the rest of our evening. We eventually headed back to the hotel to get some rest and change into warmer clothes. After a couple of hours we headed to Beer Temple for some beer tasting. Temple bar was a really cool place located near Dam Square. The place with decorated with beer bottles, beer labels and beer bottle caps. There was so many choice to choose from and the bartender was very helpful and knowledgeable about beer. The plan was to head to House of Bols next. But we lost track of time and had too much fun trying so any different beers we decided it was time for some frites. We walked over to Manneken Pis. They serve fries in a cone and you have the option of 28 sauces to choose from. The samurai sauce is the BEST!

On our last day, the only thing we had planned was to go to the Anne Frank museum. The tickets online were sold out so we planned on going early to buy tickets. We needed up sleeping in and then making our way to a pancake house called Luciëns Pannekoekkelder. We had no idea how big and amazing these pancakes were! We could believe our eyes when the waitress brought our food over… we were in pancake heaven!! Officially in a food comma, we rolled our selves out and headed to the Anne Frank museum.

The Anne Frank museum was the last item on our bucket list for the trip and the day was still young. We found a tour guide place and decided to do the Amsterdam Ice Bar and the Red Light District museum. The Ice Bar was fun until my hands felt like they were getting frost bitten. The best part about the ice bar were the 3 drinks that were included with the ticket and two drinks were poured into ice glasses! After the ice bar we need sun ASAP to warm up! We walked around some more and grabbed more frites!

For dinner we ate at an Argentinean steak house. There are SO many Argentinian steak houses in the city! We ate at one near the grande central station. The steak was good and the owner was really sweet. After dinner we headed to the Red Light District to check out the museum. It is a little un comfortable to see the woman behind the windows and gross men starring. The museum was focused on the viewpoint of the women behind the glass. The museum also showed the history of porn and prostitution throughout history. There was a lot of information of the laws in place to protect the women that choose this career path. I walked away happy to know that a lot of these woman choose to be behind the windows and there are laws in place to protect the women. The museum also explained that many women in Europe came from different parts of the world thinking they had a career in media waiting of them. A lot of these women are then trafficked. The museum had a list of signs to keep an eye out for and report.

We ended our last night the right way.. in a “special” cafe and ordered a space cake and frites to go. The next morning we grabbed some amazing pancakes before heading to airport to get back to Ireland. The pancake place I saw on RHOBH. Its very tiny but the pancakes are incredible!

Getting a way for the weekend with my boyfriend was amazing. We have fun regardless of where we are and who we are with, but its trips like these, I love! and I can’t wait for us to take more trips! <3