Today I flew to Amsterdam. I was coming from Cairo with a connection in Milan. In Milan I also had to transfer from one airport to the other, which I had purchased a train ticket in between for but missed because baggage claim took too long. I bought a bus ticket but ended up leaving my phone on the bus and not realizing until it had already left – talk about bad luck. A taxi to the bus station – where my phone was – and then to the airport was going to be about 200 euros and I was already pretty sure I was going to miss my flight as I only had an hour left to make it there so I waited for the bus to come back, got my phone, got on the second bus to the airport, and called the airline to see what my options were.
Turns out, luckily, that because the plane from Cairo was 20 minutes late arriving in Milan I was allowed to choose an alternative flight for free. And because I would now be stuck in Milan overnight, they also covered my cost of accommodation up to 100 euros. I ended up finding a cute little bed and breakfast for 90 euros a night about 10 minutes away from the airport and booked it. Then the bus broke down – good thing I didn’t have to catch my flight anymore. We sat there about 45 minutes before we were moving again. We made it to the airport and I called an uber to the B&B and crashed almost immediately when I arrived. I woke up for another four am ride to the airport from the host – moral of the story (a lot of those lately), make sure to account for baggage claim when scheduling transfers in layover cities, and make sure you have your belongings with you when leaving the transportation.
I finally made it to Amsterdam and met my friend Catherine at the airport. We bought our transport passes and via the train, headed to our hostel, the Bulldog (if you know anything about Amsterdam, this is kind of a big deal). We couldn’t check in until three and it was only about 10 am so we put our things in the storage room and went out to explore a bit. After we finally checked in, we found out some jerk had asked the hostel to unlock the storage room, walked in, and took only my backpack. So we spent the afternoon filing a police report and crying – well I cried, not Catherine. The hostel gave us some free drinks and we went out on a walk to just explore some more.
Jess arrived the next day, then all three of us headed to a little town with lots of windmills (per Jess’ obsession) then went to a windmill brewery to try some local Dutch beers. They were actually really good – for my lack of interest in beer – and we got to sit in a literal windmill which was so cool. We ended up getting wok boxes for dinner from a small shop a few blocks from our hostel that really hit the spot.
Sunday we went out to see the tulip fields and spent most of the day searching and walking through them, taking pictures, and soaking up their beauty. Our walking count for the day was around four miles but it was so worth it. By the afternoon we were getting hungry so we grabbed some frites to hold us over, since our next stop was the Heineken Experience. Heinekin was created in Amsterdam, so we got to learn a little about the history and how it’s made and there were tons of photo opportunities and games. It was much more fun in my opinion than the Guiness factory in Dublin. We each were given two free beers with our ticket purchase and since Heineken is currently my favorite beer I slurped them down and bought a sweatshirt to take home with me.
Once we finished we decided we wanted Italian for dinner, but the place we wanted to go to was full and we were nearing starvation so we found a Chinese place down the street and had the best – although a little spicy for me – noodles. To be honest I’m not sure what qualifies as Dutch cuisine, although it seemed very similar to the states in that – at least around Amsterdam there were plenty of various cuisines to choose from – making it pretty easy to find something for everyone.
The next morning I woke up early for yet another early (four am) flight with Catherine heading to Greece (stay tuned for next week) while Jess slept in a bit before she had to go back to Spain. If you are planning a trip to Amsterdam, make sure you plan around the tulip season, that was my favorite part and really is a must see. Ultimately this was a splendid trip and I cannot wait to return, this place in particular is one that I could even see myself living in one day if ever I get the chance.
