Amsterdayumn

I'm done with my January papers and I have a week 'til classes resume so I have a week to burn and relax and be in bed and sleep all day and eat all night and watch Running Man allllll I want and allllll I can.

Bliss.

I'm going to blog about my recent trip to Amsterdam with my main girl, Marissa! It was absolutely lovelyyyyy, I had such a great time and to be honest, unexpectedly so. I thought I'd enjoy Berlin more! I mean, Berlin was equally amazeballs but Amsterdam took me by surprise!

So we arrived early morning and we took a cab to our hotel.

I loved our hotel SO much that I don't mind going there again on a weekend SOLELY for the hotel. I loved it. It's such a quaint little place but the pillows were heaven, the staff wonderful and the overall service was just so impressive for a small hotel.

This was our room. Every room is said to be "dressed like a model" and all 61 rooms are all differently designed which makes it that more special. We took the 3 star bedroom and it was MORE than enough for us. Loooooved it. It's called "Hotel The Exchange" and go ahead and look it up for your next trip to Amsterdam!

It's SUPER strategically located as well because just a few doors down there was the City Sightseeing shop/office so we bought our tickets there and the first stop was just a 4 minute walk ahead. And it's really close to the Dam Square and Red Light District. We didn't need to take any form of public transportation and on our third day, we realised how close it was to the Anne Frank Museum! 

This was the common area just outside of our room. The WiFi was a bit of a slack in our rooms so we would always hang out in the common area to get WiFi which was super super super fast so it was as bit weird how as soon as you shut the room door close, WiFi is cut off. But nevertheless, gorgeous hotel! 

So our first day! 

We got our tour tickets (personally, I've always always favoured hop on hop off buses when on a holiday, 'cause that way you get to check off all the touristy places without having to trouble yourself with 'How to get there?' and 'What number train?' and essentially wasting precious time. And on our second day, we were somewhat familiar with the city and we just walked around from then on. So it's not like you're not exploring the city anyway) and got on the bus but not after buying yummy fries with cheese! 

And we basically toured the whole city and went to the museums. We went to the Rijks Museum first and there were a hella lot of things to see. I personally really love museums and I take my own sweet time reading every plaque and looking at everything so it was really nice. It was really huge as well! 

This was especially cool. It's just a library within a museum and there were actually people, down there as you can see, reading and studying! In a museum! How cool.

And then we went to the Van Gogh Museum. We weren't allowed to take photos but man, that museum was so cool. To see his history and his work and there was even one section when you can listen in on the letters that he would write to his brother was something. It was so inspiring to be in this museum to be honest, it lets you in on every brush stroke and colours and painting techniques and on the methods he employed for every art work. Art enthusiasts everywhere and anywhere should make it a point to visit this place.

And then we stopped by this waffle place. Hahahaha I've told this on my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and everything. 

Do Marissa and I a favour and at any time you decide to make a trip out to Amsterdam, go to this small kiosk with the. best. waffles. ever. It's by the 'i amsterdam' sign and on the way to the Van Gogh museum. Serves the best waffles, get the ones with grilled sugar and you are on your way to waffle heaven. We loved it so much that we went a second time on our last full day in Amsterdam. 

And then we got back to our hotel to rest for a bit. Hahahaha Marissa is seriously my IDEAL traveling partner because only we get each other. For me, holidays are meant to be for relaxing. Given you have to still make an effort to go sightseeing but for me, it has to be on your pace and time because then where's the fun in everything if you're always on a rush and on a schedule? Set a not-so-ambitious agenda for each day and just do all that first. That's why I like loooong holidays where's there's no rush in anything. Marissa, you da real MVP for coming back to the hotel that day at like, 4pm and slept til 9pm hahahahaha 

We went to explore the city by ourselves and it was ideal because there weren't many people around so we could take nice photos. See how empty! We went to Red Light District also that night and went into an erotic museum........ which was a disturbing experience. But an experience, nevertheless. We went quite late so it was just the both of us in the museum. Hahahhaa such weird vibes but oh well. 

We went for dinner at this Italian restaurant nearby and had some good ol' pasta. I've deducted that the best Italian food I've had have all been in Malaysia. I've not been to Italy yet so I can't say how it'd be there but seriously, Italian food here is just tak sedap. 

Day Two

Second day, we resumed our tour around but not before having breakfast at the little cafe attached to our little hotel.

... which served the BEST green tea. It was so so so so so good and you're probably thinking how the hell can green tea be 'SO' sedap but it really was. It was so fragrant and didn't taste like paper at all. I actually Googled where to buy it and lo and behold, Selfridges Food Hall! Was so excited to get it (which I did!) and try it out on my own. 

We went to Anne Frank's museum which was the highlight of my whole trip! I loved it. It was so SO chilling and I don't know how else to describe it to you. It was just something that was so unbelievable. Like how the narrow staircase up to their rooms was blocked by a book case and the book case was actually STILL there and the celebrity photo cut outs from magazines that Anne Frank had stuck on her wall were all still preserved and there which was beyond for me. To finally read and understand her story was a whole other level for me. I left the museum being very VERY grateful that I never had to go through that kind of hardship in my lifetime thus far. It was pretty brilliant and I would honestly go there again. What an experience! And we were lucky enough that we didn't have to queue AT ALL. There's been a pretty big fuss about long lines and that you have to book online for  tickets in advance to save yourself from being kept in line so long but when we went there, I thought the whole place was shut for the day because not a single soul was lining up. It depends really, I guess on your luck and on the day itself. 

Then we walked around and we got ourselves to the Nutella Ice Bakery that Marissa had read online about. We managed to walk towards the shopping district and to the flower market which didn't really have a lot of real blooming flowers because it is winter and so we just walked around. Marissa got her waffles with Nutella and we took the cab back to our hotel and chilled for the rest of the night.

Day 3 

Day 3 was just a day to chill and yes, we actually went to the waffle place to eat our waffles again because we couldn't just leave Amsterdam without tasting what might be THE BEST WAFFLES EVER hahahaha I've been raving it so much, I feel almost like it'll ruin your whole experience because I've put such a high benchmark and expectations for you lolz 

And we took more touristy photos with the 'I Amsterdam' sign before going back to the city and walking aimlessly around and exploring the place even more. 

I looooove this city because the Dutch were just absolutely friendly and I was super impressed with how fluent they were in English! And the food we had was just brilliant all around and that was surprising also but EVERY place we went to eat, the food was just amazeballs. We questioned ourselves though whether it was just sedap because we were hungry and tired from walking everywhere but seriously, really good! 

We left for Berlin the next day and our train station was literally a 5 minute walk from our place which was such a huge plus point with our hotel again. I loved the place so much I actually even had the effort to write my review on it on Tripadvisor because I felt like they deserved it! 

Amsterdam was beautiful and so so so lovely, I'd love to go again! And to know it's just a 45 minute plane ride from London is so appealing and I'm so tempted to go there again over the summer!