Amsterdam it

Hallo!

Omg I am so very annoyed. So I'd written basically half my blog (and it was kinda a long one) while on the train to Paris and then it all totally got deleted when I tried to refresh the photos. I'd even clicked save first! Whyyyyyyyyyyy. No wifi on the train. That's why. MadSilly.

AND I'd spent an hour putting all the photos in order and resizing them.
Basically a nightmare, really. 

Why am I even doing this.

So, I'll restart and try to write in an un-grumpy mood but I just feel I needed to vent to you about my current frustrations first. Bringing us all closer together..

But I guess it's about DAM time I wrote this blog right? :D
I'll try to keep the dam puns to a minimum, they're not even original.

Also, there are a tonne of photos so the words will be minimal too (no promises - I tend to ramble a lot)

First of all, I pass by this fast food place when I walk to the train station and it makes me a little confused:

They obvi sell both naan and tacos so I guess they're a fusion of Indian and Mexican.. Mexindian..? But then they've gone ahead an called them FRENCH taccos. With TWO C's.
Really mixing up the cuisine here. And the spelling.

I think it might be a little less confusing if they had a clear name for their establishment. 

Is it Fresh Tacos? (With one C - not even consistent)

Like, I totally support the pushing of boundaries, I'm just not quite sure which boundaries this place trying to push. 

Honestly, I don't even know what's going on here.

I just wrote more about this one (probably boring to you) photo than I will in the rest of the blog. But I just feel a lot of things when I walk by it.

I continue.

Lovely house I also pass on the way to the train - very unconfusing

Amsterdam-bound-bus

Bought a baguette to eat on the bus, it was filled with goats cheese, semi-dried tomatoes and a hearty slathering of a spread with herbes de provence:

Looks a bit like puke but it was tasty as

Had a wee stop (literally) in Ghent, Belgium

The ridic sea of bikes in Ghent. And not even in the Netherlands yet..

Cute little windmill

Made some friends on the bus; the South African guy next to me who was a filmmaker and an Australian guy who was an app-developer. Had some good yarns with our little Tri-nations team.

I think this is the Centraal Station in Antwerp

Our bus ride took like 6.5 hours instead of the 4.5 it was supposed to take coz the main route was closed. So the bus driver had to like figure out a new route literally as he was driving. Surely he would have known about the road closure before starting the journey??

But it wasn't so bad, we all bonded over the shared experience of numb bums and starvation.

Made it to the Amsterdam Station!

All the following photos are out of order due to the aforementioned tragedies and I can't be bothered to put them all back in order lol soz.

We went to a massive flower market which was beautiful and sold all their flowers as bulbs, which I'd never really seen before..

Pumpkins ready to be spiced and put into autumnal lattes

Walked by a lot of cheese stores but I couldn't resist going into one with free samples...

Mall in Amsterdam

Spent a morning at the Van Gogh museum which was v cool.

My ticket so I could Van Gogh into the museum (sorry, I couldn't resist..)

Admired many a painting, read a lot about Vincent's crazy, fascinating life and listened to people's deep interpretations of his paintings.

Bought an phone case with Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'

Carrying a piece of art wherever I go

Went to a cute cafe near the museum called "Blushing". They had heaps of veggo/whole foods which was just super!

My wrap and greeeen smoothie (w hummus YES)

Spot the fun sandwich

Also got this "healthy" brownie to take away.. ate it while we were still there - irresistible! 

Another museum, but we were too cultured out to go into this one too

Open space of the "Museum Quarter" near our hostel

Artistic garden with big rocks in the trees

Bikes and canal

Graceful swan in the sunset reflection - "me"

Frites!

Canals clearly not up to my standard

At the end of our wanderings and explorations around the city that day, it was time to settle into a little bar and relax with some drank and food.
The one that we chose had a super hot waiter and was filled with other equally good looking bar-dwellers which created a lovely atmosphere to chill out in.

When wine's not quite chill enough but you don't fancy beer -
whisky & coke is what ya do

This was my dinner from said bar and I loved it.
It had two big rounds of warm gooey goats cheese on top of a bed of caramelised/roasted beetroot and other veggies, with a good drizzle of a honey/balsamic dressing and some delish nut puree thing which really added a lovely crunch and richness to the dish. (Coz it wasn't already rich enough from the goats cheese..). 
Finished with a cherry (tomato) on top :D

Then we hit a coffee shop or two and wandered back to our hostel to have a blissful slumber.

Amsterdam street scene

Basilica St Nicholas

Royal Palace of Amsterdam

YOM

Checked out a huge market with heaps of second-hand stuff, art and food. Spent ages there and I bought nothing but a pack of freshly-made stroopwafels uhhhhh yum:

That gooey caramel interior took my tastebuds to a new level

Doing the classic waffle-on-coffee thang

My face and canal

Outtake from my photoshoot

a common sight on dutch streets

This combo of goats cheese with nuts and honey seems quite popular with the Dutch - and I'm lovin' it.

Adidas sneakers slung over a canal-side lantern, and a chill man on his bike

A collection of canal pics:

The Rijksmuseum at night

We walked through the bottom of museum to the other side - it's very grand but dim on the inside.

Honestly, I reckon the Amsterdam tourism board could have done a lot better - there's an endless list of puns at their disposal and they go for this.
I'm considering sending them my AmsterDAM GURL picture for inspo. 
Step up ya dam game.


Walking along canals:

A park at night..

Went to an awesome middle eastern restaurant for dinner on our first night called Bazar:

Gr8 décor

Starting off with those G&Ts at the bar

The spread - everything was veggo, ka pai kai!
(I had the skewers with kebabs and rice and a stew thing and fries)

Me, Emmeline, Monica - sat up on the mezzanine

Our view of the bar and peasant diners who sat beneath us

Finished off with apple pie and coffees

Hostel's way of making us feel better about being on the third floor.
And hell YES I will eat more pancakes because of it.

ugh *exasperated emoji*

Night time wandering:

Fully vegetarian place - Amsterdam knows what's up

At the time, I was the only like, but I swear it's now racked up 100s of likes

Blurry girls in our room

Apartments outside our Hostel

some building

V hipster "wilderness store"

Hydrating with the home girl Lydia

Got a BlaBla car back to Lille - basically the AirBnB of ride shares.

Our twilit southbound drive

Then went to school the next day feeling a little more worldly.

And we'll finish with a picture of Oreos because it's something that brings me great joy, and I hope it does the same for you:

(Conveniently sold in vending machines at train stations)

Yup so those were the pics from my little Amsterdam get away.
Hope you enjoyed and you come back for more coz there are like 4 other blogs worth of photos that I'm still yet to write.

Have a great day.

Madeleine
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