Today I’m going to tell you about an impulsive travelling, which I gave to myself for my birthday in 2017. And even now, 4 months later, the memory for it will remain forever. And I really want to share it with you. Namely, my trip to Amsterdam, the capital of Netherlands.

Blogging again is one of the challenges I set at the beginning of the year and I think it’s time I started doing it.

As some of you may know, I moved to England one year ago. I’ve gone through a lot during this time, some good and some bad things, but a big part of these things changed my life completely. And at some point, I realized that what I still have left is my passion for travelling. Exploring new worlds, seeing new people, new faces, to feel and to live. Because that’s is how I feel about travelling – it makes me feel alive, real, easygoing like a child.

Let’s go back to the main subject – Amsterdam. I’ve dreamt of going there for a long time and the idea for a birthday gift for my birthday from me sounded amazing. It all happened very quickly and unexpectedly, almost at the last moment, but it turned out to be unforgettable!

How to go there?

This is where the attraction begins. It’s clear that flying to Amsterdam from Bulgaria is the fastest way, from England, too. But as a person that likes to try out new and different things, I chose to go by ferry. It was my first trip with a ferry and from a time point of view it’s a little longer than 12hours, but you set off at night, have a sleep and arrive in the morning.
The port is 45minutes away from the downtown and you can take a bus to there.

And there is it. The sun is lighting up the city and I’m seeing the channels and the gondolas and it makes me feel like I’m in Venice. The streets are tiny and narrow and the cyclists are more than the pedestrians and it all reminds me of my favourite country. And my heart’s whispering “if you don’t live in Italy, you’ll feel great in here too because this is your second Italy”.

Where do we sleep?

The hotel in which I was staying was 10 minutes away from downtown on foot.
It wasn’t that bad although it did not seems as what I had seen on photos.
The Plantage Hotel is next to Amsterdam’s zoo, which is one of the places you can visit. I left it for another time because I’m certainly going to come back. Hostels are another option if you don’t mind sleeping with other people and using one and the same bathroom. You may find something whit a price that pleasures you. Overall, the hotel is the place where you sleep and take a shower when you’re in a different city. The other time you’re outside sightseeing.

What should we visit?

As a real traveller, I had a list of places on which I exactly wanted to go, which I exactly wanted to see. I only did not have a schedule for precise hours of the day.
I did not complete my whole list, because I did not have many days and at one moment I just wanted to feel the city, without rushing and competing with time.
Maybe that’s one of the things I don’t like in arranged trips. You have an exact and strictly defined time for everything and rushing over won’t help you feel the atmosphere.

Let’s talk about the landmarks. As they say, there’s a museum for everything in Amsterdam, literally. But I did not visit at least one, haha. Regardless of not visiting museums, I have marked out some for the next times: the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijksmuseum. What I was not impressed when I visited it was the church Oude Kerk, because it was half closed inside and it wasn’t mentioned anywhere.

The channels are everywhere. There’s a dozen of bicycles on every bridge, extremely beautiful especially for photos(every moment must be captured and recently I’ve been avoiding taking photos). Dam Square, Rembrandt Square and the flower market Blumeumarkt are places which I visited. And also the well-known Red-Light District (De Wallen). I recommend you take a walk there in the evening when there are temptations watching you from every corner and the lights are really gorgeous.

One of my favourite places was IceAmsterdam, where you can go only in winter. The slide is incredible and big, there’s no time limit and it’s is next to the Rijksmuseum where is the notorious heading IAmsterdam. It’s long until there’s a free room to take a photo on the heading, but it’s quite funny.

And my second favourite place was a tower from which you could see Amsterdam, the whole city, 360 degrees panoramic image, a restaurant-elevator which goes through 22 floors for 20 seconds and photo memories is part of the stuff it has to offer. It’s called A’dam Lookout and you can book tickets from the internet. You use a small ship to go there from one coast to the other on the Aj river and it’s free.

Where should we eat?

I was visiting one place for breakfast and another for dinner. I fell in love with one of the places while I was taking a walk in the downtown. It’s a small breakfast room with two floors with flawlessly baked breakfast, sandwiches and loaves of bread. The interior is stunning, prices are perfectly fine and the food is delicious. It’s called Bake my Day and it’s located on a small street in the city’s centre. You’ll find it by its flavour. And the second place is an Italian restaurant Pasta Pasta, which a friend of mine recommended it to me. And you ask me why Amsterdam reminds me of Italy?
The owners were Italians and I managed to practice a few words I had learnt. The whole place and atmosphere are amazing and I can’t wait to go back there.

At the end of November, the weather was rainy and Pre-Christmas and I can’t wait to come back there when it’s sunny and warm. And how could I forget? There’s a lot of cafes and shops from which you could buy weed and some weed temptations and more. I have to admit that part of the city did not impress me and I didn’t buy anything. But who knows, perhaps next time.

I hope you enjoyed this post.
Stay tuned for more new ideas from me!

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