There’s so much to say about Amsterdam. My initial perception of Amsterdam from the influence of movies and books was to expect a town that was clouded by the smell of weed, filled with cyclists and people hanging out in dingy alleys doing secret exchanges.

But Amsterdam was more than that.

We got to Amsterdam in the evening, and by the time we found our way and settled into the apartment, it was already 10ish pm in the night. After getting out of the main central station, we were pretty clueless as to where we had to take the bus, collect the apartment keys etc. We popped into one of the tour centers and the guy over the counter was seriously helpful. With him pointing us in the right directions, we were on our way!

Our daily routine of waiting for bus 21 to head home / get to the central station!

The famous “I AMsterdam” block letters that was too crowded with people crawling and climbing all over it to get a photo. I guess this would suffice. Walking along the streets of Amsterdam got us passing over a couple of canals. It was a pretty sight. The canals were all lined with “home boats”, the actual homes of people. I can’t imagine actually living in a boat 24/7 though. I mean it’s alright if it’s a holiday home, but as an actual home? How do people get their mail though?

We woke up bright and early the second day to head to the Keukenhof Gardens, one of the main reasons why we were in Amsterdam. The gardens open exclusively only in early april up to mid may for people to go tulip viewing. Once the season is over, they would close to harvest the flowers, and replant new ones for them to bloom in time for the next year! Our first stop was a bulb farm. We were brought to one with fields of brightly colored yellow daffodils! It really looked like a scene you would see from a korean movie. *cues korean music and gentle wind blowing in the background*. We were told that we were one week too early to see their red tulips from the other half of the field bloom. What a pity. But this was great.

Keukenhof was super crowded as it was a Sunday. But on the bright side, the weather was really good the entire day, which was awesome. I don’t think i’ve ever seen that many varieties of tulips in one place before, and there were also shrubs and bushes of hyacinths and daffodils all over the garden. Here’re some of the photos from the garden visit. I’m only posting these few as there are too many to choose from, and you might get too overwhelmed by photos and photos of just flowers. I might have possibly taken a gazillion photos. #flowercrazy.

We ended the day around evening time, and headed back into central Amsterdam. We settled our dinner for the day and headed back to the apartment to get some rest. All the walking and stopping to take photos exhausted all our energies for the day.

The next day was pretty much free and easy. We stopped by a couple of places. Of which was the tulip museum. We spent some time here looking at the store. They had a really nice display of flower seeds for sale. If I had my own backyard, I could foresee myself buying a little of everything so my backyard could look like the gardens.

I know, What?? Sushi in Amsterdam? We didn’t really have any idea of what to eat for the day, and we walked past this restaurant that had a buffet promotion going on. So why not? We sat down in Starbucks next door to chill for a bit and build up our appetite before heading over to stuff ourselves. The food was pretty decent, no complaints.

The last day in Amsterdam was short as we had to head back to London. We had the whole morning up to afternoon for some last minute action in Amsterdam. We decided to then take the river cruise! The ride was about an hour long, and it took us through the canals. It was rather calming just sitting in the boat, people watching. There’s so much history in the building of Amsterdam, some were pretty interesting as well.

Due to the number of days we had in Amsterdam, we never managed to visit the museums and exhibitions. That’s probably one of the things I would do if I were to visit Amsterdam again. The takeaway of the trip was a couple of bulbs from the tour, a packet of chilli seeds, baby breaths and carrots! I’ve already started planting them, and I can’t wait for them to grow! I think I like Amsterdam as a city. Pretty chill. The next time I head over, I’d probably try cycling through the city.

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On an unrelated side note, it’s 27 degrees celsius out in London today. A little too warm, but it’s good for the plants. I’ve left them out on the balcony to sunbathe and they’ve been growing faster these days!

Okay, back to school again tomorrow. Hope everyone’s having a splendid Sunday, doing whatever you’re doing. x