AMS🇳🇱🌷🚲

Jul 11, 2014
4 min read

Amsterdam. Is. Amazing. However, I did feel like I was cheating on my favorite city Manchester. That's how much I loved it. In the taxi from the airport, I noticed there were a lot of industry headquarters. Names like Tommy Hilfiger, Mean Well, Google, Toms, IKEA, Nike, and Cisco Systems to name a few. Imagine the job market for international companies. Woould it be easy to work for a company in America & later be transfered over? Anyway...

The architecture and city planning in the city was E V E R Y T H I N G. I love a good canal system. However, this is nothing like I have ever seen. You could have lunch, yoga, a taxi, a romantic date, pick up flowers at a tiny market, or even live on the water in a houseboat.

I love the classic Amsterdam 17th century architecture. (overall, its 15-17th throughout the city.) I love how they all have that common narrow shape, the bricks, the hooks that every one of them have(a pulley system is used to move furniture into the windows of the buildings).

& take a look at the Centraal Station. Designed by the same architect that designed the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Fun Fact: the river behind this place is spelled i-j, Ij. It's pronounced "eye" Don't ask, I'm not fluent in Dutch. When asking directions, I used this as my point of reference.

If you're interested in the Red Light District, you won't find much on it here on Alex in Wanderlust. It was not my cup of tea. A brief overview: body modification & tons of make-up. The women are all on their phones: unbothered and bored. Like many of the places I went, coffee shops & Van Gough museum, you can't take photos in the Red Light District. Moving on to the coffee shops, shall we?

Now, a coffeeshop is not to be confused with a koffie huis. The later will not have marijuana or any form of it. They both however, do serve the usuals: coffee, teas, juices, smoothies & sandwiches. Like Denver, they have budtenders who will walk you through all types of strains & ways to get as stoned as you'd like ☺️.

I ate ALOT of street food. I liked the cute little cones full of fries minus the mayo though please (yes, that's a thing.) BUT! Let me just tell you how obsessed I am with Bitterballen. Depending on who’s making it, you’d start with beef or lamb. I’m not sure if it’s traditionally beef, but anyway, this meat is added to the broth I’m guessing chicken or beef stock & then flour is added, which makes a roux. The roux mixture is then balled up inbetween your hands, breaded, deep fried, and served with mustard. Other than this though, I enjoyed Stroopwaffles: two thin waffles with caramel in the center. Ah, and the Kibbeling: pieces & strips of white fish battered and fried. So good.

I sat down for a proper dinner on my last night in town. I wore an LBD & a crystal statement necklace & headed for Toscanini, an Italian place at Lindengracht 75, 1015 KD Amsterdam, Netherlands. It has an adorable open kitchen concept & I wish I had gone while the sun was setting as they have skylights. I wanted to try their goat cheese soup, but then how whole I pay for a bottle of wine? I chose a pasta dish: fresh pasta in a sauce made of rabbit, saffron, and tomatoes. When I thought that was the highlight of my night, this came out for dessert.

It was a spiced saffron pear that was poached with dessert wine. I could taste the cinnamon, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. To me, it was a super posh take on apple pie, minus the crust. However, it had that same a la mode/warm feeling this was one of the best things I ever ate.

I didn't get out much for breakfast, I utilized the kitchen in my Airbnb. All I need anyway is some sort of bread, fresh fruit, yogurt, and tea. So I picked up one week's worth or so. Most of my mornings were sleeping in from going out the night before, a joint &/or mimosas, and then preparing a proper brekkie. After that, I would head out into the city or the outskirts of it to roam around.

Roaming around on foot I noticed everybody and their mama was on a bike. I would roll up to the bar, coffee shoppe, pharmacy, convenience store, any place & there would be bikes on bikes. Not a few like you and your friends in middle school rolling up to one of you guys house & all the bikes are left sprawled in the driveway or lawn. In Amsterdam, there are like forty bikes outside of just one establishment. None were plain looking. They all had some sort of pop affect let it be the color, the print, the metallic tassels, flowers, or box/bucket made or personally decorated. People were riding their mates on the back &/or the front of their bikes. It was INSANE to see. The bike culture is real. I hear that riders have just as many rights on the road as drivers. The city is also very accommodating for the bikers. A lot of wide bike lanes; I’m talking some the size of a whole street. It was amazing that there is a public transport & bike culture. Not a zillion fossil fuel-guzzling cars, or worst! SUVs. 🔪🔪

& now ladies & gents! The main attraction, what I came for in the first place: the Van Gough museum. Oh. My. Gawd! Sidebar: please if you aren't a BAMF/ninja don't try to take photos, they aren't allowed as the flash ruins the pieces as well as copyright laws. If you do, keep the nighttime photo setting on without using your flash.