Europe trip – tell all: First stop, Amsterdam

Hello everyone! I’m back from Europe with four new stamps on my passport. To say my travels were fun would be an understatement. My friends and I had a blast in each city with new and different experiences each country.

One year ago my friend, Essence, sent all of her friends emails to plan for her birthday trip to Europe. Money saved, flights and hotels booked, one year later, five of us flew across the Atlantic Ocean to party in the UK (and more)!

Why Europe? Well, we’ve done Miami, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and L.A. Aside from New York City or D.C., we’ve touched most of the major party cities. There were many major cities in Europe that were in question for us to travel, however Essence chose Amsterdam, London and Paris based on attractions, culture, shopping, and nightlife.

Friends who attended: Essence (the B’day girl), Elexis (B’day girl’s little sister), Ebony (B’day girl’s big sister), Audrey (best friend), me.

First stop: Amsterdam. I was a bit tardy to the party so while I was still at work and things, the crew went to a nightclub and said it was fun although the music was in Dutch. We party to all music, no discrimination.

My day of travel consisted of a flight from Atlanta to Boston, from Boston to Iceland, then finally Iceland to Amsterdam. When I arrived in Amsterdam 10 hours later plus a few time zones, I was so excited to be in a new city.

I had three options of getting from the airport to the hotel: By taxi, by train and transit, or Uber. I took the cheapest route and went by train.

The only tricky thing about the train is once I got off the train I had to catch another light rail and didn’t know which one to get on. Luckily I met a really nice girl and guy who were going the same way as me and led me in the right direction.

Once I was dropped at my stop, I had to walk 3 blocks with an over packed suitcase.

Getting to the hotel felt like a walk through the desert. While on my walk, I stopped at a liquor store. I bought my friends and I a bottle of Rosé and after paying, the man didn’t give me a bag for it. He and I stared at each other and I was like, “So... I just carry it?” and he laughed like, “Oh yeah, we don’t give you a brown bag like in the U.S." So now here I am with my suitcase, backpack and a bottle of Rosé in hand.

We lodged at the NH Amsterdam Museum Quarter.

I get there, check into my room, OMG FRIENDS!!!

Fast forward through settling in.

First stop: the Heineken Museum

While none of us are avid beer drinkers, why not go to wear Heineken was founded and learn and explore? The museum walked us through how it was founded, the beer making process and we got to see the Heineken horses. There was also a bar where we got two free beers. We chugged one.

After the museum, we floated Amsterdam.

This was by far my favorite part of the city. We floated the canal and learned about the history of Amsterdam while sipping champagne and other drinks. There are three major canals that run through Amsterdam: Herengracht, Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht & Singel. We were on the Prinsengrachat which means the Prince’s canal (I think?) Look, I was drinking so memory's kind of foggy.

After the tour we went sightseeing a little bit. Yes, I saw a coffeeshop. The coffeeshops are where weed is sold, legally. Very interesting place.

That night, we went to the Amsterdam Ice Bar. We have a few in the U.S. Basically there’s a regular bar that you walk into, but you buy tickets ahead of time to go to the ice bar inside the bar. It’s 14 °F so they give you jackets and gloves upon entry. We get tokens for free drinks and our mugs were made of ice. Everything is ice! Cool place, literally.

We didn't sleep that night because we had an early flight to catch so we did what girls do. Stay up late, drink and dance. A 15-minute nap might have happened, not sure anymore.

Oh! and I walked by where the prostitutes stand in the window and work. Intriguing to say the least.

Amsterdam was cool. Next stop, London. And you will just have to catch all of the fun in my next post.