BUT, here I am finally. Reporting on a 6 day adventure which I'm still undecided whether overall was a good time or not... You can judge for yourself...
So, after a pretty crappy week or two of boy dramas (yes...plural) back in Aus, I decided what better way to try and forget about everything then to go and write myself off in Amsterdam! (Sorry Mum). I found my buddy Alice who came to Prague with me (who was in a similar boat as me) and we set off for an adventure which would include 2 nights in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and 2 nights in Brussels, Belgium and 1 night each way on the City Night Line Trains.
As mentioned in my last post, my good friend Stephen who I lived with in Hawaii now lived in Amsterdam with his beautiful gf Wieteke. We arrived in A/dam around midday and met Stephen at his, dumped our stuff and headed out on an awesome boat "cruise"! I use the word "cruise" lightly, but basically it was a wooden boat built in the 1940's that seats about 10 people. On this "cruise" which lasts about an hour, you can bring whatever food and drink you like...So we stocked up with copious bottles of wine and set off... The views of the city through the canals was beautiful...
Our boat was similar to one of these small ones...
We had lots of fun on the boat :o) It was only about 4pm and we were well on our way to being pretty far gone... Then we drank some more... went to the red light district and then it was morning :o)
On the Saturday we went on a walking tour of the city where we explored the cute houses and went through the red light district again. I was being a really bad tourist and took hardly any photos. For me this trip was more about just relaxing so you'll have to use your imagination a little bit. But the Red Light District certainly isn't as crazy at it seems. It's basically just cobblestone alleys with glass doors and women in lingerie behind the door standing there... If you wanna get a bit of action, you walk in, pay a minimum of 50 Euro (depending what you want) and Bob's your Uncle.
Saturday night was a lot of fun though. It was Museum Night which is this massive once a year do with all the museums (about 40 of them) opening their doors until 2am and having DJ's and drinks whilst checking out painting and the like. We had heaps of fun checking out original Monet painting whilst hearing Black Eyed Peas "Tonights gonna be a good night" at the same time lol. A cool museum was the NEMO which is similar to Scienceworks except probably 100 times better. Heaps of interactive stuff to do and the building looks like the Titanic kind of and is on the water! Can't get much cooler then that! I forgot, earlier that evening we went to a "Boom Chicago" show which is like "Who's line is it anyway" and includes some actors from the Drew Carey version. One of the funniest things I've ever seen and if you go to Amsterdam I highly recommend checking it out!
We bailed Amsterdam on Sunday and headed for Brussels. Very happy with our efforts so far and looking forward to our snacks on the 3 hr train trip:
NOTE: Germany does NOT have salt and vinegar flavoured chips or Pringles... Mine and Alice's favorite flavour so we were very excited to eat these!!
And then it all came tumbling down....
We went to get off the train in Brussles when I hear from Alice "Eb, do you have my backpack?" "Ummmm, No..Why? Where is it?"
STOLEN! THATS WHERE!!! LAAAAAAAME!
So we spent the next 2 and a half hours in a Belgian Police Station which was super lame and defs put a dampener on the entire Brussels experience. It was also wet and cold which didn't help the situation.
Alice was obviously pretty upset, but then we got to the hostel and she said "Lets go get drunk!"
Being the awesome friend that I am... We came, We Drank, and We Conquered! We had dudes buying us drinks left, right and centre and had a great night out drinking Cherry Flavoured Beer!
Saying I woke up worse for wear the next day is probably the biggest understatement of my life... Alice had no clothes cos they got stolen, I felt like my brain was soaking in cherries and we pretty much did nothing all day. It was pouring with rain... I think we had Pizza Hut for dinner and went to the movies to see "The American" with George Cloooooooney.. Please don't go see it. Waste. Of. Money.
The..uhh...I think we are up to Monday?? Was a better day... Still raining but we felt bad about the lack of photos we were taking and so went on a quick trip around the square and took some snaps for you all to see... Forgive me for not knowing what ANY of them are... but I do know the Police Station is about 50 metres away
Our food choices on this day were a lot better then the day before... We found this amazing, beautiful Crepe place where we indulged...
Nutella and Banana! Yummmm!
As I said earlier, weather was horrendous, for the most part of our last day we tried to grunt the weather and make the most of Brussels. but then we found this cool, WARM, old restaurant and had a few drinks and authentic Belgian food... I had 1/4 chicken with an apple puree and vegies. It was delicious!
Then we left... And most likely never to see Brussels again. No really, it didn't grab me as a city. There really isn't much to do but eat some chocolate and drink beer. And the famous chocolatiers you can find in all major EU cities so it's not like its exclusive...
So I rate Amsterdam as a 9 outta 10. Great company, beautiful city, ability to let your hair down when most needed. Only thing letting it down was the weather.. Would be great to come back in Summer.
Brussels, honestly, like a 5. Only good things were the food and beer. Although that is sometimes a great reason to go somewhere! Although not enough of a reason for me...
BUT, I has great company with Alice and was good to have a girls weekend and forget about silly stuff that was getting to both of us!
So there you have it... Pretty dull post too I know (It IS 2:30am). My next one I do believe will be about the Christmas Markets and all the snow we are having here at the moment in Dresden!! I think I will wait until the weekend though because there are a few more times I'm going to the markets and there is more snow so I'll wait! And it will be a nice, joyful, christmassy Blog... yay!!
I should have one about my good buddy Stu spending about 4 days with me in Dresden and we went to Prague and Berlin but I didn't really use my camera, Stu used his so that'll have to wait till he gets home later this month and sends them to me!
Happy First Day of Eating Advent Chocolates!
xx
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