This trip was born out of our friend Paulina. She invited me, Maria, and Katie to come and join her on her European trip once her fiancé left! Katie and I flew from LAX and Maria flew out of SD. Then, we all met on our layover in Boston.
Honestly, I need to start off this blog post with how beautiful of an experience we had on our JetBlue flight. The second flight that is, our layover out of Boston. We thought we were doomed because when our flight landed ALL the food closed in the Boston airport at like 9 p.m. which made no sense to us. Luckily we had free wine, free dinner, and lots of snacks! We were blown away how nice this flight was. So highly recommend JetBlue for a long haul international flight.
Over the next few weeks I plan on detailing each place we visited. Starting with Amsterdam then Copenhagen, Ireland, and London. So keep an eye out for those and subscribe to my email newsletters, at the bottom of the page, so you never miss a post. 💌
Let's get into exploring Amsterdam!
TRAVEL DAY
So our first day was us landing in the afternoon and finding our way to our hostel, Via Amsterdam. Now no one told me jet lag was not just being sleepy and exhausted but rather being a little nauseous and sick. So day one I was struggling a little after we ate lunch at the hostel. We had to wait until checking in at 3 p.m. and then we hit the city to explore! Immediately, we got fresh juices and they were seriously less than 2 Euros.
We walked around and just noted what we wanted to see more of over the next couple days. We had a glass of wine at The Grasshopper and then had dinner at Dragon City. I wouldn't say you neeeed to go to Dragon City but it wasn't bad and hit the spot.
This is a major biking city. Bikes truly have the right of way and it can be intense. As someone who doesn't even like riding bikes, this was a no for me. So keep that in mind, but riding a bike would totally be the fastest way to get somewhere.
Also as a preface for traveling most places in Europe, it is normal to pay for the restroom, sometimes even if you're a paying customer. It usually a euro or something, not too expensive.
DAY ONE ZAANS SCHANS
Our breakfast of champions was splitting a baguette of bread and chugging wine before leaving the house. We luckily had pretty beautiful weather this day. Wine was only around 4 Euros, and not because it was budget brand, they all were in and around that price range.🤍 Albert Heijn 🤍, their grocery store.
We got to the train station and purchased a two day pass so we could go in and out of the city as we pleased. Once we got here, Zaandam, we realized we actually were not at the windmills and needed a different train ticket to make it to Zaans Schans LOL.
In the meantime we got ourselves some coffees and explored this little city for a while. It was also really cute and had lots to do. We had a quick snack at McDonalds and had coffee at Lagom Grand Cafe. They were really sweet at the coffee shop and the coffee was great, highly recommend! We also shopped around at Primark, which I grew up watching all the European beauty Youtubers talking about!
We finally tracked down the right tickets and train and made our way to Zaans Schans. It started drizzling on our walk over from the train station. Luckily for us, we just followed the crowd to where we needed to go.
Seeing this many real windmills was incredible! All I have seen is our windmills in Palm Springs lol. The city had soooo much to explore it really is an all day excursion. There was a little shop that sold sour beers that were really good, and you can stroll around and drink it.
Such beautiful fields, houses, and animals. Aside from the windmills there are so many things to see and photograph. We started with the clock museum, which we just did a quick scan of the lobby and picked up a pamphlet. Next, we checked out the Albert Heijn museum. This was the first ever Albert Heijn store and it was so fascinating to see!
Next up got a fresh Stroopwafel at this bakery museum. As you know, baking is my thing so it was cool to see the Dutch ways.
We also hit the cheese museum which had lots of different cheeses to sample and buy, the most important one being Gouda! The cheeses were also shelf stable for a couple months so perfect for travelers to buy as souvenirs.
The little trees had a cute little fairy village too. Everything was so beautiful and well taken care of, it seemed as though a lot of people actually lived here. Absolutely obsessed.
We bought tickets to head inside a windmill and stand out on the top deck. It got windy and the rain picked up at this point but we definitely still wanted to experience the intensity of the windmill.
If you didn't know the windmills were actually made to grind up different materials and in this case spices. So there was another little shop with spices ground by windmills.
One we got back into the city, we needed a quick lunch to hold us over so we had Julia's Pasta. Again, not the most amazing by any means but held us over and filled us up. The tiramisu we had been craving and lowkey should have totally got our own but probably for the best LOL.
After that we decided to sit at a cafe and enjoy some wine annnnd a joint. I don't really partake in smoking but when in Amsterdam you gotta take a couple hits. Also, we learned weed isn't legal in the same way it is in California. You can just sit at cafes and smoke when you purchase from them but not necessarily dispensaries everywhere selling actual flower.
After that we decided to hit home and get ready for our night out. We wanted to have a mini "hen party" for our newly engaged girl Paulina!
We decided on Chicago Social Club. We got there early before it got super crowded. The photobooth was broken so we made it work by improvising lol. We were also so impressed by the locker situation, even though it was honestly not impressive whatsoever. Just as girls coming from California we were left wanting lockers at clubs back home.
We ended up meeting a couple men from San Diego and they somehow knew we were American because we were the only girls smiling 🥲 I don't know how valid this is but we were definitely having the best time here. The music was really good, some of the best music I have heard on a night out in a long time. They played throwbacks, early 2000's and late 90's, and some current hits.
DAY TWO
It was an incredibly rainy day when we woke up which was not the best news but alas we kept on trucking. We had a little walk to the metro and were onto our first destination. We had a little trouble figuring this route out because we had to take a bus, which was new and confusing lol.
It also didn't help it was pouring absolute insane rain and wind. Best way to stick out as a tourist is fluorescent rain ponchos. The weirdest part to me was that the locals were getting absolutely drenched just soaking up the rain...not caring?
Pancakes Amsterdam was our breakfast of choice. Honestly, jet lag was still getting the best of me and I could not finish my dutch pancake. It was really good though and poffertjes were my fave! As a sweets girl, they hit the spot. They are basically little sweet pancakes with butter and powdered sugar.
After breakfast we wanted to see what the vintage and thrift stores had to offer, we also wanted to escape the rain. Rumors Vintage was my favorite store. The woman working was so kind and incredibly helpful. I bought my very first Barbour here at around $60, when they typically go for $130.
The next stores we hit was the Kilo Store + Thrift Shop (they're connected). The kilo store literally weighs things to decide how much they cost BUT it is by the color of the "button" hanging off the item. It wasn't ridiculously cheap but still lots of stuff and decent pricing. If you're a big thrifter, you can't skip thrifting out here. They just have so many different things compared to California.
After finishing thrifting we had some classic Dutch fries with mayo and a spicy chipotle mayo. After our snack we enjoyed a little glass of chardonnay before our canal tour.
Our canal tour included wine and cheese! The guides were very silly and goofy, I sort of wish we got a little more history but still we had a good time. Considering they were filling us with a truly endless amount of wine.
Post canal tour we needed a little coffee pick me up...which somehow turned into a super fancy espresso martini moment. We went to Wijnlokaal Stuyvesant, a very classy wine bar.
We walked around some more and stumbled upon Fabel Friet. Now these were some gooooood fries. The toppings and sauces were next level.
Making our way to Casa Rosso in the Red Light District we saw another cute Gouda shop (they are truly all over the city). I do recommend seeing the Red Light District as it being a different cultural experience.This was our last and final stop of the night. The next day was our flight to Copenhagen.
So we had to get some good rest and pack up to be ready for our flight. We were incredibly worried about liquids and luggage on every flight because we were flying with a carry-on and personal item everywhere. Pretty much all our flights were very budget airlines so we wanted to be prepared as possible!
Overall, Amsterdam was incredibly fun and deserved more time. I think given the time we had, we really made the most of it. Also, I don't know what's in their tap water (you can drink it and its actually good btw) but the men are all tall and beautiful. So many of them, the TikToks are not exaggerating. Anywho, can't wait for the next time I get to visit.
See ya on the Copenhagen blog post in a couple weeks! 💌
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