10 January 2024

Amster-damn

 

Moving forward with my Christmas 2023 solo travel, my next destination was the daring and turbulent city of Amsterdam. Despite the anticipated absence of tulips and the sun, I still had my hopes up because quite frankly, I have heard a lot of nice things about this city. Honest to goodness, it delivered the goods. My only regret was  over-tightening it out on the accommodation budget side of things, directly exposing me AMS’ dirty laundry I hoped I never found out. Sleeping in a filthy overpopulated hostel room was not an ideal way to spend such wonderful days after Christmas. In a nutshell, I made a careless choice, and I paid a hefty price. Other than that, the rest of it all was no less than amazing, at least at the surface level (for now). I was able to walk around and along most of the busy canals from the Prinsengracht & Herengracht to the famously sin scenic district aka Red Light. Honestly, I was not able to fully maximize the trip due to poor planning OR the lack thereof, hopelessly and miserably failing to book in advance the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank’s House, and even the van Gogh’s museum (with limited edition pokemon features at that time).  So that’s pretty much how my first ever Amsterdam went – an unfinished business warranting a second look soon.