The tale of Mystical Meg: November 2008

So as from Thursday the 20th Chris and I were in Amsterdam checking out the scenery and establishing our way around. It's official IM IN LOVE! Amsterdam is the most beautiful city I have seen in awhile. It really is candy for the eye. We arrived around 2.30pm on Thursday and went straight to the hostel that we were staying at, a very simple place in the woods out in the suburbs of Amstelveen. I wouldn't recommend it if you would prefer to stay in the heart of Amsterdam as it is rather a long way out. But it was great for us as it was extremely cheap, and we had a cabin to ourselves, and it meant that we could discover a lot more of Amsterdam.

By the time we got into the city it was just starting to get dark. I took Chris through the red light district looking through all the coffee shops, hesitant to go into any of them as neither of us really smoke. We decided to look for beers instead and explore the coffee shops another day.

So wondering around trying to avoid the rain but at the same time not really caring as we were to engaged in looking down every street. We finally found an OK looking bar were we sat to dry off and drink some Heineken. One of us had the great idea to drink some absinth which was pretty much the end of my night. Chels you would of been so disappointed in me. I really have to build up my drinking stamina!

So come Friday we were up early and decided to stick to the inner suburbs (if you can call them that) to try and track down the COOLER areas. We did a lot of walking on Friday, but found lots of really cool places.

There are so many tourist traps, ready to catch the silly English people walking around to stoned to remember where their hostel was. The streets are like a labyrinth twisting around the canals. Amazingly we didn't get lost one, although there are maps at every bus and tram stop.

Stumbling across some markets

With lots a wooden tulips. Twas grand!

Lots of Christmas action going on, this was a stall that was selling Christmas decorations, made me think of you mum!

We got to the suburb Jordan which was my favorite. It comes from a french word meaning Garden and you can see why it was called that. There are plants galore hanging from every building. It is said that in the original decor you are able to find porcelain ornaments, pink lamp shades and plenty of cats. Sounds just like my kinda place.

I found myself daydreaming of when we moved here, that I would wake in the morning wonder down to the streets to sip on some coffee in a quaint little cafe overlooking the canals reading the paper, as I plan to learn Dutch, then off on my bicycle to my Dutch lessons or shopping!

After resting here in this cafe for a little while we felt revived enough to venture on to suss out some dinner.

Dinner we found this cute little Thai Restaurant just across the road from where we got told to go for a drink. Yummy food!

As we were walking through the streets trying to find this club called BitterSweet that apparently has hip hop occasionally we came across this very colorful wall.

BITTERSWEET ENTRANCE