The Nomadic Joys (TNJ): Amsterdam on a Long weekend

Hi People !!

I cant wait to tell you about my travel tale from August of 2013 when we travelled on a long weekend to Amsterdam. This time we decided to take a train which took about 2.40 hours to get to Amsterdam’s central station. We travelled together with a friend of Manish from India who was visiting Germany and another one who's working here in Cologne too. This was such a fun fun trip.

We reached on Friday evening and after hopping on the city tram (these are so cute and you can buy ticket once you hop in directly from the driver) we reached our hotel and since I was all excited to go out and explore we changed and went to the Dam Square which is a center point to the city. The music bars, cafes and the very popular red light district are all located around it. Early evening is rather quiet but as the night progresses, people start pouring into these streets and lanes and it is such a vibrant scene. I totally loved loved the vibe, Most of the music bars have some or other live performances and we chose the “Bourbon Street Music Club” for its Live Jazz performances and it was fantabulous. I loved the music, the club was quite old-fashioned, quirky with portraits and music instruments adorning the walls, warm lights, very country style… this is stunner of a club. Post our dose of music, we headed straight to grab some dinner and checking out the Red Light district. Gosh shops with glasses on front and the prettiest of damsels displaying their best-selves. We were then back at hotel to charge-up for another beautiful day ahead. It was one of the warm summer weekends and the next day was just abundance of life, spirit and sun wherever we went :D This city of Canals was truly a vision and more fun since this was the Gay Pride Parade weekend. This, people is one of the biggest celebrations usually on the first weekend of August every year and has gays, lesbians and straight people partaking and partying for the whole weekend in the streets of Amsterdam. This is a Big – Big street party and groups participating take the parade through… guess what….. Canals. Visitors and watchers alike are hanging from every window of the houses on the sides of canal to get a good glimpse. After partying whole day, in evening we visited one of the cafes in Amsterdam where other than Coffee one can legally experience some soft drugs provided in a variety of cakes and cigars. Next days we did all touristic stuff like visiting the Anne Frank Museum, walking around the streets, enjoying meals at Canal-side cafes with the most beautiful views. On our last day we had the whole morning and afternoon to ourselves and so we decided to take a boat trip through canals, seeing the monuments and places of historical interest, the smallest house in Amsterdam and so on with the Canal tour. Amsterdam is a place you just cannot have enough of for its Architecture, Things to do and Warm friendly people (English is widely spoken) , look forward to going back some day and exploring more of it.

Must Do things in Amsterdam:

- Visiting the numerous museums but find what interests you more since there are numerous options. Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum highly recommended.
- Enjoying the live music scene at the Clubs
- Lounging at the typical Dutch cafes and trying the stuff there ;)
- The city canal tour
- Wandering through the beautiful streets

My style was very comfortable, chic for these days: Pink Lace shorts with halter tops and halter black dress for the evening. Leaving you with pictures of this insanely gorgeous place….