Hello!
I've recently been on holiday to Amsterdam and it was the best 4 days of my life! I thought I'd write a little bit about what I got up to while I was there.
The hotel we stayed in was amazing, it looked like a castle from the outside. The room was simple but lovely, with an ensuite bathroom and a bath!! I always get more excited than I should when there's a bath because I only have a shower at home, so it was really nice to have that luxury for a few days.
Sunday
By some miracle, we navigated our way through Manchester airport without any issues, then found the train station from Schiphol airport with no problems. However, we managed to get very lost trying to find the hotel, which ended up being a 2 minute walk down the road from the train station, but took us half an hour to find.
Since it was our first night, we decided to go out and explore Amsterdam. We got very lost and ended up wandering around for an hour before we found a nice little spot to sit and eat. It was still warm so we sat outside and had a glass of wine with our meal. All the restaurants seemed to be really quaint and pretty, in fact the whole city is really quaint and pretty, I fell completely in love!
After our meal, we stopped at a pub on the way back to the hotel. We had a few amaretto and cokes, but at 7 Euros (about £5) each, I didn't want to have too many, and we chatted and admired the view. It was a lovely first night.
Monday
We set our alarms for 8am, but didn't actually drag ourselves out of bed until 9. We got ready and headed out to the Anne Frank Huis, which was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel and we actually managed to find it without getting lost! The queue was unreal, but we had been warned so we were prepared to wait for a while (2 hours to be exact).
I was quite disappointed with the Anne Frank Huis to be honest. It felt more like a museum than a house and it feels like it's been commercialised quite a lot and that has taken away the authenticity of what could have been a really hard-hitting, emotional experience.
In parts, the reality of what had happened there did hit me; like seeing the original bookcase which hid the family, seeing the markings on the wall showing Anne and Margot's height, and a video of Otto talking about the realisation that he had survived but his whole family had been killed. But overall, I think it should have been left more untouched and only had necessary things done to preserve it.
I think it's definitely worth seeing, just be prepared to look around a museum rather than expecting it to actually feel like a house.
Just outside the Anne Frank House is the Homomonument, which is a memorial for all the gay men and women who have been persecuted for being gay. My friend Sarah had written about it on her blog and I wanted to see it. There was flowers on it when I went which I thought was really lovely, but I didn't manage to get a picture because there was a lot of people sat on it, so Sarah kindly sent me her picture.
After we had something to eat, we had some time to kill, so we decided to go on a canal tour. Luckily, one was just about to set off as we got there, so we got on straight away. It was really nice to see Amsterdam from the canals and interesting to learn about the history of the city, it is truly the most beautiful city I have ever been to.
Later on, we went on a tour of the Red Light District and it was absolutely brilliant! If you go to Amsterdam, I highly recommend checking out the Red Light District because it is unbelievable, but do go on a tour because it's the safest way to see it all and you get to learn so much about it.
We went into a museum that used to be a brothel, it was called 'Red Light Secrets' and it was such an eye-opener! I had never stopped to think about what life must be like for the women working in the Red Light District and, for some of them, it's pretty horrific. I can't bear to imagine how they must feel when girls laugh as they walk past, or when old men, twice their age, stop to stare. It must be so awful!
Inside the museum, there was a couple of rooms set up and a window like the ones the girls stand behind - it gave a real insight into life working in the RLD. There was also lots of information and real life stories all over the museum and some of them were absolutely heartbreaking to read. I'm really glad I went on this tour, it opened my eyes to a completely different world and I've gained so much respect for sex-workers!
Part two of my trip will be up tomorrow!
Lots of love
Megan
x
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