Megan Jade McCracken: Amsterdam

Showing posts with label Amsterdam. Show all posts

I'm sorry this is a couple of days later than I said it would be, work and life keep getting in the way.

This is part two of my trip to Amsterdam, enjoy!

Tuesday

If any of you go to Amsterdam and wonder where this iamsterdam thing is, it is outside the Rijksmuseum! I didn't have a clue where it was, but I'm so glad we found it because I'm a sucker for a good cliche picture.

Unfortunately, we didn't go inside the Rijksmuseum because I was quickly running out of money and Hannah wasn't that interested anyway. It is a beautiful building though, I was happy to just admire it from the outside. In fact, museumplein is a really beautiful area, we spent a couple of hours sat around chatting and admiring the view.

At the moment, there's a line of painted bunny statues near the Rijksmuseum to commemorate 60 years since nijntje was created (Miffy in English). They're really strange, but kind of brilliant, so naturally I had to get pictures!

A bit later on, we went to the Heineken experience, which is basically a museum about how Heineken is created - I wasn't expecting it to be as fun as it was! They have a 'ride' which is basically just a moving platform with a big screen, and it simulates brewing you as if you were inside the beer.

There's also lots of games and interactive things as you go through the museum, and then you get two free drinks at the end. I'm not the biggest fan of Heineken, but I drank them anyway because who would turn down free alcohol??

Later on, we went to the ice bar, which was kind of a rip off because the drinks were tiny! But it was a great experience and it's such a unique place. We didn't have the time to get changed (or the energy for the 30 minute walk back to the hotel), so we went in what we were wearing and luckily they give you a huge coat and gloves, but my bare legs were absolutely freezing!!

You get a free cocktail in the regular bar while you wait for your time to be called into the ice bar, then you get two drinks in the ice bar in an actual cup of ice. It was amazing!

Wednesday

Since Wednesday was our last full day, we just wandered around shops and bought souvenirs for our family. We just had a really chilled out day exploring Amsterdam (the Red Light District mainly - it's not quite as strange during the day).

At night we decided to buy some wine and then go out and try to find the night life! It was the only night we actually bothered to properly go out, but it was really good. We did have to be up at 5am the next day though to travel home, that pretty much killed us both, but it was so worth it!

All in all, I had an absolutely amazing trip and I can't wait to go back! I highly recommend going to Amsterdam because there's so much to see and do, but there's also a great night life/party scene. It's an incredible city!

I'll post again soon

Lots of love

Megan

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

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