amsterdam

Few days pass and we feel like locals. We know all those little streets and shortways that most of the people visiting Amsterdam just don't seem to care about. We avoid the centre - it's way to loud. And way to crowdy. So we find ourselves wandering around, breathing Amsterdam's air in and out. And it feels great to be there.

One day we visit The Basilica of Saint Nicholas. It became our tradition to visit places like this one, everywhere we go. Maybe we're not the most religious people out there but we're still full of admiration for the architecture.

Then we discover the beauty of the city by night when Arjan decides to give us a little tour. We take the ferry and go to the northern part of Amsterdam which is so different and so calm that I can't believe we're still in the same city.

 The views from the ferry are breathtaking and at that moment I feel so blessed to be able to witness all of them.

 Even though those are probably not the best night pictures I could have taken, I still love them. Such great memories.

Of course we have to visit The Red Light District but it doesn't appeal to me at the slightest. I just hate it when women are treated instrumentally.

 

 It's such a relief when we leave the place and head to a pub where the party that we're invited to takes place.

We meet people from the furthest parts of the world and it's overwhelming but amazing at the same time. Then we accidentally come across a couple from Ukraine that happens to live in Gdynia, Poland. So we start talking and they are really great, funny and have so many travel stories to share. We instantly get along so we spend some time just chatting and eating Dutch sweets that are given to us by the host of the event. 

 We even treat ourselves with some wine and they play lovely music on the spotify and it's the greatest evening of our trip. 

 

Arjan heads home and leaves us but at that moment it's the last thing that we could care about. We stay at the pub for another hour talking with an Austrialian guy and his friends and I swear I feel like the evening is completed when I hear him say "mate". It's such an Aussie thing to say, isn't it? It feels like he starts  hitting up on me so it's clearly time for us to head home. We're aware that it will take us at least an hour and a half to get there but it's fine, we don't want the day to end.

We wander through the centre at 2 a.m. and considering that it's Friday night, it's weirdly empty. Maybe Amsterdam isn't as crazy as I thought.

I change my mind when we come across two English girls, totally wasted and high on some "great mushrooms" as they say. We're oppositely totally sober so it's kind of funny to talk to them. They ask us about our names and when I say "I'm Martina" they tell me that it's such a sassy name and I laugh because I've never thought that my name was sassy. Then I tell them about my visit to London some years ago (even though it doesn't make any sense - they won't even remember the conversation in the morning) and they tell me that Brixton is super rough. We decide to stop the conversation right there and head to Arjan's as we're getting more and more tired. We wish them good luck with searching for "some good hootch" and we keep on walking next to the canals. 

 It's a bliss when after two hours we finally get there and fall asleep under the blankets.

The next day we wander around some museums but going into one is the last thing we want to do as the queues are ridiculously long. So we go to the most beautiful park I've ever been to, we buy some snacks and decide to have a picnic. 

There are so many people out there enjoying the weather with friends, having picnics and just good time in general and I wish it was like that where we live. 

We come home for a bit to prepare dinner and after that we go out for the last stroll around. And there's the most beautiful sunset I've seen and I actually start believing that I might miss this city.

The next morning we wake up really early so we have enough time to get to the airport. After almost being late we're stressed and tired but it all works out in the end.

After  few hours we're in Poland and we're kind of relief and happy to be back.