From Sweden with love...: Amsterdam

Current Destination: In transit to Vienna

Now before I start with this post I have one important thing to mention, I have finished my entire nursing placement in Sweden, hooray!

As I write this I am currently on a five-hour bus ride to Vienna watching beautiful green fields zoom past. Before you all think how boring, let me inform you about this bus; it has mini televisions providing games (no battleships), TV episodes of friends and multiples of movies, a host, free tea, coffee and hot chocolate, leather reclining seats and snacks. Plus I have a blog to update.

Aim: 4 Countries in 17 days

First Destination: Amsterdam, Netherlands

To begin Amsterdam was VERY uneventful; nothing happened and was very boring, do not go there. We have come to the conclusion that Amsterdam is the Vegas of Europe, therefore ‘what happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam’.

We all sat at the station with our seven bags of luggage (as we were all sending suitcases back home to Australia) contemplating how we would exactly entertain ourselves over the next 15 hours whilst we sat on a train to Amsterdam. Our trip wasn’t off to the greatest of starts when Genna, Sarrah and myself boarded the wrong cabin and thought we had struck gold with beds. But no, we were soon informed that we were in the wrong cabin that would later detach and end at another destination in a country we didn’t want to be in! After finding our correct seats our next struggle was how we would exactly fit our luggage in this small, seated cabin that we had to share with other passengers. We managed to successfully take up the entire cabin with our luggage and left little room for ourselves on the seats. Meanwhile Lindsay and Emily were living large as they had purchased tickets that allowed for them to have beds. I have come to the conclusion that buying a seated ticket on a 15-hour train trip was a big rookie mistake on my behalf.

[train ride to Amsterdam]

After 15 hours we had arrived, tired but extremely excited. Our first mission was to find the post office so we could halve the amount of luggage we would be carrying and then find our hostel. Let me tell you lugging over 30 kilos of luggage over two suitcases around on cobble stone pathways and hundreds of tourists is not fun, I have calluses.

After this we roamed around the city exploring what Amsterdam had to offer. The sun was shining and even had a little warmth to it something all of us were definitely not used to! The rest of the afternoon was rather chilled; we got a bottle of wine and headed for the park. Later that evening we had decided to go on a pub-crawl. For 19 Euro we were spoilt with a t-shirt, unlimited vodka and a free drink of choice on entry to every one of the bars/clubs we entered.

The pub-crawl of course was filled with multiple hilarious moments, some of the highlights involve; our new British friends, our dance moves, doing the worm in the middle of a dance circle (later resulting in the worst bruises on my knees), ordering 2 large quarter pounder meals at McDonalds and 2 Mc Flurries for Emily and myself, only to later want to order another large meal once we had finished. Plenty more happened but I will not go into it right now.

As for the rest of Amsterdam we mostly spent our time wandering the beautiful streets, exploring the canals and being watched whilst we slept by the creeper in the bunk next to Lindsay. This creeper did not leave the hostel for the entire 4 days we were there, nor did she change, wash or sleep. Amsterdam has created millions of memories some of which involve Little O learning to swim, Lindsay learning what it feels like to lose a child and then the sweet relief knowing that Little O had survived. We all experienced the famous red light district where Emily stated that she thought she was too much of a prude to be walking through the area.

On our last day in Amsterdam we all went our separate ways. Lindsay and myself went on a little day trip to the Keukenhof Gardens, an area where over 7 million bulbs of tulips were planted. The gardens were beautiful but did result in me suffering allergies for the rest of the afternoon, oops! Anyways our affair with Amsterdam was coming to an end and we were headed for the airport, next stop Prague.