Adventure to Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam ecstatic; we had FINALLY made it through the volcano. Flying during the day was a super cool experience I got to see how the Farmlands in Southern Bohemia in Germany are set up and even better I got to see the Amsterdam area from the plane which has so many canals that almost everyone gets to live on the water, people would boat to get their groceries. I am also big on water, and water sports so I thought this was super interesting. After we arrived we also got lucky as with the Volcano we had to cancel our Hostel (and lose 85 euros frustrating) but because we had to cancel our hostel we got to stay in the best hostel in Amsterdam, the Flying Pig Downtown (as everyone else was cancelling their hostel too). This Hostel was definitely a cool hostel, ideal for the traveler looking to socialize and meet new people. That night I stayed up late and watch the Canucks game with a die hard LA fan, it was awesome because I got to rag on him after we won for the whole next day.

All the Streets look like thus

The next day we enjoyed our free breakfast, checked into a cheaper room, and then headed for our to the Ann Frank House and the Van Goeg Museum. Ann Frank Museum I would recommend, Van Goeg Museum I wouldn’t. After this we explored for a bit checking out the I AMsterdam sign and a tulip market. That night we just chilled out in the hostel, and walked through the red light district which was definitely very different from Vancouver, these girls were self employed entrepreneurs.....

The next day we had the check out of the downtown hostel and find a different hostel, luckily we were able to check into The flying Pigs other hostel in the Uptown area, a totally different area of the city which we hadn’t explored yet. That day we rented biked and biked around the city and this cool park the whole day. That night we were soo tired from the all the biking that we just chilled out in the hostel and had some of the hostels 9 euro pitcher beer.

The famous I amsterdam sign

The final day Mirko, Tim, and I checked out the Free walking Tour which was run by the same company as the one I did in Berlin and Munich. The tour was cool and I learnt about how rich the Dutch used to be, and I found out that with the Dutch East Indian Trading Company we were very close to them conquering the whole world instead of the English! After the tour me and Tim hit up a delicious burger joint with fresh made burgers at a place called Burger Bar they were very tasty but a little pricy. After this I caught the tram to the hostel, grabbed my Luggage and headed to the airport.

All and all Amsterdam was an incredibly beautiful city, I loved how there was almost as many water streets as there were road streets. The houses were all gorgeous (I liked this style of houses (tall and skinny) much better than the style of house I have seen throughout Prague and the rest of Europe). Also get bikes; they are a great way to see the city. Also if you are traveling there BOOK your accommodation early, Amsterdam needs 8000 more beds each night to meet the demand and I know people that have booked late and gotten stuck in crappie hostels.

The Flying Pig (I Recommend this Hostel for sure)

Munich for Frühlinsfest!

Munich was a city I knew I should visit especially since my friend Mirko lived there so I would have free accommodation but it was never high on my list, and in retrospect I am not sure why because it was AWESOME! I went to Munich for Frühlinsfest (Springs Octoberfest), here I got to enjoy some of Munich delicious one liter beers, the carnival, and the giant yard sale (free sale after 5pm) that accompanied Springfest, and this is why I spent my whole first day in the Carnival.

What the Beer Garden's Look like

One of the places at the Yard Sale had a Canada Flag for no Reason, they weren't even Canadian

The second day Mirko, the girls, and I went and did Munich’s free walking tour, this tour wasn’t as good as Berlins free walking tour, but I did learn alot about Munich. I learned how Munich was where Hitler started his march to become Dictator in the 20’s, and I learnt stories of how much beer the people of Munich have been drinking for centuries, and we got to see the Glockenspiel do its crazy dance. After the tour, we had some drinks at a local bar, saw the Englisher Gartens briefly, ate some Pizza hut, went to the famous Hofbrauhaus for some more 1 liter beers, dipped my camera in beer and water because it claimed to be waterproof, and hit up an Irish Bar.

The Famous Glockenspiel (Video at the Bottom)

I Love Pizza Hut :)

Munich's May Pole

Mirko wearing his Leder Hosen's and Drinking a 1 Liter Beer

The next day Mirko and I were suppose to leave for Amsterdam, which when I arrived I thought the volcano would be no problem, the ash MUST be gone by now it had been 5 days..... it wasn’t. The flight was cancelled last minute so we had to go to the airport and change our flight to the next day leaving with the girls in hopes the ash would be gone by then. After the airport we headed to the city where we managed to salvage the day. We got to the city just before 3 and decided to rent bikes, this was quite the adventure as we decided to do this call a bike service where you find the bikes around the city (we needed 8!) and then call in its number to unlock it to book it. Once we got bikes we decided to bike around EnglisherGarten which is a large park, surf area, lake, beer garden, Chinese tower thing area. After the park we biked back to Springfest for one more day in the Beer tents.

On Tuesday we thought today would be the day we would get to travel to amsterdam. We checked online and our flight was still on we were pumped, but in the middle of us checking in, after she had printed off our boarding pass, she got a call... our flight was cancelled. We all had no idea what to do we wanted to get there that day we didn’t know when the volcano would settle down, so we went to the train station and bus station. But unfortunately the cheapest traveling there was for that day would be almost double of what we paid for 2 ways for just the one way trip there! We decided against it. After this we decided we would just rebook our flight to the earliest flight the next day (which happened to be at 545pm which was kinda late). That night all 8 of us crashed at Mirko’s place, it was a good night we used Mirko full kitchen (which we all don’t have in Prague,) and made Lasanga, Salad, Garlic Bread, and Apple Crumble with ice cream honey and walnuts for desert. It was tasty and we all watched a movie on my computer afterwards.

Dinner at Mirko's!

The next day the flight wasn’t cancelled in the morning so we decided to head to the airport early in hopes everyone wouldn’t show up for the morning flight. We were right, no one showed up and we got to go through check in 10 minutes and jump on the plane at noon, also we talked to KLM and I got them to switch our return flight to go directly back to Prague on the way home from Amsterdam, saving us both time and money :D!

Overall Munich was a cool city and not to be overlooked. Definitely try to drop by there for a couple days or a weekend if you’re in Europe.