Amsterdam Trip Pre-pandemic

Right before the pandemic first hit my friend and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a trip to Amsterdam. We had been there twice before with each other and really wanted to go back. We fly standby since our husbands, well her now ex, work for an airline and by some miracle we were able to make it on the flight! To say we were excited was an understatement. We hadn’t been back in about a year or so and this was a much needed trip for both of us.

Right outside of Schiphol airport is the famous “I Amsterdam” sign. Naturally we had to get a picture by it. 

After taking our bags to Best Western Plus, highly recommend this hotel by the way, we headed straight for the first stop we usually make whenever we have traveled to Amsterdam...

Voyagers Hotel and Coffeeshop. This is always our first stop. The staff is very friendly and the atmosphere is very chill. It is a coffee shop where you can get weed so I can’t imagine it would be a tense or uptight atmosphere. We absolutely love this place. You can get a joint for about 9 euros (approximately 10 US dollars or so) and sit by the window and people watch in the front or go into the adjacent room with glass windowpanes and just hang out. They also actually do serve coffee here but most partake in what Amsterdam has to offer.

If you ever make it to Amsterdam, Hunter’s coffee shop is the spot. Such a cool atmosphere with friendly staff; usually only one person appears to be working there unless it’s at a busy time. Order some coffee, cappuccino or a beer and sit back, relax and smoke your joint, blunt, whatever you’ve got and listen to whatever reggae or hip hop they usually seem to be playing. Such a cool place. I can’t say enough nice things about it. We just love this place and always came back to it. We loved the music in not only this shop, but others we visited as well. Such a laid back vibe which I personally could always use. 

Ahh the canals. Seriously. Take. Me. Back. I want to live there. Despite it being miserably cold, and a tad bit windy, we still had the best time. Also, we had been awake for over 30 hours since our flight left Friday evening and we got there Saturday morning. Totally worth the exhaustion and the fact that our entire bodies were basically walking blocks of ice. At least that’s how I felt.

 Amsterdam can party. We went to Escape night club specifically because it played EDM music and my friend was totally in her element. I was a bit of a Debbie downer due to being so tired if I’m being honest but I ended up enjoying myself as well. The DJ’s were energetic and the crowd was loving it. Miss Sugarware and Raymundo were the DJ’s we saw and they killed it! Something odd about going to a club in Amsterdam was that people watched the DJ as they danced. Or just watched. It was kind of weird but also kind of nice if you don’t want to dance. 

Amsterdam is a place I highly recommend visiting if you ever get the chance. Such a beautiful city with friendly people and a very laid back atmosphere that will have you wanting to come back. We have also visited the Rijks museum on a previous trip which is amazing, although a tad bit overwhelming with everything to see. Still dying to visit the Anne Frank museum but tickets are apparently very hard to come by. You need to plan about 3 months in advance to visit. Guess we will have to try next time. And there will definitely be a next time!