16th March saw me and boyfriend board a plane to explore the cultures of Amsterdam; I was unbearably excited and spent the best part of a week contemplating how I was going to squeeze four days worth of outfits into a hand luggage side suitcase. Not a task I enjoyed.
We arrived to see the sun (which was a very pleasant surprise) and set of to discover what the city had to offer. The first thing that amazed me was a double decker train but then again small things, small minds.
Amsterdam had several surprises for me when I started to explore; the red light district had turned into a fashion studio, with several windows showing students latest collections rather than naked women. The phenomeon of pop-up stores had been realised with a store named pop-up; which portrayed young designers unique pieces. According to Diesel 'sex sells' and this covered all four windows of their Dutch flagship store.
We visited the Amsterdam Dungeons which were so much more scarier than I expected, visitors to London get off lightly. Anne Frank, Heineken and Van Gogh Museums were also discovered by us during our mini break.
Street Graffitti is a huge part of Amsterdam culture with many walls and windows being decorated with the form of 'art'. Shop/Bar shutters, bridges, windows and train tunnels were all painted.
The highlight of my trip was definitely our visit to Suzi Wong's a seductive and extremely well hidden cocktail bar just off Leidesplein; the bar which offers a relaxing mood of music coming from an inhouse dj is a perfect addition to the fantastic cocktails; we chose a mix of rasperry, coconut, lemon and strawberry mojito's. Suzi's brother Jimmy Woo abides opposite, but offers an excessively boutique club.
My discoveries have increased my knowledge and widen my opinion of a city. But most of all I had fun with the boyfriend and have definitely convinced him to visit 'cities' more often.
xoxo
