5 Days in Amsterdam

A few months ago some friends of mine from all over the world decided to meet up in Amsterdam during our fall study breaks. The city, with its amazing food (stroopwaffels!! poffertjes!), bike culture and funky neighbourhoods stole my heart. I don’t think we could have come at a better time, fall weather lends itself so well to Amsterdam and the lack of massive tourist crowds at this time of year made aimlessly wandering the small city a dream.

I arrived on a Saturday morning, and immediately trained to Rotterdam for the day to visit a friend on exchange. The city was a toned-down version of Amsterdam, with the same beautiful canals, markets and parks, but a fraction of the people. We biked through parks next to fields of old mills, visited cute cafes and markets, ate stroopwaffels and contemplated the Dutch’s obsession with tulips.

The next morning I took a bus back to Amsterdam to meet up with friends and together we made our way to the airbnb, a cute apartment in Amsterdam West. Our days were spent wandering around the city: from our apartment the walk to the centre was about 30 minutes through Vondelpark. We shopped for vintage clothes in the Jordaan area, visited museums (highly recommend both Van Gogh and Moco) , ate delicious food on the banks of the canals and admired the gorgeous fall colours. I couldn’t have hoped for a better 5 days here: the city is adorable, the people are kind and the food is delicious.