Hallo Holland!

E // While Beth is away in Nepal, I got to head over to Holland for a few days to visit my sister and her boyfriend in their fairly new flat. They live in a little town called Bussum, which is conveniently placed half way between Amsterdam and Utrecht.

We were super lucky with the weather, and it ended up being sunny pretty much the whole time, though it wasn't always warm. We arrived on Thursday evening, and then spent the whole of Friday walking around Amsterdam. We visited the Begijnhof, or as my sister preferred to call it - 'The Lady Garden' which was pretty cute and very peaceful. We then followed this with what I was told were 'the best chips in the world', so I had pretty high expectations. Not gonna lie, it was a major let down. They were average, just had good sauces. I am also adamant that I have already tried the best chips in the world at Little Big Burger in Portland. The good thing about the chips though was that you could take them into the pub across the road and enjoy a nice Dutch beer (I spent a lot of this holiday drinking beer). We also saw a few naked ladies in windows, which really added to the experience. I don't think I would have felt like I had properly seen Amsterdam otherwise.

On Friday evening, we took a ferry across the river to eat at a restaurant called Pllek. It was awesome, made up of old shipping containers and decorated in a very simple industrial way. The food was sooooo delicious, and the only downside was half way through when some DJ came along and started playing really weird lift music.

We covered Utrecht on the Sunday when there was a really nice little market on, selling all kinds of food, drinks and crafts. Shonagh was at work at her restaurant, but luckily they had a BBQ going on too, so we got to taste some delicious pork cheek, king prawns and italian sausage, and washed it down with some tasty homemade sangria.

I really liked Utrecht. It seemed like quite a chilled out place with loads of cool little streets and shops to explore. The canals running through the city make it really special, and it was great being able to sit next to the water in the sun enjoying a nice cool beer. I would definitely love to visit again!

In the time in between the two cities, we had a look round Bussum, and managed to visit two different petting zoos (who knew dutch people like petting animals so much!?).  One of these was located right next to Naarden, which is a beautiful little place situated in the middle of an old star fort, complete with walls and a moat. I liked the friendly/hungry deer best, but the scruffy pigs were pretty nice too.

We also took a day trip to Keukenhof which was basically just a big garden packed full of tourists and a hell of a lot of flowers. I won't talk about it much more because I think you get the gist. It was pretty and all, but just not my kind of thang.

Anyway, I plan on heading back to visit again soon with Beth, so we can spend more time exploring these cool places. Thanks to Shonagh and Arjan for being such accommodating hosts!

And finally, I want to apologise for the crappy photographs in this post. I really struggle with cameras...