august 10-12, 2012
i hopped an early flight to amsterdam from london on friday, and ashley joined me in amsterdam later that night. i spent most of my day wandering around the city (we lucked out and had amazing, hot weather all weekend!), and then met up with joel (another fellow pwc'er - former fs-fdd chicago currently on tour in amsterdam) and some other new pwc amsterdam friends for a local brewery tour.
(a shot of one of the beautiful canals on friday)
(a picture from the tour...our guide was interesting...)
we relaxed over some more dutch beer until i left to go meet ashley at the hotel. ashley and i ventured out for some food and some drinks and ended up at paradiso, an old church converted into a dance club. and as we always do when we're together, danced the night away...
we spent saturday wandering around, eating delicious food, shopping in the flea market, and, unfortunately, not visiting anne frank's house as the line to get in was 3 hours long. but apparently she doesn't even live there anymore, so...
i kid, i kid.
i kid, i kid.
(enjoying some break dancing in the square)
(some flea market shopping)
everything about this city, and this day, was perfectly beautiful and i took about 100 photos. i'll try not to post all of them.
we stopped for a snack somewhere in the red light district, and on our way back to the hotel were practically attacked by a bachelor party who somehow (i think because i was so completely confused and super awkward and uncomfortable) convinced me to walk the bachelor (who also happened to be wearing a leather cape) across the canal bridge on a leather leash. ashley took photos...i am not sharing them. apparently the red light district is crazy even in the middle of the day.
later that night it was out for dinner, and because life is crazy and this world really is smaller than we think, a drink with an old high school friend who we randomly happened to run into in amsterdam!
(oh my gosh, hi lyndsey ballinger!)
(so lucky to have such a sweet friend to crash with in london and spend a weekend with in amsterdam!)
after dinner it was another night of dancing with some new irish, english, and dutch friends at the sugar factory.
sunday was quite a pwc day as ashley and i cruised the canals with joel and his wife, jess, and some other pwc amsterdam'ers. thanks, captain joel, for such a fabulous and fun day!
pwc: bringing people together
(with joel and ashley before the rest of the group joined us)
(ashley and maciej laughing about something - probably us butchering all of the polish he was attempting to teach us. though thanks to maciej, i was able to order beer in polish while i was in poland! however, that's all i managed to remember...)
(anne frank's house!! hi, anne!)
(i mean really, could this city be any more beautiful?!)
(and one last shot of our hosts for the day - jess and joel. thanks, guys!)
after this trip, amsterdam quickly jumped to the top of my list of all time favorite places i've visited. i'd go back tomorrow if i could!