Since I had technically booked my hotel for 2 nights; I knew I had made a wrong choice. I bought my flight to Florence on the last minute and figured I would break night on the 3rd day in Amsterdam. It was Saturday after all and I've done it before in the past. But now as I've gotten older, I knew I was kidding myself. My flight was leaving at 9:55am and even if I got to the airport at 8am, what was I going to do with myself this whole time without a room? I needed to rest at some point. I booked another night but because my room was given to someone else, they assigned another room for me. I still had to get up and checkout in the morning. I woke up early and packed my things. Luckily my new room was ready, but since I was up already, I got hungry. I decided to grab breakfast and search for some Dutch pancakes!
I walked my way over to the same area where I had brunch the day before. But with some many restaurants nearby, I could find a place that served the pancakes. I DID see however, a crowd of locals standing around a deli. That's when I realized they were serving the hering sandwich. A decided to try this favorite Dutch treat. I was nervous the fish would have bones, but a customer informed me it didn't. They added the pickles and onions and I took my bite. It was definitely different but I managed. I was proud I tried this healthy treat. Not bad, but I'm not sure if this is something I would crave. But who knows?
I suddenly got a wave of tiredness that came over me. Since I had been out the night before, and checked out in the morning, I got super tired. I had a cup of espresso but it still didn't help. I decided to go back to the hotel for a nap.
What a nap it turned out to be! I slept until 3pm!! I was losing my day again. Ugh! My new friend was messaging me to see what I was doing but I told him what happened. Both he and my friend in Italy had suggested that I should book a boat tour in the canals. I went down to the hotel and arranged one with the front desk man.
I made my way over to the coffee company to have my 2nd cup so I could wake up. I was so groggy. The deskman gave me directions to take the tram down to dam square where my tour would start. It seemed simple enough.
I found my stop and hopped on. I got a chance to see just how many people visit Amsterdam. There were so many people. Once I entered Dam Square it reminded me of time square. There were so many people. I got off my stop and continued my walk over to the boats. That's when I noticed two guys eating the famous Belgium fries with mayo. I asked them where it was and they showed me to Minnekan Piss. Here were the infamous fries. There was a line but luckily it went quickly. Hence; that was my lunch.
I found the spot where my tour was meeting. Boats run every 15 minutes and I just made one starting now. I hopped on and found my seat. What an amazing tour!! I enjoyed the whole thing. It was truly breath taking seeing the city this way.
Me and my new friend had made plans to meet up around 8pm for drinks at my hotel. By the time I got off my tour I still had time to walk around dam square. I saw some many interesting stores.
I took the tram back and made my way to the hotel to get ready. I was getting nervous because I didn't know where we were going. He came right on time and he drove us back to museum square. We took a walk and made our way to Weber Bar.
There we got a chance to get to know one another. He was very sweet. We were having a good time. He wanted to take me to Red Light District. I was going to pass up on this if I was by myself, but now that my friend was with me, I figured why not.
What a change of scenery!! First of all, there were so many people. This area is very busy at night. It was overwhelming but my friend was with me so I felt safe. I was mostly concerned with walking through a crowd like packed sardines but we were fine.
He took me to a peep show and that was something I'll never forget. But there were so many people trying to get in, all curious to see what was going on. People from all over the world.
He got hungry and went to a vending machine to grab a burger and drove me back to my hotel. My flight was at 9:55 to Florence. So far, Amsterdam was amazing!
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