The Anne Frank Huis has been on my bucket list for years so, after settling into the hotel and getting a steak the first night, we woke early on our first day to queue. We got a little confused by the grey maze of roads but the architecture along the canal was so pretty it softened the trek and we reached the museum by 9.30am. The line length was a little disheartening but we picked up a bacon sandwich and coffee from a bakery down the street and ate breakfast whilst waiting (which I fully recommend, but remember to check the fine print and see if they put sauce on it if you're a plain bacon kinda person like me). We also met and chatted to a friendly Canadian girl called Chloe who was travelling around Europe, so the 2 hour wait went quickly. Unfortunately there was not a great deal to see inside the house and the queue continued all the way through until the gift shop and exit. However, the museum is an incredible reminder of those lost, and the pictures Anne Frank stuck on her bedroom wall of famous people, just like any teenager does today, showed how innocent and relatable she is. I think it was well worth the wait.
Our next trip was to the Rijksmuseum which holds a famous Rembrandt our mother told us we had to see but H and I found to be, frankly, overrated. Although it was partly blocked by a crowd of onlookers. While looking for the current exhibition, New For Now: The origin of fashion magazines, we found a room of benches scattered with pencils and pens and famous copies of paintings. The wall was covered in postcard-sized interpretations of works in the museum, and H and I decided to rest our feet for half an hour and have a go. After a few trips around the museum and some confused map reading we finally found the exhibition and wandered around, reading the walls and taking pictures (the trip's highlight for both me and Hatts). The pit of my day was missing the Van Gogh earlier on in the Rijks because I wasn't paying attention when we walked through that room. I missed it. Who does that? We didn't have enough time to visit the Van Gogh Museum after either so I was very, very annoyed at myself. But H suggested that we go to the waffle shed in the square across the road and, with a chocolate muffin, all was forgiven.
The next day was SHOPPING. So after some crazy good crepes for breakfast, we walked the few feet it took to reach H&M. H bought a 'garm' (cape/blanket thing) and I got a navy fine-knit jumper for college (well, and general life). The peak of the day was visiting Brandy Melville which, as we were informed by Chloe, was in Amsterdam and we would love. A white shirt, white tee and black t-shirt dress later, I was leaving very happy that I was not in England, where there is no Brandy Melville, as far as I am aware. Taking a tram up to Dam Square for a little more shopping before our train to the airport, I felt very proud that we had managed to navigate the confusing transportation system of Amsterdam. There we had lunch at De Bijenkorf (similar to our Selfridge's/Harvey Nichols) and scoured Pull and Bear, Urban Outfitters, Mango, Forever 21, Pimkie, etc, etc. Let's just say it was a successful trip. And even more successful because I managed to fit it all in my hand luggage (after removing a few items to wear/sweat in in the airport).
The guy at passport control saw my D.O.B. and said "have a good birthday tomorrow" and I was so excited I said "DANK YOU" and skipped off. It was an amazing birthday because Amsterdam was amazing and it was freaking amazing that neither my sister nor I was hit by a car/tram/bicycle while we were there. Forget amazing, it was a miracle.
Check out my vlog of the trip on YouTube:
