Winter; Amsterdam Part II

Let's continue our Amsterdam journey, beginning with..

THIS.

Yes, Adam and his duck face *facepalm*

 Moving on, we went to the most tak-tourist-lah-kalau-tak-pergi part of Amsterdam, the statue monument giant alphabets whatever I-AM-STERDAM

I totally missed the museum at the back, was telling Adam how we did not go to that place (forgot its name by the way), then Adam pointed this picture to me. Meh. Thanks brah.

This is the farthest that we ever let someone took our camera away *paranoid* Itu pun because the couple was Malaysians too, and the girl asked me first if I could take a picture of them - in Malay. Tetiba rasa selamat maka haruslah minta gambar sendiri pula.

That once in a lifetime moment when there was no one to kacau my picture, lasting for less than 2 seconds, hence the awkward pose.

And as you can see how so very gelabah I was to capture this glorious solitary moment, I didn't even fit the whole thing into the picture. Sorry awak.

Was supposed to edit the pictures and arrange the alphabets into A-D-A-M, but I'm too lazy so people, meet DAM.

Next, Begijnhof.

It's actually a home for Amsterdam's version of nuns. Unmarried women live here to care for the elderly and such, but unlike nuns, they are free to leave (say if they want to get married, get an office job etc). It's a REAL place with REAL people living in it, so we had to respect them and limit picture taking, ye lah takkan tiba tiba nak terjah rumah orang bawak DSLR gedabak bising bising macam pasar malam, ye dak? I secretly wished we could see some of these noble people in real life, but when I think we actually did, they seemed to be like normal people, like us. But then Adam brought me to reality - I mean come on, I didn't expect them to be caring for people, feeding them, bathing them etc in public, did I? Soo. Yeah. Foine.

The oustide view, it looks like a peaceful kawasan perumahan in the middle of the city. More like a fort, really.

They have their own church inside the kawasan perumahan.

The oldest wooden house in the kawasan perumahan.

Next stop, nothing in particular.

Was the Christmas eve!

We were strolling through one of the many markets along the canal, and randomly stopped for some desserts. Makan tak, lunch tak, apa pun tak, tetiba dessert.

Ice cream with fruits

Apple pie with whipped cream

And later, our dinner.

The night before we met my Fish for Life senior back in KMB, Kak Nadia and her friend. Conclusion was, Amsterdam is so very internationalised that the odd of meeting a Malaysian is so damn high - heck, we even met a KMBian? Hahahaha funny though, we were like, all rambling about Amsterdam and everything and only towards the end of the conversation that I eventually introduced Adam as my husband. Awks. Lol. But undeniably it was kind of good to see her again, for whatever reasons. You know that moment when it's just nice to see a familiar face in a foreign land.

Point is, they were telling us about this one restaurant where they had mussels soooo goood soooo cheeaaapp that they couldn't remember the name (tak membantu, karma sungguh kahkah). So we didn't find the restaurant but ended up eating at some nice fancy restaurant to have mussels. Turned out to be a hotel restaurant so poyo poyo bajet candle light la.

Maka marilah berpoyo poyo an di restaurant mahal sebelum menangis ketandusan wang.

The mussels were sooooo gooood that we had to forgive ourselves for the price. But the verdict, no, not recommended. I guess you can find some nice food with more reasonable price rather than eating at a hotel restaurant. Tak tourist sungguh.

Night stroll.

Did I tell you how we (or rather, Adam) tried sooooo hard to find the Redlight District the night before but failed miserably and gave it another try the next day? We (or rather, me, demi kecintaan terhadap husband dan curiosity beliau) Google-d hard to find the actual name of the place since on map, Redlight District is marked as an area, rather than an actual address.

Effort paid off, so there we were!

It was actually a tough decision whether or not to go in, but in the end we decided not to. Looking back, how naive we were. Lol.

I wish to upload more pictures of the place but all I've got are some filtered pictures for FB purposes. And since I have to be well-behaved on FB (mummy's watching!) so all the pictures are kind of nice and decent. But really, I found Redlight District scary and amusing at the same time. Seeing those half naked ladies in glass box (actually it's a small room with tall glass window) made me feel sad for some reasons. And many of them were Asians! I could be pretty sure they were for the black hair and not so big eyes.

Also, we bumped into a bunch of Malay boys (gaya student) and be awks. Yeah perempuan Melayu pakai tudung berkepit bersama seorang lelaki di lorong gelap, what say you?

By the way I really wished I could close Adam's eyes from those maksiat duniawi (kahkah) but me myself was really in awe that I found myself looking around with even higher curiosity than him. Oh well what to dooo.

Later that night Adam found his calling.

This is where we stayed. Price-wise, it's dirt cheap. I think less than EUR50 for two nights, a double bed with ensuite bathroom. But the place location is a little too far from the city centre. Kena tabah naik tram almost half an hour to get to the city. And I'd rather stay at a tempat jin bertendang than having to keluar masuk bilik air pakai tudung segala if it's a shared bathroom. No. Hell. Way.

But but buutt, Amsterdam's transport system is soooooo good I really wouldn't mind doing it. The hotel was near to a tram stop, which took us directly to the city. So no complaints there.

The next day, we went wandering around the city exploring the canals. There's an area called The Nine Streets where if you stand on a bridge, you can actually see no less than another 15 bridges around you. We did try to, but lost count eventually.

The buildings are soo pretty!

I was in awe with this mailbox that I had to take a picture of it.

More and more canals and bridges.

Yes, meet the (perasan Korea) husband.

And her short fat wife yang tak sampai kaki nak naik basikal lol.

Then there's the free ferry ride. Not much to see, really, but who doesn't love free stuff?

Eye Museum

The free ferry ride, terminal is behind Amsterdam Centraal Station (I nearly wrote posterior wth?)

His hobby, really.

The view - more like the industrial side of Amsterdam

The floating restaurant

 The most useful ferry ride was of course, to get to the Eye Museum. You have to take the ferry to get there.

It's like an interactive museum, with loads of tech-ish gadget-ish thing inside. The museum is basically about films and movies and videos and all, all from the old ages til now. Not too bad, considering it's free (as always)

Last stop,

Magnum hot chocolate before leaving Amsterdam!

And a kebab wrap. Heh.

And off we went to the next stop, Cologne, Germany!

Anywhoo, I'd like to share how we work as a travelling team (jejenggg). We're not really into touristy places as you can see. Amsterdam has llloooaddss of museums which we were really not a big fan of, so we didn't even go near them. What really interest us (or more like, me) was the streets, the night life, the markets, the late night strolls, and of course, the food! We'd rather spend on food than entrance tickets, hence all the free stuff/places we visited. So if you're reading hoping we'd tell you places to go in Amsterdam, I'm sorry to say Google would be more useful.

Also, I am totally hopeless with directions, but Adam is the walking GPS. But the good thing was, Adam was such a lazy bum he hates to think about where to go, while I'm more like a let's-go-here-and-there-and-everywhere (mostly markets and tempat lepak like a square of something haha!). So in other words, we really complement each other. I'd tell him where I wanted to go, and he'd do the navigating without much questions.

Convenient much?

 The travelling partner, for life.