Wham, bam, thank you ‘Dam!

AMSTERDAM I LOVE YOU.

Not for the prossies, not for the hash, not for the other things everyone else seems to love you for.

I love you because you’re beautiful, because of krokets and bitterballen, because of all cats, because of the excellent apple tart, because you can WALK EVERYWHERE, because of the canals, and the fact that people just leave bikes everywhere and the trees and the brown cafes and ghluwien and the amazing bars and the cats in all of these places and the bikes and did I mention the krokets? Did I mention that the McDonalds had a MCKROKET?! (Why was I in McDonalds do you ask? Well too bad, I won’t tell. What is important is the MCKROKET AND IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I WISH THEY HAD THEM HERE)

As per usual, it snowed – I was lovely and expected and made everything even more beautiful (unless of course you speak to me now about snow, in which case my stance has changed to GO AWAY SNOW NO BODY WANTS YOU ANYMORE.)

KROKETS. My newest obsession. Very similar to the Spanish version of croquettas – a similar crunchy coating, and a lovely melty creamy inside – but with meats and a different flavour bechamel and a different type of crunch and with some chips and mustard and YUM. Go there, eat them! Bitterballen are the same delicious concept but tiny (like yours truly) and wonderful still. Go there, eat them too!

There is something about the canals that that make the city infinitely more peaceful than if it was just a city I think – all of the lights, their reflections glittering along the water, the ripples from the boats, their endless bridges and paths, it really is truly beautiful. Not to mention the houses, THEY ARE WONDERFUL AND CROOKED AND BEAUTIFUL.

It took all of 5 minutes to fall in love with Amsterdam, admittedly I was a little bit skeptical as we walked from the train station to the hostel – the center of Amsterdam and its well known red lights and interesting shops with their interesting goods was not the best of impressions, but the cobbled streets, the beautiful buildings and five minutes to reach a new road and the city is transformed again to something infinitely classier, its SO GOOD. I love how easy it is to just walk around to other parts of the city with its crazy wonderful joys including but not limited to the strange church in the middle of the redlight district housing a contemporary art exhibition. Can you tell I’m a little bit infatuated? No, well then let me go on. Call this my coffee cart moment (one hundred points to those who got the reference!)

I would describe Amsterdam to have the best of London and more – everything that I like in London, the cute vintage boutiques, the cafe’s-come shops-come late night drinking establishments (yes DrinkShopDo, I’m looking at you, and I’ve found your superior cousin baby but I still love you forever) which are also known as “brown cafes”, all of the great and wonderful museums (I’m looking at you Amsterdam Museum, YOU WERE AWESOME. all you others, I couldn’t afford you/you were closed/half closed – yeah rijksmuseum – so can’t judge you, but if the other museum is a reflection on all of you, then I’m sure you are also great! one problem, NOT FREE but worth every penny at the Amsterdam museum FOR SURE) the history, cobbled streets, excellent eating and drinking establishments, REALLY good coffee and very good quiche. Also, Krokets. I’m a girl obessed. Also, the Anne Frank Museum, which at its most touching, is actually at night when it is illuminated and you think about how it must have been inside and after having seen it, read it and walked through it, it is the part that really had an effect.

Lets retrace back to the Brown Cafes – I loved them, cosy and nice with the option to drink coffee or beer or gluhwine or all three with a piece of cake was  my favourite thing to do – I could live in one, best thing about them? THERE WAS ALWAYS A CAT RESIDENT.How good is that? CATS IN THE CAFÉ. Loved it. Cats seemed to be a thing, which is pretty awesome. I love cats, they love cats, we’re match made in heaven. Also, fresh mint tea. Perfect.

Would I go again? What do you think? The answer is OBVIOUSLY. I wish I lived there – anyone in publishing/magazines in Amsterdam want to hire me? I will work for korkets and drinks (and a bed)

RUTH’S AMSTERDAM TOP 7:

(disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on Amsterdam life, these are my own opinions from the one trip I took there – when I revisit, because I WILL revisit, I will see more and probably have to make a top one million by that point because I LOVE AMSTERDAM its my Barcelona to my Vicky Christina.)

Café Langeries: AH CUTE. Another café with a resident cat. One of those famous ‘brown cafes” come nice bar with couches and nice tables and books and board games and most importantly a cute cat and ghluwine AND delicious hot chocolate AND amazing chocolate cake. It was heaving by the time we left. And there was a cat if I didn’t mention that before.

http://cafelangereis.com/

Het Café Paleis: The Guardian recommended this if I ever had doubts of the their recommendations they are now considered void (although in fairness I think I always had faith in their taste).  This was a brilliant little place in one of my favourite corners of Amsterdam – very near the Anne Frank house and generally just a nice area with some brilliant apple tart and some delicious coffee.

De Taarte van m’n Tante: kitchest place I have ever seen in my life. Everything is pink and weird and fun and wonderful and the cake (or apple tart as we sampled) was top notch, and if I were to live there one day I would want one of these cakes for my birthday, the tea was pretty nice too! They also have a  bed and breakfast which is sweet (geddit?! SWEET? CAKE?!)

http://www.detaart.com/

Café Latei: CUTE. And with a resident black cat. This is the DrinkShopDo superior that I mentioned earlier, a cat, interesting wares that were actually of a decent price that didn’t make me want to upchuck, also it was just the little bit quirkier, but maybe it was the cat that I liked most? Also, they had my favourite (seemingly very popular Amsterdam treat) fresh mint tea which is literally a bunch of mint and hot water – you can find a lesser version in Leon in the form of a mint steeper – but I don’t know if it’s the mint quality or the water but its just not as good also much more expensive)

http://www.latei.net/

Golden Dragon:  Yes, a Chinese food establishment on the street where there are about six million Argentinian beef establishments and a few more Chinese ones (one Argentinian beef places being the original CAU, which opened recently in ol’ Cambridge) This is on my list because it was great – the best effing spring rolls if ever eaten in my life and I have eaten A LOT of delicious spring rolls and food including the world famous Nan King in San Francisco, California (which, by the way, is AMAZE, go there and eat as well. The calamari are God’s gift to us and we must indulge) but yes, I digress – its great Chinese and some Indonesian but definitely get those spring rolls and wonton soup, you wont regret it, it was genuinely beautiful.

Café Brecht : cosy, crowded haphazard and glorious, this little bit of Germany in Amsterdam really had a wonderful atmosphere from the people behind the bar with genuine smiles and singing along to the songs playing to the chitter chatter of the people drinking their beer and gluhwine and lovely cocktails (myself and my friend drank some lovely as ghluwine and an Aperol Spritz, which felt really appropriate for the bar). They also had pretzels. I love pretzels (see the post below about Munich if you don’t know)

http://www.cafebrecht.nl/

De Bakkerswinkel: Best coffee in Amsterdam for SURE best coffee I’ve had in a while as well, beautiful lattes to trump all the lattes I have had in my short life and even more beautiful (can you believe it?!) quiche with some delicious roasted root veggies) Also very friendly and I am willing to bet that everything else they had on offer had equal deliciousness.

http://www.debakkerswinkel.com/

So there you are, my love letter to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, I love you.

Typich München

München, ist so cray! (there was a bus tour we went on, and honestly there was a song at the end and I am genuinely CONVINCED this is what it said – and it would be completely correct, München IS cray)

End of October (sadly, we missed Oktoberfest – but no matter, we had out own Oktoberfest, and for sure I will make it a point to come back!) and when we landed it was a beautiful sunny autumn day, quite nippy but nothing too serious, but by day two we were met by heavy, heavy snow and let me tell you, there is little in the world more beautiful than autumn leaves in all their colourful glory, blanketed in white.

So, if traveling to Germany late October, I would certainly suggest to first of all, be prepared weather wise (we got there and it was 14 degrees celsius and by day two it was snowing and -1) and also maybe going on a mini diet before hand. I never appreciated salad so much until three days in cream drenched, beer heavy, pretzel loving Munich, salad and sparkling water ( a hangover godsend) and maybe be prepared to look for places with vegetarian options well before hand. There was a veggie in our little party and he had a hard time getting food and ended up eating a lot of pretzels (which would be fine, because the pretzels are AMAZING, but for five days straight? Maybe not quite that amazing.)

I mean look at that plate. LOOK AT IT.

THERE IS SO MUCH CREAM…and it is a breaded veal meatball (or rather, breaded veal burger as it is not a ball at all) with tiny spätzle (tiny dumpling noodle things) delicious, but frankly between the cream and the beer, woah. Even I couldn’t eat it all.

Yes, the above is a GIANT POTATO DUMPLING AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. The sauce you ask? That there my lovlies is DARK ALE GRAVY with some pork belly and crispy bits of crackling. Hands down the very best meal I had while I was there, followed closely by a luscious chicken Ceasar salad, however that salad may have been elevated to new heights because of three full days of beer, pretzels and cream…

A definite highlight would be the Stadtmuseum which is filled with hours of fun, history and really creepy (and some wonderful) puppets. In hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have gone to the museum on the one day it was NOT snowing and below zero degrees, but it was raining.

Munich was brilliant, I had a wonderful couple of days and while mildly dehydrated due to gallons of beer (the only good reason to be mildly dehydrated) it was so wonderful. To actually go on a bus tour and see things we wouldn’t have seen from just walking was brilliant. Walking around half aimlessly is I usually see cities and feel apart of it, which of course we did, so much walking and I really feel as if Munich was home for a few days. So much in fact that I genuinely miss it and will certainly be back to explore some more. Maybe during the Christmas market time, or in the summer because frankly everywhere is wonderful in the summer. Just imagine, cold cold steins of beer, walking around with ice cream, going the the giant park we didn’t get to see and lots of that caesar salad I mentioned earlier. With more beer and ice cream, naturally. *(I’m lusting for summer in the midst of early winter and the first snow storm of 2013 here in the UK, as one does)

Beer, empty pretzel baskets, bicycles, pool, a lovely group of people and old stuff. Wonderful!

Typich München baby!