Birthday in the Dam

March 29, 2014

Birthday in the Dam

Hello dear followers,

I know I haven’t written in a while, but now I’m back with a bang! I have just returned from another one of my trips. This time it was to the beautiful city, Amsterdam.

Iamsterdam

To start off with, this city has only recently become a to-go destination for me, and this was after I heard a colleague, who spent a couple of years there, talk about the city with such great passion. A great offer on Air Malta tickets for the month of March and a couple of hours later… BOOM.. the flights were booked. Obviously placed very appropriately to coincide with my 22^nd Birthday, needless to say it was a 5-day long birthday celebration!

Unfortunately this place is greatly associated with smoking and the red light district, hence why I was never interested in visiting. Safe to say however, it offers so much more.

We arrived in the evening and immediately went out for dinner together with our host. A little student hang out bar/restaurant, but after a day of travelling, a plate of food and a glass of cider felt like heaven. The next day, my birthday started out just as it should have. Breakfast consisted of possibly the largest crepe I have ever seen and eaten in my whole life. It was larger than the plate it was in, overflowing on the sides, piled with pears, chocolate sauce, ice- cream, whipped cream and a ticket to a heart attack. I felt slightly sick and mega guilty after, but hey, who cares, it was my birthday after all. This was followed by the Heineken tour, a must-do whilst in Amsterdam. It gives you a good insight on brewery and lots of cool activities to do. I am now a ‘certified” Heineken pourer! Woop! Surely this will be put to great use in my career. Still stuffed from the crepe we then sat by the window of a little corner café simply admiring the pretty street and basking in the sun’s warmth. (Because might I add, for my standards the weather was actually pretty cold, and the sun has a habit or randomly appearing amongst the clouds and rain).

Tuna fillet with rice in squid ink at Balthazar's Keuken

In the evening I was treated to a delicious dinner at a restaurant located in Elansgracht, called Balthazar’s Kitchen (Keuken in Dutch). They only serve a set menu where the choice is between fish or meat. For once in my life, I went with the fish. To start with we had a selection of mixed hors d’oeuvres followed by a fresh tuna fillet on a bed of rice with squid ink sauce as a main course. Best tuna I’ve ever tasted! Obviously ended with a dessert, lemon mousse. YUM!

The days after that consisted of a shopping trip and meetings with old friends, time leisurely spent enjoying the sun and greenery at Vondelpark (the Amsterdam equivalent to Central Park), a canal cruise, the Anne Frank Museum and couple of hours at Blokker (a shop selling household decorations which I fell in love with). And there was SO much more left to do which we didn’t manage to fit in. Alas, that calls for a brilliant reason to return.