Red Lights.

Amsterdam venture.
On Saturday me and two of my new buddies went to Amsterdam for the day. So that was cool. I was up a 7.00am, not ideal on a Saturday, but it was totally worthwhile to start the day early! The three of us wandered around the city enjoying the good weather and beautiful city sights. And, of course, I was a bit of a photo-addict (as usual)! Luckily one of the guys had been to Amsterdam before and acted as our tour guide - so we didn't have to worry about getting lost. Excellent.

So what did we do in Amsterdam?

Finding a little piece of Scotland
in the heart of Amsterdam!

The first thing was the train journey. Now, I wouldn't normally mention a commute but this was a double-decker train! Amazed. Of course, I made the guys sit on the top deck. Once the three of us had departed from the train we had a short gander about Amsterdam, marvelling at the sights and me, being the typical tourist, with a camera stuck to my face!

After that it was pancakes for lunch. American style: drowning in maple syrup and bacon. Beautiful (but we did have a mammoth wait for them). Our pancake scran led onto a wander around a market before venturing inside a beautiful church. Sadly we couldn't go up the tower - it would have been amazing to take pictures of the city from there, but that'll have to wait until another day.

After much walking around we found ourselves at the Royal Palace. We didn't go inside as it was quite pricey and they didn't allow photography - what's the point if you can't even take pictures? No thanks. But we decided to hang around in the square (just outside the palace), which was filled with performers - it was nice just to soak up the atmosphere. I even found myself a guy playing the bagpipes - very homely!

Then it was off to a brewery - not exactly my cup-of-tea, but the guys seemed to like it. I did appreciate the decoration in the toilets though - they had a beer tap at the sinks to wash your hands with. Pretty cool!

We continued our journey with a trip to the Red Light District to visit the lovely ladies in the windows. At first I was curious, but quickly grew uncomfortable with the set up. Just walking in a line with all the other tourists, gawking at them, it just felt so disrespectful. I couldn't handle it. Initially I tried to smile at them all but by the end my eyes were kept firmly on my feet. Strange. Very strange.

Finally, the three of us went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. The food was expensive but really nice.

Then my bed. Knackered.

I can't wait to go back when my folks come over in October, then again when the boyfriend visits. It'll be nice to see different parts and maybe go into some of the museums. Madame Tussauds is at the top of my list! It's going to be excellent!

VKV City Racing Rotterdam.
I woke up late on the Sunday after Amsterdam but eventually managed to drag myself out of bed and down to Blaak to watch the racing. I didn't stay for long, as it isn't something that greatly interests me, but I thought it would be nice to do something with my day since I didn't have much planned for the rest of the week. My favourite boyfriend pestering me to take photos of the cars was also a strong motivator to pick myself up and venture outside. It was an interesting watch and I took tonnes of pictures (typical Natalie move) although most of them were awful - it was ridiculously difficult to get a good shot. 

Oh, and remember the new cooker from last week? Broken.
That was an eventful hour. I was midway through making my dinner when there was a loud bang and all the lights went out. And because there are no windows in the kitchen I was plunged into complete darkness. I quickly dashed to my room to grab my torch (thanks dad!) and investigate the circumstances. It immediately became evident that there was absolutely no electricity in our little flat, and after ambushing a couple of people in the hallway it became clear that it was an isolated issue and everyone else in the building was blissfully unaware. I eventually managed to locate some building "staff" (if that's the right word) who helped me turn the power back on and figured out that the new hob was guilty in causing the power-outage. So, no cooker. I had throw my dinner in the bin, and go on another food-shopping trip to stock up on meals that don't have to be heated up. Not ideal, but a new one was delivered today (Friday) after various visits from electricians. Aha, 3 stoves in as many weeks - this is going well!

Is it shocking to hear that I sent my first ever hand-written letter this week? I promised to be my Grandpa's pen-pal since he has no idea how to work the computer (unlike my other set of relatively tech-savvy Grandparents). But I felt totally lost in the post office - especially a foreign one. I must have looked a right idiot - I even had to ask which way round the stamp went. Such a poor excuse for a human being. Disaster.

In other news I passed the Dutch language course. Yay! Not a hundred percent sure how it happened but I'm ridiculously proud of this achievement. Pretty sure that my mark of 7.1 (out of 10) was the lowest in the class - but considering my past record for failing miserably at languages, I am not complaining!

Thanks for reading folks. =D