26 Dec Amsterdam: Living A Day Like The Locals (Day 4)

Happy holidays! Even though my mood for this festive season wasn’t spectacular. It felt like the everyday life except that everyone enjoys the off days at the same time. In spite of that, I like how wordpress automatically adds a subtle falling snow animation to the blog. So the cycle begins, before the holidays, work piles up. During the holidays, I get free time thus the best time to update the neglected space. I was so confident that I mentioned to the travel mates that I would be blogging the last Europe trip real fast and I failed tragically. I’m looking forward to 2015 anyways. I have a feeling that it will be an awesome year. If all else fails, it’s ok, I’ll just talk to the universe or something. *thumbs!* Back on the post of Amsterdam (day 4), unfortunately after 3 days of intensive walking, A‘s knee swell up from muscle irritation and had to visit the hospital. We actually planned to visit Utrecht & Delft but decided to go on the next day after her visit to the hospital. Which was a good break for the rest of us too.

We met them at Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and this time round, we took the trams. My bro was right when he said “Don’t hero”. My best advise to anyone visiting Europe? Take the trams. Don’t try to be hero and follow the Google map that says your destination (which always seemed to be 10mins away).. *BLUFF!* & attempt walking and end up hurting yourself. Our noir #ootd. Since we were out late, the plan to visit 2 museums didn’t fall through which was alright.. no pressure. The thing was, I didn’t expect the visit to the museum of bags & purses would take that long! I mean how long will it take us to look at bags right? And I was wrong. It was in fact rather interesting. If I remember correctly, the museum was started by owners whom was a collector herself. Took her 8 years to finally officially launch this museum and its collection is the world’s largest! Why it was interesting was because the collection dates back to medieval times. Women hung bags on their belts for a period of time until they found it ugly and bulky within their clothes. So they changed it to hand carry bags. The designs were super intricate no matter what material it was.

Real awesome looking vintage cobbler’s leather briefcase. They even had the briefcase for teapot sets. Some really interesting bags I never thought I would see in the museum.

The designer/celebrity pieces.

Stumbled upon a funfair that was somewhat similar to what we grew up with. The rides, the colorful booths and the games that you try to win a plush toy feels exactly the same back home. This set of funfair pictures feels really appropriate for the festive season huh. The narrowest house in Amsterdam. We almost missed it because it was kinda blended in like another window or something. If you image googled this place, shots like 1 person standing by the doorway to measure the width is typical. And so we did haha. I’m not someone who is claustrophobic but man I can’t even… This animated gif illustrates that you cannot walk in the narrow door shoulder to shoulder. You would have to hug each other to enter IF you must as a pair. And this shot was on purpose. Because he so dashing.    The walk to Winkel 43 was rather out of the way but it was well worthy. Another yummy treat striked from E‘s must try food list. We tried the Dutch fried meatballs as recommended by their friendly server and it was really delicious! The filling tasted like potato croquette. Even the coffee was awesome! Go try if you’re planning a trip to Amsterdam. Winkel 43 | Address: Noordermarkt 43, 1015 NA Amsterdam, Netherlands. link: www.winkel43.nl The day felt more of like living a day like a local rather than being a tourist which was really nice. Sometimes slowing down the pace during your travels, you’ll experience more. Now I shall go reminisce on Amsterdam. Till then.