Amsterdam- Part 1

Arriving in Amsterdam & Day 1

I am going to have to write two blog posts regarding this trip as we did so much & we took hundreds of photos!!

Friday arrived & I woke up with a massive smile on my face (for once in my life #notamorningperson ;) ). Throughout the day, Callie & I were texting asking for the work day to pass quicker so that we could get on the plane to Amsterdam. 15:05 came around & I saw Josh, Callie & Austin arrive at my work to collect me and I let out a little squeal. We rushed to Airparks, the place we were leaving our car whilst abroad, and took the shuttle to the airport. I was so impressed with the seamless service we received would definitely recommend it. As we arrived at the airport, everything started to feel more real!! YAY!! The flight took about 50 minutes; as soon as we took off, we were pretty much then getting ready to land haha - very different to our 14 hour Chile flight!!!!!! 

As we left the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, we were welcomed by thousands and thousands of people who were also arriving in Amsterdam.  The ticket machine lines were so long with people busily trying to purchase train and bus tickets! It was PACKED!! I had luckily researched Amsterdam on Wikitravel & found a place we could buy a 48 hour pass (FYI- This GVB pass doesn’t work on the train or buses into the centre, so be sure to buy another ticket or you can buy it on the bus as well.) which allows you to travel on any GVB tram, metro & bus (once in the centre).

We arrived to our AirBnb apartment, which was a minutes’ walk from the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum. Once we unpacked and ‘freshened’ up, we headed to a Pizza restaurant that was on the corner of our block which had been recommended to us by the lady who we were renting the apartment from. It was delicious; I ordered a yummy ham and mushroom Calzone and it was definitely the best Calzone I had ever had.  After leaving stuffed, we headed back to the apartment, played some games and then headed to bed!!

We woke up at about 8.00 to get ready for the day. Once we were all dressed & having taken a morning selfie, we headed to try and find some breakfast.  Luckily there was a market pretty much outside of our front door, so we each grabbed a Crepe from there which was once again DELICIOUS!!

We then headed to the Rijksmuseum and took pictures infront of the I Amsterdam sign.. 

...Central Station.. 

... on a Canal Cruise (This is a MUST!!!!)... 

(Austin was hungry so we stopped for some Stroopwafels) 

...posed by some beautiful Canals/bridges...

 ... and then our time slot for the Anne Frank House was fast approaching so we walked through the Noodermarkt to get to it! What an experience this was! It very humbling and inspiring!! The many many hours I had spent on the Museums website, refreshing it every 5 minutes to see if any tickets had become available were so worthwhile as finally getting the online tickets meant that we could literally just walk straight in; I was not up for queuing for 2-3 hours in the rain like everyone else stood outside!! The Secret Annex was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I had read the diary in Primary School and so it had been a long time since I last studied her remarkable story! There were some beautiful videos of her Father (Otto Frank) & one of Anne's friends - truly touching! There are inserts of Anne’s diary on all the walls throughout the house that I felt was a lovely touch. The best part was actually being able to see and read her ACTUAL diary; it just sent goose bumps around my body!! My favourite quote on one of the walls was from her Father, which read…

To build up a future, you have to know the past.

After visiting the house, we were all starving so we headed over to the 'floating' flower market to look at that before it closed & whilst looking at the flowers, we kept our eyes peeled for a yummy restaurant.  We came across an Argentinian restaurant where we enjoyed some Hamburgers & Fajitas :) 

After filling our bellies, we went to the Red Light District, 

Oude Kerk, 

..the Royal palace, sat in some clogs

and by then, we were shattered so we headed to a supermarket where we picked up some smoothies & treats to eat whilst playing games in the evening. We then headed to bed to prepare and recuperate for our last day :(

Favourite Recipe ~ January ~ Mongolian Beef

Favourite Recipe

All I have to say is ‘Thank goodness for Pinterest’!  One of our Goals for 2015 (blog post for that will be coming soon) is to try at least 2 new recipes a month as we became lazy and just kept having the same meals every week. We just couldn't be bothered to be experimental and had just got stuck in our routines!!! So this year should be an adventurous year for our cooking skills!!! Already my spices box has tripled in size and we are only in February haha!!

In January our favourite meal we made was called Mongolian Beef.  I first heard about this recipe from my brother and sister-in-law. During one of the phone calls we had with them whilst we were in Chile, they were cooking their dinner and after my Ryan’s reaction to this delicious meal, I have been itching to make it myself, and my goodness... Josh and I are delighted I did as it is DIVINE!!!

I will leave a link to a blog that has the recipe; I have used this ladies blog for a few recipes and I absolutely love them!!!

 

http://damndelicious.net/2013/10/05/pf-changs-mongolian-beef-copycat-recipe/

 

Enjoy all!! Let me know what you think of the recipe if you try it!

This will definitely be a meal that we will be cooking very regularly!!!

I apologise about the picture!! I know it doesn't look very appetising but I PROMISE it was DIVINE!!!

Nail Varnish Stand Love

For Christmas my Nanny Jean gave us some money instead of a present as she wanted us to get something we wanted. So I had been thinking for ages (as you can tell it’s now February - Christmas was 2 months ago) about what I wanted to use the money to buy. I finally came across this absolute beauty on amazon; it was a..

Nail Varnish Stand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 It’s a bit sad, I know, but I have so many nail varnishes. I really wanted a cute way to display them and an easier way for me to choose a colour without having to mess the varnish drawer up!!

Here is a link to the stand…

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00J3VDHFC/ref=pd_aw_sbs_kh_1?refRID=0BVTNYH13E2C263BRKWW

The company are Essex signs & display ltd.

I am so happy with it and I will definitely be ordering another one if my nail varnish collection keeps expanding!!

Us girls have to stick together so enjoy and go buy one or two :)

Now who wants to come over for a nail varnish party? :)

My Love For England & Chile

Reasons why I love being home

· Being surrounded by Family- Even though we live under an hour to Josh’s Family and just under 3 hours from mine, I still have the option to randomly drive to see them whenever I want without it costing the earth!!!

· Communication- Not that I would do this but if needs be, I could talk to a complete stranger & ask them what the time is or even just to talk to them about anything and everything.

· Being independent- I really struggled with this as I felt like the whole time we were in Chile I was hanging off of Josh’s arm as I was too scared to be by myself for the above reason/bullet point.. P.S. Josh absolutely loved it haha!

· Church- I love being able to understand and to be able to input my thoughts into the lesson. I remember during a class in Chile I was caught out by the American sister missionaries, they were laughing at me because I was staring at the ceiling for like 10 minutes as I had just given up trying to understand what was being said.

· Food- I missed being able to have a glass of cold blue (fatty) milk!!!!! Sour cream......sadly we found out that sour cream was being sold in our local supermarket and had never noticed it until it was time to come home!!! Obviously we missed the good old takeaways, Fish & Chips, Chinese, Indian etc.

Things I miss in Chile

· Weather-Having a 7 month summer was incredible. Especially as we had a pool and an open roof top to sunbathe in with 40 degree heat! Loving life!!

· Travelling South America- I absolutely loved nearly every month travelling to somewhere new! I never thought I would ever go to South America never mind living there and being lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to so many different beautiful countries!

· Meeting friends-We were lucky enough to meet some beautiful friends whilst being in Chile, people that I will always stay in contact with!! I cannot wait for us to travel back out to Santiago to visit them!!

· Delicious food- Empanadas, Sopaipillas, Chorillana, Taco Bell, Domino Hot dogs, Pebre and so much more!!!!!!

· Job- I had the BEST ‘job’ ever. Being a Nanny for 2 beautiful families!! I stay in contact with them both and I wish they could have moved back with me so I could still have this job and look after their children all the time!!! I miss learning all the names of Thomas the Tank Engines friends ;) haha!! We had the opportunity to Face Time one of the families last Sunday where I got to see Cristobal (one of the little boys I used to look after) and his new baby brother, I also got to witness Cristobal saying my name for the first time!!! TOOO CUTTEEEE!!!