Kayaking in Utrecht & clubbing at local spots in Amsterdam
Today was a drastically better day than yesterday, I had heaps fun and even made some new friends and explored Amsterdam’s nightlife. Let’s get into it!
I started the morning slowly as I have been doing for the last month or so. Honestly, not leaving the hostel until around 11-12 is the best thing I could be doing. I get to sleep in a bit, take my time, have some breakfast (rare), and just have some me time before we get stuck into the craziness of the day. And with how long the days are, if you went out before 11am no one would be out anyway, and I like exploring places with other people there’s more of an atmosphere to it.
So anyway I left the hostel around midday and decided I would spend the afternoon in Utrecht. I needed a break from Amsterdam, and I hadn’t completely fallen in love with anywhere in the Netherlands yet, which I feel had been a bit of a disappointment after my infatuation with Belgium. The train from my station was only 40 minutes and took me right into the centre of town. First thing’s first was to get from the station to the cute old town, cos as nice as the train station area was, it wasn’t what I came for.
It only took 10 minutes or so to reach the main canal, and it was just stunning. It was the quintessential small Dutch town I needed! The weather was beautiful, sun shining but without much heat, the perfect weather to walk around. I felt like I was back in Belgium honestly, the small little streets and green spaces were exactly what I needed. I thought the best first stop would be their cathedral, which was free to enter and even had a string quartet rehearsing inside with an opera singer. I hung out there for a little while, the performance was so beautiful, and in the cathedral with the acoustics, it sounded incredible. From there I overheard people talking about a hidden urban courtyard garden, and I tagged along to follow them. I’m so glad I did! It was such a beautiful oasis, hidden right behind a beautiful building, right on the canal. There were cute little benches surrounding the garden that I hung out on for a bit to get through some more of my book (Picture of Dorian Gray). It’s taking me a bit longer than I would like to get through it, but I’ve also had a hectic week or so, so once I’m in Glasgow I should have some more time to actually sit down and get a decent chunk done.
From there I continued walking through Utrecht’s smaller streets, found some postcards to add to my collection, and ducked in and out of the cutest little alley-side shops. I could quite literally feel the serotonin seeping back into my veins. This was exactly the day I needed after the underwhelming first day in Amsterdam. I found a cute spot canal-side to hang out and have a little snack of olives & feta I bought from the local AH. I was only there for about 10 minutes or so when this random guy came up to me and asked if I was travelling. I said yes, and we ended up chatting by the canal for a while. We ended up wanting to explore the city more, and decided to go kayaking! I had seen lots of kayak rental places down the canal, and had thought it would be a cool way to see more of the town. But all the kayaks were 2-seated so that was a bit of a problem. But not anymore! Tushar and I got along really well, turns out he was in Utrecht for meetings with his work in sexual and reproductive health. If you know me, that’s a niche interest of mine, so we spent our kayaking time having some really good, meaningful conversations. There’s nothing I love more than that! It’s so amazing to see someone so passionate about their work, and advocating for the current state of reproductive health where he’s from in India, I was just in awe at the amazing work he was doing.
We spent just under 2 hours exploring the canals of the town, and I would agree it’s the best way to see the out of the way parts you probably wouldn’t have thought to walk to, and from a different perspective. It’s even prettier to see the canal-side restaurants tucked under overhangs that disguise it from pedestrian view, it was like there was a whole other level to the city accessible only from the canal. It was so cool!
When we got back to the kayak hire place I had been in Utrecht for a good 6 or so hours, and though I could’ve easily spent longer exploring, I actually had plans in Amsterdam that night (shocking I know) so rot time was in order back at the hostel before getting ready to head out.
The train back to the hostel was just as easy as the one out to Utrecht, I even found one that didn’t go through the city centre first which was nice. I was back at the hostel probably by 7pm, with just enough time to have some food, watch some YouTube, and start getting ready to meet Sian and Sarah. Although I’ve adored nothing more than meeting people from all over the world, it can be a great comfort to meet people from your home city, especially when we all live so close to each other and had no idea! I don’t have to worry about making a reference they won’t understand, talking about a bar they probably won’t know, it’s a very relaxed environment I’ve really loved to be able to find. At least for a little bit. I also don’t endorse just hanging out with the Aussies, what’s the point in that? You can do that back home. But I’ve only met 1 or 2 Aussies at all before Sian and Sarah, and we just clicked so well I wasn’t going to pass on a night out with them.
We met outside the hostel on some picnic benches and had some pre drinks together, before walking the 2 minutes to the train station to head into Amsterdam. I’ll have to get Sian to send them to me, we attempted (and failed) to make Tiktoks on the train, I’m sure they’ll be very entertaining. From the Centraal station it was still a decent way to the area where the advertised nightlife was, but we decided to walk it. The night was quite cool, and Amsterdam is so beautiful at night, so we walked a good half an hour to reach the club we had decided on. At this point it was probably already midnight, so we decided to skip the bars and go have a dance. The club we went into was Jimmy Woo, which came well recommended. Initially it was definitely a good time, it was refreshing to have a DJ that actually had some ability, she was really skilled and clearly having a good time, so it was good to just feed off her energy. Unfortunately as the night went on the music didn’t get much better, and eventually we had enough of not knowing the lyrics (more like the music didn’t have lyrics), so we decided to have a little Macca’s break and find our next location. Of course the Macca’s was absolute robbery, but we were in need of a snack and nothing was going to be cheaper, realistically.
We found a spot on the pavement and sat down for a minute or 2, before meeting 2 of the nicest Dutch girls I had met this whole time. I’m still annoyed I didn’t get their Instagrams or anything, but Julia and Rose, if you ever happen to see this by accident, thank you! They took us to a more local Amsterdam club, and had to vouch for us since they don’t let tourists in usually. That’s how we knew we were in a good spot! The music was a mix of Dutch and English speaking, and we soon discovered the Dutch really knew how to party. Sarah even earnt us free shots when she passed some empty glasses to a grateful bartender who came back with 3 shots of strawberry liquor for us (we all agreed they tasted exactly like Court wet pussy shots). After longer at this club I could feel the energy starting to wane, and as it was 2:30am at this point, no trains were running and we had an hour walk back to hostel. Although a 5km walk actually sounded like a brilliant idea, I decided to check Uber prices and was very surprised to find it was only €17 or so which, split between 3 people, isn’t too bad at all, so we decided just to do that.
We arrived back to the hostel around 3am and I went straight to bed, knowing I’ve actually got some plans for the day after, my last day of the trip! Should be a fun day, as soon as I get some caffeine into me it’ll be fine, I’m sure.
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
