Jan 15 2012

Amsterdam – 6th January

Category: Amsterdam,Friends,Personal,PicturesChrisM @ 5:22 pm

After the false starts of the day before, I was eager to get a few things done on Friday. I arranged to meet up with Gapie from the forum, and after ChrisB and I had visited a couple of coffeeshops for supplies, we settled into a chilled out routine.
I’ve occasionally blurred faces out in the pictures below – some people don’t want their photos online.
Once we met Gapie in Nes (and DC as well, who’d not been working the night before), ChrisD phoned me, with the good news that he was in Amsterdam and not too far from us!
After a good few drinks and smokes, we decided to try out one of the burger restaurants that had good reviews online – so Burger Bar was selected. I snapped a few pics, but wasn’t actually very hungry, so just had chips and tomato soup.
ChrisB had heard about some sort of freeparty at a squat on Friday night, so after a LONG walk we eventually found the place. I had been expecting dance music, UV lights and loved up people, whereas the event was actually an open-mic night organized by the group that had reclaimed the derelict building. They also had a small art show. Actually not too bad considering what I’d been expecting.

Meeting Up At Nes

Meeting Up At Nes

ChrisB Waiting For His Meat!

ChrisB Waiting For His Meat!

Burger Bar's Menu

Burger Bar's Menu

Burger Bar's Burger

Burger Bar's Burger

Burger Bar's Menu Once More

Burger Bar's Menu Once More

Burger Bar's Tomato Soup

Burger Bar's Tomato Soup

Someone Not Wanting To Be IDed

Someone Not Wanting To Be IDed

Burger Bar's Burger #2

Burger Bar's Burger #2

Burger Bar's Blackboard

Burger Bar's Blackboard

Free Party In Amsterdam

Free Party In Amsterdam

Any photos more interesting than that are being held off the front page, you’ll need to click the link below this to see them.
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Jan 15 2012

Amsterdam – 5th January

Category: Amsterdam,Friends,PersonalChrisM @ 4:42 am

I’m going to write a few posts and include a few of the photos from last week’s Amsterdam trip. As this post is focused on the 1st day of the trip, it should have details of getting into the Netherlands at just past midday, a smooth journey into Central station, meeting ChrisB and checking into our houseboat, and meeting online friends in real life.

Unfortunately, the first flight was cancelled. This meant potentially hanging around Cardiff International Airport for six hours or so. Luckily, John came back to take me out for a pub lunch. Upon my return, I was once more ready to go with my hand luggage packed tight, tickets to hand etc. etc. Once again, it was not to be, as Schipol airport was still having weather problems, and not accepting any flights from Cardiff that day. This left me a little peeved off, and KLM put me into a taxi to get to Heathrow for their last flight to Amsterdam. Even with clear roads it would have been pushing it, but I was a little late arriving to Heathrow. However, as there were a lot of delayed flights, I didn’t end up missing it.

Finally I got into Amsterdam with most of Thursday gone, but at least I was there! Skipping the planned tram card and local SIM card sourcing, I dumped my bags at a locker in Central Station, and used TomTom to ensure I was wandering in the right direction for Nes – where I had arranged to meet ChrisB (and in fact where I had arranged to meet some friends from the Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory a lot earlier in the day). Although Nes allows smoking in their bar, they don’t sell anything to smoke, just alcohol. ChrisB had been talking to a few people though, and one of them had gifted us a little something to tide us over until the morning. After a few beers and vodkas to sooth my frayed nerves, ChrisB pointed out the way to our houseboat, and a few hours later, we were both sleeping on a gently bobbing boat.

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