So, here is my super photo heavy 'here's some of the stuff we done over the last few months' post. In September Jamie & I went on our first holiday and we booked up for a week in Akyarlar in Turkey. You may or may not know I was there last year (in Marmaris), and loved it. We had a standard 34c during the day and a 'modest' 24c in the evening, I have to say coming home to 6c wasn't much fun.
During our time we took a couple of boat trips, Jamie went snorkling & scuba-diving, not for me, and we took a couple of trips into the local town of Turgutreis which was only 3lira on the bus (about £1) and a 10 minute.
Our hotel was pretty decent, but after a week I was ready to come home.
We spent a second week at home chilling out, pub lunching and also learnt how to make fresh pasta at the Bellini Cookery School which was a lot of fun and it's amazing how simple making fresh pastas and sauces is. I would highly recommend the place, Jamies mum treated us on a Groupon deal but even the normal prices for classes aren't bad.
In October, Jamie turned 27 so as a birthday treat I booked us a trip to Amsterdam. I had never been before, Jamie had when he was younger, I don't need to add that this trip was a little different.
We flew into Amsterdam around 4pm, I cannot praise KLM enough, both for their assistance before we flew and during. Free luggage if you sign up to their free 'Flying Blue' scheme, free to pre-book your seats, and some free snacks & drinks (mini cans of Heineken FTW) on the plane, and Schiphol airport....well, we could learn a thing or two from them also.
Anyways, a few things we done whilst there were, visit the Red Light District - standard, I have to say I expect something a lot worse than what I saw. The 'Heineken Experience', pre-booking recommended, you also get two mini Heineken at the end. The 'Xtra Cold' bar, -10c, don't expect the type ice bar you see in London etc, it was fun but it was freezing, you got two comp drinks which you drank out of an ice-glass, it wasn't the easiest to hold and FYI - don't do what Jamie done and wear shorts!
There were some amazing shops and little markets, as well as FEBO - now FEBO is like a hot food vending machine/shop thing. You pop some euros in, open a little door and take out the food. It was super yummy for what it is, and very conveinent. As well as pizza shops still open at 3am.
I booked our trip through LastMinute.com and took a risk on their 'secret hotel' which turned out to be NH Hotel - Amsterdam Centre - it was fantastic. It was central, very easy to get to by public transport once you knew your way about, we took a taxi to the hotel but walked to the train station on our return journey and took the train that takes you right into the airport.
Finally, my top rated thing about Amsterdam - how open everything is, sex shops next door to what I can only class as Tesco, the Red Light district, the cafés (not that we visited), everything is so open, and it seems to work well for them. I'm not sure it would work so well here though. I would love to go back and do more, I can't wait.
PS: Be midful of people of bikes, they are EVERYWHERE!
