Haarlem !

Since I was finished with my year in Den Haag and my host family there, I decided to go somewhere else, HAARLEM !

Soooo beautiful ! :)

I DID IT !!!

A month ago I fulfilled my biggest bucketlist thing: I BOUGHT A BICYCLE !!!
Yes, I really did it. Nevertheless, after two days, I had a flat tyre ... But, it is my very own bicycle with I have to share with nobody and just belongs to me, wohooo !

Isn't he lovely?!!!

Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a small 8km long village in the north-east of the Netherlands. The most known bigger city would be Zwolle. Giethoorn belongs to the province Overijssel.
Special about Giethoorn is that there are no streets an no cars in this village, just cycling paths and grachten (those small canals). It looks sooo cute and of course it is full of tourists ! I got this travel tip from a DUTCH, yes dutch, pilot who sat beside me while I was once on my way to Frankfurt and who told me that I do have to see this before I leave so here we go: 

Kingsday or Koningsdag

On the 27th of April we, the people in The Netherlands, but more of course all dutch people, celebrated Kingsday aka Koningdag. It marks the birth of the king Willem-Alexander. The night before is also a biiig party in the whole country and bigger cities. In The Hague there were outside parties everywhere in the city centre which was a lot of fun and such a grand experience ! Literally THE PARTY OF THE YEAR !!!

Anyway, on Kingsday there is a national bank holiday and everyone is dressing up in orange. EVERYWHERE ! The motto is wear as much orange as you can, haha !

Lucie and me decided that we wanted to go to Amsterdam on Kingsday. Of course this is what every tourist plans to do on Kingsday if he is in The Netherlands so we were a bit doubting if this was really a great idea. Full trains, millions of people in Amsterdam, drunk people, boats etc. . But, we decided we go to Amsterdam as it's a chance we maybe won't have next year so we took the train to Amsterdam which was luckily not that crowded as expected. The dutch rail company organized that pretty well !

In Amsterdam it was pretty crowdy but as there were no trams running in Amsterdam this day people could walk everywhere on the street which made the whole situation with lots of people a bit more relaxed.

And what can I say?! It was a life-time experience !!! Sitting by a gracht and having a beer watching the party on the water with great music, it was so much fun and we really enjoyed it. I think everyone should once visit Amsterdam on Kingsday or any other big city ! It's a completely different side of partying and what an attitude !

Volendam!

I was free last Friday (SURPRISE, SURPRISE ! ) and as all other girls I love to spend time with had to work I decided to use my dayticket for the train with which I can travel through the whole Netherlands for a day and go somewhere on my own. I like travelling on my own. I don't need to wait for someone anf can go wherever I want to. I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go but I entered the train to Amsterdam where I thought about where I could go to while being in that train.

My first destination was Volendam. Volendam (which belongs to the province Edam-Volendam, yes, where the cheese Edammer comes from) is a cute, small fishing village 30 minutes by bus from Amsterdam. Also, Volendam lays at the IJsselmeer, so a pretty nice place to go. Especially the harbour area with the IJsselmeer is amazing to see.

TRAVEL TIME!

The harbour.

Beautiful!

The IJsselmeer! :)

Gouda, the cheese city!

Last saturday we used the opportunity of being off work the whole weekend (well, more I didn't had to work the weekend) and finally went somewhere again. As our pocket money still is pretty limited every month (we should stop shopping I guess!), we went to a city nearby The Hague, Gouda!

Yes Gouda! I guess you ALL know the cheese called Gouda, don't you?! Gouda is a city in the West of the Southern part of The Netherlands. Yes, it's pretty famous for its cheese (but so is Alkmaar as well) with about 80.000 inhabitants so not really a big city. Quite nice city but not really a lot to see. So if you are crazy about cheese, don't miss out Gouda. Otherwise, visit more nice cities...

15th-century city hall!

Travellers are we in this world, no inhabitants!