Amsterdam

*Above pictures were taken on my old Samsung S5

Amsterdam is notoriously famous for one very obvious thing. And honestly, that’s the reason I didn’t want to visit the city, I gave in to its stereotypical image that in my mind wasn’t that great. However, I was happily surprised when I finally decided to take a leap of faith to finally visit Amsterdam.

From the day I landed to the day I left, the city constantly broke the image that it had built-in my head. I stayed opposite the Princess Canal and it couldn’t have got more scenic than that. Walking down to get groceries and trying not to bump into cyclists was harder than it might sound because I was constantly in awe of the characteristic streets and buildings the city displayed. Over the next few days, I visited ‘Dam Square’, the Heineken Factory and the Van Gogh Museum grounds. Going inside the museum was too pricy but timing was perfect as there was a sunflower maze on display outside the museum and I was able to get some very posey pictures of myself taken. For about 16 euros, I enjoyed an entire tour of the Heineken factory, a beer tasting class (half a pint free), a beer pouring class with a certificate and using 1 of the 2 tokens given to me on entry into the factory a pint of beer free. On the way out, I was about to buy a personalised Heineken bottle with my name printed on it and drink yet another pint of beer. At the exit door, I found out that the wrist band given to me with the tokens attached could also be used for a canal ride. Upon my return the next day, due to unfortunate weather canal rides were cancelled and that was my last day in Amsterdam. I guess I’ll have to go back to tick that off my bucket list. The one treat that was by far the icing on the cake was eating dutch pancakes in a small café at the tulip markets in the city. The small, fluffy pancakes melted in my mouth when accompanied by hot chocolate sauce.

During my visit, I decided to test out more of my camera functions and try my hand at HDR photography. Here’s my first try at a new style and I hope to keep practicing the get better: