I couldn’t resist anymore. I went shopping in Amsterdam. First on the agenda was this antique shop called Nostalgia located at Herenstraat 37. They were closed when I walked by on Wednesday but I just knew I had to go back since they had this silver 3 light candelabra that I thought was just too lovely to leave behind. So after a little haggling, I left the store with my now priced candlesticks. On the suggestion of the store clerk, I then went to check Noordermarkt Market and the cute shops on Haarlemmerdijk and Haarlemmerstraat Street. After that, I headed back to the De Bijenkorf to purchase the wool coat I’d seen on the first day.
After shopping, and stopping for a snack of offertje (small dough balls fried and dusted with sugar), I decided to check out the Sex Museum. Yup, I sure did. Some displays had me averting my eyes but overall I found it to be an interesting “collection of erotic paintings, pictures and objects”. So would recommend to anyone who visits Amsterdam since they are most likely to pass it on way from Centraal Station. And at 2.50 Euro, this probably is the cheapest museum in Amsterdam. More importantly, while some of the display is just plain pornographic, there is also an educational side as they have a really good collection of artifacts illustrating how sex has been represented through the ages.
After the Sex Museum, I then headed back to my hotel room to take a nap before the big night out. We met at the American Hotel for drinks. Then we had a lovely dinner at the November Restaurant. After that, we went to Dam Square to participate in the count down to the New Year. A couple hundred thousand other people also had the same idea. They had a DJ playing top hits from various musical genres and people setting off fireworks from all various directions. This went on for hours. It made for a really festive time.
After soaking up all Dam Square had to offer, we went to O’Reilly’s Irish Pub. I stayed for about an hour but left as I was getting tired (it was after 2am) and the bar was really smokey. I fell asleep around 3am.
All in all, I have to say that this is without a doubt the best New Year’s Eve I’ve had in a long long time. Hopefully, most of you out there had as much fun as I did. If not, here’s hoping that you at least have a good start to the New Year.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!