Amsterdam '16

And so have arrived at August- the Leaving Cert is over and done with and now all that is left is to nervously wait for results in just two weeks and pack a bag for college. I can't believe how quickly time has flown, how the months and weeks have faded, blurred and bled into continuous days of nothing but study and the occasional pub night. I turned 18; I sat the Leaving Cert; I slipped away to Amsterdam and Ibiza for just over two weeks, and now I'm preparing to pass my driver's test. I came back to cloudy skies and shuddering realisations: the time has truly come to grow up and get our shit together.

In the meantime, I'm so excited to get back to blogging. I'll try to post once a week- I simply had no time to write anything apart from essays and equations over the past couple of months. Now, as I've changed my column in the local paper from monthly to weekly, I have the chance to write more for this little blog more. As I only recently got back from The Netherlands, this is a photography ode to its capital. Grab a cup of tea, you'll be here a while. 

I did most of my exploring on my own, and so I took the tram and the metro into the city by myself. This was one of my stops- I now hope for Vilnius and Dublin to change its public transport into trams and Luas' only.

The first thing I did when I got into the city was visit the Rijksmuseum- I spent a solid 4 hours there, it's like Holland's version of the Louvre

The modern exhibit featured Modern Japan- an exploration of how Tokyo has rebuilt itself after the earthquake in the 30s. I found the graphic prints of Japanese ladies to be my favourite part, among the kimonos on display.

I will never get over the amount of bicycles and motorbikes in the city, I spotted little pretty Vespas everywhere

My sister and her partner, who I visited have the sassiest little cat who insists on crossing her front paws when she sits, like a little queen

The next handful of photos were taken by my iPhone, so the quality is a little off, but it's still pretty decent

The first thing we did when I arrived was go watch Ireland's last game in the Euros is a cosy Irish pub in the city

Even though Furby is a little queen who's stuck up alright, she's exactly like me so we clicked

On my last night we went on a beer crawl, where you go to 4 set bars, order a drink at each and get a free t-shirt. It was really cool and we got to explore the city even more.

I was carted off to a petting farm one of the days- and before my allergies kicked in, I got to pet goats, horses and even hold a chicken (!!)

And so, after our trip to Ibiza I got to steal a few more days in the city before I headed home. This journey was not only my first time on a plane alone, but also the first time I had a holiday without my parents.

Thank you so much for reading!

Gaby x