Monthly Archives: October 2024

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 5 and Day 6

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Start of day 5 we started off visiting a jewelry store close by the hotel to find a replacement necklace. Then went to Grand Cafe Lido for dinner. Details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/10/21/lido/

After, tried the casino next door, Holland Casino, for a quick game of blackjack. Europe has two different rules from North America. First is that you can only double your bet on 9, 10 or 11. Second you are allowed to play or “invest” on someone else’s hand.

After the casino, started and ended the night early at Gashouder, where we saw Camelphat, Stephan Bodsen (great visual) and Maceo Plex. Will say watching from the bleachers at Gashouder was a great idea for the visuals.

We did may one put stop at McDonalds before ending the night.

Next day, checked out of Park Centraal hotel and flew out of AMS.

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 4

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Day 4 started off with a quick meal at 5 Terre Italian restaurant:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/10/21/5-terre-amsterdam-italian-restaurant/

Then we proceeded to catch Borris Brejcha at the AFAS Live arena. The arena itself (and the area) looks super new, and definitely a cool area to hang out.

We caught Borris from 7:30pm to 10pm, then grabbed a quick slice the New York Pizza chain (pizza in New York is better) and then went to AMF at the Johan Cruijff Arena. Saw Marlon Hoffstadt, Martin Garrix, Tiesto, and Timmy Trumpet. What was really cool is that Martin Garrix was announced number one DJ, and he played right after. What a night!

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 3

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Started this day pretty late. First strolled around Vondelpark (got a random hotdog), then went to have dinner at a really great Italian restaurant called Ristorante Pizzeria Amarone in the Italian part of town:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/10/21/ristorante-pizzeria-amarone/

From there we went directly to Club Panama for the “This is Trance” event. Ended up seeing Ferry Carsten, John O’Callaghan, Aly & Fila, and Jordan Suckely. Also saw someone in the side room names Enigma. (Some notes about this club include they use a QR code for payments, they have a main room, and they have a side room which is pretty hot).

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 2

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Started the second day walking towards the inner central part of Amsterdam (as that’s where we were meeting a group for dinner. Stopped by a stroopwafels store and got an Oreo sprinkled one (a bit ok rich for me. Also stopped by two Cafe bars along the way to just get some Aperol Spritz’s. Also strolled around the Red Light district (couldn’t find the g version of it though).

Also stopped by a cheese store (didn’t know that Gouda was big there).

While we were walking around, they were filming a sequel to a 1988 movie, Amsterdamned. Gonna check it out.

We eventually arrived at the place we were meeting people for food called China Sichuan Restaurant – Zeedijk. Details can be found here:

China Sichuan Restaurant – Zeedijk

On the walk back to our hotel, we then went to a local bar for 30 minutes that had an ADE event. The DJ that was playing was Jasper Pol.

After, it was time for the main part of the night, going to the Techno Temple of the world, Gashouder, where Awakenings was happening. The main DJ that night was Adam Beyer. (Some notes about Gashouder is that they use a token system for drinks, they don’t serve whisky, security is pat downs, you should try out the bleachers for good lighting visuals, and necklaces can get stolen from you). We were the for around 6 hours.

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 1

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Flew into AMS with United business class (50K points + $600). Also, seems like iPad holder could fit a large iPad Pro.

Checked into Park Centraal Hotel. Conveniently located near one of the ADE venues Melkweg, and also just close to high end shops in general (ie Rimowa… which I mention specifically because a friend’s wheel broke off during they’re travel to AMS and they got it fixed).

After checking in, we walked around a bit to grab some liquor and water. Then we Ubered to a pop up ADE set where Oliver Heldens and Eli Brown played a b2b. It was located at a store called Glamcult. They even have free beer and Redbull! Only complaint was that it was really hot.

After, we had dinner at a place called Momo. Details can be found here (only slight annoying? thing is that some girl named Nina was very insistent on hanging out):

Momo (Amsterdam)

We then got ready for a night at Melkweg where we mainly saw Oliver Heldens. The venue had a main room and a side room. We were there for around 4 hours.