Tag Archives: Amsterdam

Amsterdam 2024 – Day 5 and Day 6

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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 2

Posted on by

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.

Europe 2023 Day 1 – Ibiza

Posted on by
Reply

Original plan was to leave SF at 3pm on a Saturday, then arrive aim Ibiza on Sunday 4pm (in time to catch Swedish house mafia), connecting through AMS. Plan was solid until my flight leaving SF was delayed 3 hours! Within those 3 hours tried to see if there was any other reasonable solution (ie not paying thousands) to get to IBZ at the same time. Was about to take a United flight to London Heathrow instead (several direct flights to IBZ from there), but then it got cancelled! Also tried to figure out a new flight to IBZ. Unfortunately had to get a non direct flight (stopping by Barcelona). Getting me there 4.5 hrs later.

Flight went by reasonably fast (was in Exonomy Plus with no one at the middle seat, and watched Suits for most of it, then got maybe 1 hour of sleep).

Arriving at AMS, taxiing to the gate was probably a good 15 minutes. When entering the airport, the walk to passport control was around 8 minutes. Then waited in line for 35 minutes (although they were actively asking if people had flights to catch within 30 minutes of the current time). After passport control, no re-entering security. Went to the aspire lounge aka Lounge 26 (covered by priority pass). The lounge was just meh (comparing to centurion). Only hot food was soup, and alcohol was self serve (only whisky was Red label).

On the positive side, sorta learning how to adapt to unexpected travel hiccups. Hopefully this is the only one on this trip!

FYI, vueling and posting the gates on google of the worst. Had to go to the airport website to find the gate info.

The flight to BCN (stop over) was around 2 hours. Vueling doesn’t have seats that recline, but alcohol they sell is cheap. When I got to BCN, my gate we landed to was at A12. The gate I needed to reach was B43. I basically sprinted for a good 10 minutes to make my connection. Super glad I made it.

Arriving at IBZ, got a taxi, where they accept cc. Arriving at the hotel, The Grand Palladium White Island, quickly checked in, then made my way to Ushuaia for Swedish house Mafia. Only caught an our, but it was truly satisfying.

After, went to the Ushuaia rooftop. Great view, but it’s just meh unless you go during the music (aka before 11pm) (great view of the stage).

The last place we stopped by this night was Elvissa (aka Ibiza Town). We had stopped by Calle de La Virgin (the Castro street of Ibiza). Because it was a Sunday, it wasn’t super happening, but I can see how it could be busy got G area. We had a drink at Cenote, where the vibe is mainly jungle themed. Had a Mojito Pina Colad (basically a Mojito wit a hint on Pina). Was pretty good.

We also did walk around the Ibiza Marina (Avinguda Andanes). Reminded me of Split, Croatia.

Amsterdam, third day

Posted on by
Reply

Last day in Amsterdam, and we woke up pretty late (3pm). Good thing we booked late checkout in advance!

First thing we did was get some food at the first gourmet burger restaurant in the Netherlands:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/25/burgermeester/

After, we booked a last minute canal boat ride. The boat ride itself was good, but it was hard to see things from the seats we had (if we got on earlier it would have been ok). We also ended up getting off the boat 20 minutes earlier since a passenger was feeling sea sick (and the dock the boat stopped at was right outside our hotel!). Not gonna lie, our hotel was super conveniently located for everything we did on this trip.

After the boat ride, the last thing we ended up doing was going to the Ice Bar. In concept it is cool, but it is a tourist trap, and they basically are putting you in a giant freezer. But, since most places don’t have something like this, we figured we would try it out.

Amsterdam, second day

Posted on by
Reply

We started this day off by eating at this awesome ribs place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/24/ribs-factory/

Afterwards, we wandered around the Nieuwmart area, and passed by the Red Light District. We eventually made our way to a truffle place.

After the truffle pit stop, we headed to the Moco Museum. Most of the work featured there was from Bansky and Icy & Sot. I really enjoyed this museum. Makes you stop and think about the current world.

After, we made our way to the Heineken Experience. It was similar to the last trip, except this time they added Olympic 2018 things.

After the Heineken experience, we ate dinner at this Italian restaurant:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/25/lo-stivale-doro/

Then, we prepped ourselves for a night out at Club Claire, where they played proper deep house music! We were supposed to go check out a club called escape, but the place we were at was too good to leave. The DJ’s that were playing were James Dexter (https://soundcloud.com/bondage-music/bmr-212-mixed-by-james-dexter) and ANOTR (https://soundcloud.com/user-918656730/no-art-radio-e1-dimmish)

Amsterdam, first day

Posted on by
Reply

Before leaving Barcelona, we got into the Airport early to check out a lounge, and yes, it was indeed worth it.

We went to the Sala VIP Pau Casal lounge, and they had a lot of variety of food and drinks (both alcoholic and not alcoholic. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pics. Also, one interesting thing is that is said it was only for Terminal 1 domestic flights, but we got in. I guess Amsterdam being part of the EU counts as a domestic flight.

We got into Amsterdam around 6pm, and then ubered it to our Hotel in the Rembrandt district (we stayed at the Eden Hotel, where I got a pretty good deal from Hotel Tonight).

After eating for a bit, we walked about 10 minutes to this Thai place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/23/na-siam/

Afterwards, we spent some time looking for alcohol. Liquor is not as easy to get as say Barcelona. Supermarket/convenience stores usually only sell wine and beer. We did find a store in the Rembrandt district that did sell hard liquor (which closes at 10pm).

After getting liquor and resting a bit, we headed to the de Marktkantine to see the Magician DJ.

We also were able to procure some favors. Basically the way you do it is you ask people on the dance floor for a contact number. Now the tricky part is once you get the number, how do you text from a phone. They way you do it you dial + to “escape” the countries regular dialing system, then add 31 for Netherlands country code, then drop the first 0 of the number that is given to you (haha, not hard eh?).