Assalamualaikum
Hi
I just got back from my winter break vacation, and right now feel a lil bit chilly, probably runny nose in few seconds, oh God forbids!
Overall my holiday was great, I went to Amsterdam with my sister and we went together to her second hometown; Edinburgh.
I departed from Cairo Int. Airport ALONE and for me it's an achievement unlocked! Because God knows how inconvenient the airport is and how grumpy the ground staffs are. But Thank God for all the easiness as suddenly everyone seemed to concern about to where should I head to and was really helpful. Thank God!
Transferred through Rome Fiumicino Int. Airport of Italy as I traveled with Alitalia and then departed to Amsterdam to finally meet my sister.
Amsterdam had been really nice, the weather, the people, the place itself.
I departed from Cairo Int. Airport ALONE and for me it's an achievement unlocked! Because God knows how inconvenient the airport is and how grumpy the ground staffs are. But Thank God for all the easiness as suddenly everyone seemed to concern about to where should I head to and was really helpful. Thank God!
Transferred through Rome Fiumicino Int. Airport of Italy as I traveled with Alitalia and then departed to Amsterdam to finally meet my sister.
Amsterdam had been really nice, the weather, the people, the place itself.
We had promised to meet at Schiphol Airport, and after 4 hours of waiting, she finally showed up!
We straight away went to our reserved hotel which was Hampton by Hilton Bijlmer Arena.
What a nice stay! With 50% off from booking.com , of course the total cost was just the same as budget hotel despite the label.
We stayed there for about 2 lovely nights, the highlight about this hotel is its generous and hearty complimentary breakfast.
Morning view from our hotel
how our 2 nights-room looks like
Night view
That night we just strolled around the central city and had fun. Btw we used train and metro rides throughout our stay in Amsterdam, using GVB unlimited pass which is only valid for GVB metro, tram and ferry and is available from different length of days. We chose 2 days pass. From airport to the hotel, we have ridden the NS train which costed us around 5euros per person per ride.
The next day, we went to Zaanse Schans, using NS Sprinter train which costed us around 7euros pp for return ticket. Zaanse Schans is definitely such a great view, so beautiful I caught myself stopped breathing, (what a hyperbole), there're six windmills altogether and it was quite breezy there that day.
#art
my sister and I
me from a bridge, holding the railing for dear life, I don't know why but I suddenly became a height fright!
beautiful Zaanse Schans!
We went for a canal cruise on the next day which I didn't actually take any photo because I was enjoying the view and indulged myself into Amsterdam history.
except that there's one photo I took from my sister God bless her!
We again strolled around the central city and decided to go to the Museumplein where the gigantic I Amsterdam alphabets are at. It was quite a lengthy journey from where we were actually at that time, but my sister really wanted a photo there, and we still got time before our flight to Edinburgh, so there we went.
how a part of Amsterdam central city looks like
of what building I don't know
Canal
my lovely sister. She's so naturally adorably beautiful in every photo!
We finally made it to those massive alphabets but as expected, there're bunch of humans there, barely any clear spot to have a photo.
my sister be like, " where am I?" "There you are! Among the group of ants"
whereas I could be mistaken as a live weather reporter with hoodie on, the weather well described there, no need a word!
We returned back on a GVB tram to the hotel to collect our luggage and went straight to Schipol Airport.
After checking in and the passport control procedure, we found this!
We finally departed to Edinburgh from Amsterdam, so happy to be on board with my sister!
It was about one hour and half, and it felt so ages.
And when we reached Farah's house, it's about 12 am and we're so exhausted to do anything else that we both straight away went bed.
This is how Edinburgh view looks like from Farah's room window
What's interesting about Edinburgh's architecture is that you won't find any skyscraper there, only around 3-4 storeys buildings maximally 5 storeys, which I think is environmental friendly.
I basically will jump into more eventful days I had in Edinburgh as I was there for 11 days; too much energy needed to make each single day lively, which I didn't.
We went shopping on the next day at Princes Street which I enjoyed a lot!
I bought things I wanted and to my surprise, a lot of those things were cheaper than I actually had budgeted, which is great and Thank God for that!
Collectively, we've gone to Royal Mile.
I actually haven't captured myself anywhere near the Royal Mile itself, these photos were taken around the area.
Always not a camera-ready!
We also have gone to the Portobello Beach! We're so blessed with the great weather!
So in love with the paddle pop bright sky!
In between the pet dog and the owner.
Here the dog owners spent free time with their dogs and let they go running in freedom! The only not free creatures in the Portobello that time were my sister and I, for being so scared by the dog coming toward us!
Here's on the way to Livingston Designer Outlet, and was taken from the double coaster bus.
We're so busy looking for stuff and didn't even bother to have picture, anyway who else wants a photo when all in front of you is great things to buy?!
Edinburgh Castle, I had a period cramp attack at this time that we had to rush home in no time!
My make up was totally went wrong this day! This was at Carlton Hill. Here's where you can enjoy Edinburgh overall view. Nice!
What food did I eat in Edinburgh?
Here's the Korean and Japanese Cuisine Restaurant.
We've eaten tteokbokki, jjamppong and sushi. Among all, my least fav is tteokbokki.
My sister celebrated my belated birthday. Gosh just thinking about how adult I am as I'm freaking 24 years old lady this year made me freak out! I don't know why, time was passing by before, my age number kept changing but this year..... I honestly don't know what feeling is this!
My sister wanted popia
So here they are
and Zuhus peri-peri chicken! We had eaten this twice.
And there were fried chicken, some pizza, some nasi lemak etc etc
And after 11 days, I went back to Egypt, the journey back was nice except that I had to surrender some of my liquid stuff to the Edinburgh Airport security, it's not that I didn't obey the less than 100ml rules, it's because I thought I need to present all those <100ml quantity of each container in 20cm x 20cm clear bags regardless how many clear bags I had so I brought like....three......
And suddenly during the checkpoint the officer told me that each passenger can only carry ONE clear bag otherwise I needed to check in the luggage. I was like WHAT KIND OF RULE IS THAT?? I THOUGHT MOST COUNTRIES ALLOW <100ML CABIN LIQUID IN NO MATTER HOW LARGE THE CLEAR BAG IS AS LONG AS THE TOTAL LIQUID DOESN'T EXCEED 1 LITRE???
But yeah it's their country and I'm the foreigner I have to obey, hence goodbye to some amount of moisturizer, a jar-full mask, my holy grail foundation, my face mist, two Zoella's hand creams and a Tiger Balm ointment jar.
What a chaos during emptying all three clear bags into just ONE which was absolutely impossible and I really hoped I've made wise selection!
But do you know which things I surrendered that I regretted the most?
THE TIGER BALM OINTMENT !! (yeah I'm like the old nenek who loves ointment)
So yeah that's all about this year winter vacation.
Till then
Assalamualaikum!
