It’s not very often you get to roam the streets of your favourite city with someone you have cute butterfly feelings for but, I’ve learnt to expect nothing and be delivered everything. From the moment I got to Amsterdam 5 years ago I fell in love with it. Even though I have seen amazing places since, and will continue to see, there is something so damn special about this city. The things I love aren’t on the surface, it’s nothing that I could take a picture of to show you. It’s something that I feel inside me. So far, there’s only one other place in the world I have that feeling for and its actually back home. The magical Byron Bay.
This time around I tackled Amsterdam differently, on this trip I have learnt that April and I are crazy (thanks to every second person we meet telling us that) but I am so okay with that. We’re the best fucking duo and there is nobody else I would rather be crazy with. This trip couldn’t be any better for me, even if I hadn’t run out of money. On a quick detour from Amsterdam, 
April, I could not have asked for a better best friend. Moving home has shown me something I didn’t think I needed to be shown but it’s taught me that you will put me above anyone else, even yourself to make sure I’m happy and I promise you I will work on myself to treat you like that. Thank you for calming my anxiety, for peeling my prawns so I can eat them, for taking photos of me from every angle sitting on a bench in Amsterdam, (not for taking photos of me when I am a naughty horsie) for bringing out the best part of me when we make new friends, for letting me fall in love with people and doing and telling me what I need to hear, for trusting in me and mostly for always saying yes. I have no idea why people
thought we would fight, or why that is even a question. I also didn’t think (and I know you didn’t either) that we could get any closer, but we are most definitely one person now, which anyone who sleeps with me knows because you are always right there with me and that’s cool, right? (Not literally)
Okay back to Amsterdam, This city is so proud of its history and culture and is so free that you can’t not feel liberated on the streets! The women who work as Prostitutes are so hot. Men (and lesbians) are SO lucky that women (they) are such magical unicorns. Most of our nights were spent sitting along the canals and people watching. Amsterdam is full of curious people and there is nothing more beautiful than the flow of the red lights and tacky neon signs illuminating the water, especially if you go to Amsterdam at the beginning of the year, in which case you will find hundreds of the whitest swans floating on the water. The only downside to the city is that to get into any building you have to climb 3+ flights of tiny, narrow and usually winding 
stairs.
This is okay unless you are a) carrying heavy luggage or b) trying to get home and a very, very bad shroom trip. It’s not much fun and probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do so we spent the whole night sitting on a footpath trying to figure out the most painless way to die so the trip would end. Don’t do drugs kids! (No, do, just don’t be a fuckboy and think that you can eat shrooms after running around Vondelpark on truffles all day. Which I highly recommend doing! Especially on a day when a storm hits because rain and being wet is awfully confusing and enjoyable at this point. Also ride a bike. I felt more like I was flying than I did when I went bungy jumping. We also may have imagined meeting someone who has my dream job. Formula 1 race car engineer. (Scott r u real?) 
Another word of caution. Avoid a pub crawl when you’re tripping because you will tell some poor girl that the light is chasing you and you have to leave (we swear it was chasing us) Ps April it’s funny now. Always assume that the drug is stronger than you, cause it is because you may or may not end up running around the red light district asking for medical help and nobody will help you because you, are a dickhead. You will also confuse people with your confusion and they will think you are asking to leave and direct you to the nearest train station which will leave you feeling even more confused.
Oops. While we are on the topic of drugs, all the good pills come from Holland. Obviously. They are huge. Take half! Unless you’re reading this and you’re a hardcore badass drug taker, ignore me and continue double dropping for all eternity. Depending on what country you’re in you can usually get 1 for €10 or 2 for €15 if you’re lucky. A pre-rolled joint at a coffee shop can be between €7-€12 (also, truffles are legal, shrooms are bought ‘under the counter’) 
you can walk into a coffee shop and tell the person working what kind of high you want to achieve and they’ll sort you right out! Avoid couches that leave you sitting in the middle of people you don’t know because you will get stuck for an hour, or more. Space cakes and brownies are super yum but if you want to get reaaAAAllLyYy high go buy half a gram, or a gram and go to the museum of Cannabis. There you can smoke out of a vape, which fills up a giant balloon bag and then be prepared to stay there for a few hours.
Don’t do it when you have to check out of your hostel and find a way to get to Mysteryland which is at least an hour away. But, we did it! Hoorah! Holland is quite small, phew. It’s pretty hard to navigate cities without wifi or a map but scree you first world mentality we did it anyway. Looking lost, we got off the train and walked to the bus we think we had to take to get there. 
Luckily Dutch people pride themselves on their intelligence and their damn model like good looks so everyone speaks fluent English (and looks beautiful while speaking it in a not so beautiful accent)Speaking of BEAUTIFUL accents, after we sat down on the bus on stumbled two just as lost as we were boys and asked if we were going to Mysteryland.
Hi Carrie and Fin! This is how we met our camping buddies, from, you guessed it, ENGLAND!!!!! (God save the queen la la la) it gets better though (what, how it’s already so good Shenin) they’re from Bristol!! Cue Shenin and April’s skins fantasy. Ok so we get off the bus at what we think is the right stop with like another 10 or so looking more lost than us people. 
Have you ever been about 10kms away from a festival looking right at it but seeing absolutely no way to get there. That was our predicament. My plan was to scale a wall and walk on some dodgy bridge but then luckily an Uber or taxi driver? dropped us off there, he did 2/3 car loads and asked €5 each from us. Whatever, just take us there!!!!
Yay for Europe, you CAN take food, and alcohol in. Even Nangs (balloons) and drugs because we barely got searched, but not a go pro stick. That shit is verboten. April flirted her way out of it though and we got it in. Pre-purchased pop up tents were a win, and we got 2 extras. One for luggage and 3 for sleeping! Only one double inflatable mattress though which April got all weekend. 
The hard ground was worth it for me thoughhhhhh I am going to go ahead and say the best way to meet anyone is at a music festival. It is literally the best time you can’t not love eachother!!!!
The venue was HUGE. Filled with crazy costumes, activities, weird stages, hot pink inflatable churches with 60+ old people djing, bungy jumping, young people dressed as old people racing in wheelchairs, getting lost in neverneverland, walking on water with mermaids and a pirate ship. 
I was constantly confused but never the less amazed. There’s too much to talk about but I’ll sum it up like this.
Sorry to April for (losing my passport) not sleeping with you at all, sorry to Carrie for stealing Fin from you all weekend, sorry to the guy who gave us free MD and I got caught with the bag and got it confiscated, sorry to the guy with a shit personality just for being a shit human and not wanting to be our friend because April has a boyfriend, and finally,
sorry Fin that we didn’t have more time.
(check around 2.19)
synchronisities 