There's no other place I'd rather leave my tooth: Amsterdam

Amsterdam was bound to be an adventure before the trip was even planned. And if I'm being honest here, it never really was planned. A couple of texts back and forth with Scott and we knew that we were going on a trip - the "where" question wasn't really answered until we had a little rock, paper, scissors match a month before the trip date.

I have to admit something... I made a mistake when booking this flight. I booked my flight with a budget airline, and I am NEVER. DOING. THAT. AGAIN. Granted they're perfect for short flights, but when you could have a direct flight, leg room and free alcohol for seven hours, PAY THE EXTRA MONEY. It's a lesson in quality of life.

Instead of my normally relaxing, enlightening and carefree trip, I spent the flight convinced that I was going to miss my connecting flight (because some dumb family tried to travel on expired passports, and OF COURSE their luggage was already loaded onto the plane, so there goes an hour - positive side of this? I immediately took the empty row that the family would have sat in, resulting in looks of disdain but also admiration from the very full airplane).

So at this point, you're like "what is the issue," right? WELL, as I said, I thought I was going to be late and get this... I had to pay for water. WATER. I could dive into this more, but you're just wondering when I'm gonna start showing pictures of my f*%!ed up face, am I right? Scroll down if you need to see them right now.

I made my connecting flight; the pilot of course mysteriously got us there on time even though we left an hour late (my question, why can't we get in an hour early when we leave on time?). I arrived in Amsterdam extremely sore after my horrible night of dozing off in the most cramped space imaginable (no lucky extra space on that second flight). But I had made it to Amsterdam and could not for the life of me wipe the grin off of my face.

I seamlessly found Scott, and we proceeded to find our mode of transportation for the weekend: bicycles. I then began to direct Scott to all of my favorite spots around the city. Our first stop was the rows and rows of cheese shops along the canal, where we stepped in every single one for the best cheese samples imaginable. Stop two was Brouwerij't IJ - a personal favorite and must do when in Amsterdam!

Here, we ended up meeting this awesome American family, who we ended up sharing a beer with! They just stumbled on the place, but I think it may just be their favorite spot now too.

The adventure continued as we biked along the streets, canals and bridges, my smile as vibrant as ever.

And then, tragedy struck. Or rather, I struck... the curb. There was a roadblock up in the bike lane, the girl in front of me slammed to a halt. I too slammed to a halt, swerving to miss the person in front of me. And what did I swerve into but the wonderful sidewalk that was right next to me. And then I was on said sidewalk. 

A man ran over, already calling 911. Scott was still biking on ahead unaware. He eventually realized I was nowhere in sight. I told the man that I was NOT going in an ambulance OR a hospital at all for that matter, so he immediately hung up.

Then I realized something... it wasn't asphalt floating around in my mouth. IT WAS MY TOOTH. Scott promptly called an Uber (after locking our bikes up, of course!), and we were off to the ER.

And as always, the Dutch hospitality did not fail me. As we waited (which wasn't even for very long - there was just one man with a stubbed toe ahead of me), we had some delightful free espresso - a personal highlight of the visit.

And them came the stitches...

And then I was free to go! Scott was ready to bring me to the hostel for the night when I turned to him with a look of horror. It was Saturday night in Amsterdam... we were going out! (Although I did warn him that this was the end of making friends, as I now looked like a monster). The night consisted of super sweet bartenders showing me their scars from their own bike accidents and Scott and I laughing nonstop about the fact that I had actually gotten into a bike accident on the first day in Amsterdam. WHO DOES THAT.

Day two. (I have to warn you that the rest of the trip was quite perfect, so if you only read this to laugh about all of the dumb things that I do while traveling, then your part is over, and I'm not mad at you for stopping). I woke up realizing that I had to get back on my bike. It was either that or spend the next ten years of my life terrified of bikes. Sooo off we went for the bikes!!

Stop one of the day was The Avocado Show. For some reason, we decided to order the nachos with guacamole. I bit into the first one, immediately realizing that it was a very huge mistake (my jaw was also in a lot of pain from the crash sooo chewing was a bit of an issue). The alternative? Avocado Sorbet: NOT BAD.

Then, on to Museumplein, a drink on the canal (where Scott had his first bitterballen) and then relaxing, eating, napping in one of the best parks ever: Vondelpark. 

Then, on to Rembrandtplein and watching the sunset over the canals (at about 10pm - if not later). 

Having only had snacks at the park (albeit, we did have quite a lot of cheese), the munchies hit us late at night. Where better to have that than Amsterdam, where you can have frites and kroket in your hands with the snap of a finger.

Next Day! Breakfast came in the form of Poffertjes (a delectable miniature doughy Dutch pancake). 

And then after some ultra necessary cheese tasting, we headed to what was inevitably the highlight of our day: a canal cruise. In my past experiences in Amsterdam, I've done the super touristy boat cruise, which is, of course, never a disappointment. BUT Scott found us a better option this time around - a small, open top boat that you can bring champagne onto... DONE.

And then, we made the obvious choice of biking to the park for some more napping...

Our final evening consisted of wandering, having our first sit-down dinner, getting caught in the rain, receiving a free umbrella from the nicest bar owner ever, and finding a nice random nook in a cute little bar where we could spend our last evening reminiscing about the good, the bad and the ugly (me).

Hope you enjoyed the tale of Snaggletooth Mary!!!