Christof's Blog: Two very different trips to European capitals

Two weeks ago, I have been to London to visit my friend Florian. As I am on a train from Amsterdam to Hamburg now, I thought I might as well combine my two city trip experiences in one blog post. For a little contrast as well as out of laziness.

So let’s start with my impression of London. I had been there before and the typical tourist program was off my list this time. So Florian – who used to work for my beloved employer and is now Marketing Director (love the title ;) ) for a start-up – and I put the weekend under the credo “Clubbing, Shopping and Fine Dining”. As he lives in a fancy area close to the Tower Bridge, we were in a good position to do all of this and even more. So we went to some really nice restaurants, e.g. an Italian called Tentazioni, and of course to some clubs.

Florian’s office is in Shoreditch, which is quite en vogue with young Londoners at the moment and attracts a lot of artists as well as a nice mixture of clubbers and hip people. Apart from that the clubs are affordable and you can have a good night out without the side effect of paying your monthly salary just to get in and drink – as you can in the Westend. Still, Florian and I managed to spend great weekend and a lot of money. A great brunch in Notting Hill, where we spotted the actress that plays Ginnie Weasley in the Harry Potter movies – and a stroll over the Portobello Market made my London experience complete. And as you can see from the pictures I have done at least a little sightseeing.

And now for a place that I haven’t been before. I have never been to the Netherlands, I have never been to Amsterdam and I hadn’t seen Meike, a friend of mine from university, for a while. Three reasons to go to Amsterdam. As I was also able to combine this with seeing our old intern Martin and another friend from school whom I hadn’t seen for seven years, I definitely had enough reasons to go to the Dutch capital. And Amsterdam didn’t disappoint me.

Friday morning we decided to visit Franziska (the friend from school) at Knowmads. This program is a mixture of a start-up and a school where young people share ideas and learn from speakers and each other. We were invited to listen to an interesting speaker too and I had to do a spontaneous 20-minute Q&A session about my job and the big G (like PowerPoint karaoke, but no PowerPoint involved). The discussions with those cool people were really interesting and it was remarkable to see what kind of alternative learning concepts are out there.

Afterwards, we went to see the Grachten, the red light district and central Amsterdam. Meike had borrowed some bikes from her colleagues, so we got the genuine Amsterdam experience. Overall, I really liked Amsterdam and will definitely come back. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. And all this was cheap and cheerful – so quite a contrast to my epicureous escapades in London.

Now, let’s see what my two weeks in Hamburg will bring and I have to say that at the moment I already miss Dublin. Seems that after a year it is slowly finding a way to my heart and I even caught myself calling it “home” lately. And with my cool flat mate, nicest colleagues in the world and the sun (yes, we had some), there is a lot to look forward to. Sorry for the tacky ending.
By the way – I am still open to suggestions for the next few city trips – so comment on this, my Facebook, Twitter or whatever you prefer and I might join you. Junge Leute zum Mitreisen gesucht. ;)

London Bridge at sunrise