I got to spend last weekend in Amsterdam, as I was invited to be a part of my friend Chloe’s hen party celebrations. Chloe is one of my oldest and dearest friends (and coincidentally, so is Liam, the person she’ll be marrying) and though I was friendly with one or two of the other guests, Chloe was the main person there that I knew very well before leaving. That’s the third year in a row where I’ve found myself in a situation like that, and sure enough it was just as good as both of the others.
After my trip to Portugal in 2023, this was only the second time that I have visited another country and for me, a big part of the fun was just walking around the streets with a group of good people. Of course, that doesn’t make for very interesting reading, so I’ll elaborate on the new experiences a little, rather than just saying “I enjoyed being in a nice place with nice people”.
The first item on our itinerary was a peaceful riverboat cruise. The captain of the boat was a delightful man who even gave us Stroopwafel biscuits. These were absolutely delicious and, dangerously, after they’d been passed around all the passengers, the tin (with loads left) was just sitting on the table near me. I could have eaten every single one of them, and indeed, I did hear their enticing siren’s call “eat every single one of us, Adam, leave no survivors” but fortunately, I was able to resist because my soul was busy gorging itself at the same time, taking in the new sights, and enjoying the gentle bobbing of the boat. The captain even told us a really nice story about a bridge. I don’t remember what it was though. However, I do remember that he said if we hug as we pass under that bridge, the love will last forever, so he told all the passengers to hug or even kiss each other as we went under. Chloe and I, sitting next to each other, had a good old cuddle as we went under, so that’s our friendship secured for all eternity. Not that it wasn’t already, but it’s nice to have a bit of bridge magic in the mix for good measure. Since the captain was talking about eternity, I suspect that’s a moment I’ll always remember very clearly too. Gosh, what a nice little boat ride. I wish I was a boat.
The next big attraction was going to the tulip fields for a day. Flowers are really nice, so I think the appeal of that speaks for itself. We spent the day wandering in the sun, having fun, and taking in the sights. Even the bins there looked like they were artistically crafted sculptures. At one point we went in a maze, and at the centre of the maze there was a long queue to go into an elevated wooden gazebo thing. Comically, it was just a regular old gazebo and for some reason, despite it being pretty big, people were only going in one group at a time. You could say that it was an anti-climax after you have to wait a good 10 minutes or so to get in, but I’d say that the absurdity of it all makes the whole experience worthwhile. We got to experience some first-hand obnoxiousness from other tourists who were impatient to get to a self-check-out we were using, which was a nice validation that we’re all nice people and they aren’t. Meanwhile, we also got to hop around on wooden platforms in a body of water (I’m sure I could see the bones of those who had fallen in under the waves) and go inside an old fashioned windmill as well (which ironically, had a shorter, faster moving queue than the ordinary gazebo). There was a safety sign in there and I thought “Oh yeah, ha ha ha, how dangerous, a windmill” but then I saw somebody getting decapitated by the windmill blades (in my imagination) and it all made sense.
This could really be an exceedingly long blog post, because almost every minute of every day was filled with some kind of fun – but I’ll end with one particularly amusing anecdote. We played some hen party games, and one of them was based around Liam being asked questions in a pre-recorded video. Chloe had to guess how he was going to answer each of the questions, and to her credit, she got almost all of the right. With one notable exception. The question was “If you could have any super power, what would it be?” and knowing that Liam is a top-quality human being, I said, “Oh, I bet he’ll say that he’d like to take away all of your sadnesses and anxieties so that he can ensure that your life is filled with nothing but happiness.” Chloe and all of the other hens agreed that that was probably what he would say, or at least some variation of it, and then we unpaused it to find out what power Liam would like. “Teleportation,” he said, without further elaboration. That gave us all a good laugh.
Though for me, the biggest appeal, as with pretty much every trip I’ve been on, was the people I went with. Chloe is one of my very best friends and even after we’ve known each other for 13 years, we’re still gaining new experiences and forming precious new memories together – back when I was giving her cookies in university lectures, who would have thought that we’d one day be strolling around the streets of Amsterdam together in the dead of night? Not me. I’m sure that there’ll be many other such experiences in the future of our now bridge-blessed eternal friendship. Grace, meanwhile, (who to be fair, I had met a fair few times before) has a delightfully calming energy and provided a level of Pokémon-themed fun to the trip, gave me solidarity as a fellow not-very-well travelled person, though it was a shame to have to break the news to her that she snores. Rad, who I’d only met briefly once before, played the role of the level-headed centre of the group who also somehow managed to be immune from all forms of intoxication – you can’t overstate the value of having someone like that in any group. Melissa, who I met for the first time at the airport, is the kind of positive person that I love to be around and her brightly coloured hair was not only stylish, but practical when it came to spotting her in crowds. Last but certainly not least, was my new best pal Lily, who not only has the credit for doing 90% of the booking and organising (maybe more), but now has many unique distinctions, like being the only person I’ve ever shared a roll-on deodorant with, the person who has shushed me in the eye the most times, and the only person who’s ever been kind enough to teach me how to do sexual harassment. It’s not a skill I’ll ever use, but, hey, the fire brigade probably knows how to start fires as well as how to put them out. What an incredible bunch.
Here’s my favourite picture from the trip:
I like it because I am in the centre, but it’s a pity that Chloe is in the back, since it’s her hen party. It’s a shame you can’t see our hearts, because she’d be more prominent then, since she was in all of them.
