Amsterdam was our last 24 hour stop on our journey. We arrived very early, ready to make the most of our final day. We booked a room in the Van Gogh Hostel, beautifully decorated with the painter’s most famous artwork.

It was going to rain the whole time we were in the city, so we made sure to buy some umbrella’s from a local market before carrying on with our wandering. We stumbled upon a Peace March for a music video and quickly got involved by waving flags around by the ‘I Amsterdam’ sign. Amsterdam was busier than any other city we went to, which is not unusual as the city brings in 20m tourists each year.

Between the three of us, we only had ten euros left to spend, we brought a loaf of bread and a packet of crisps to eat for the next two days. Although we missed out on several museums and restaurants, Amsterdam is unique enough that we didn’t feel like we were missing out.

We walked along the canals, of which there are over 160, and made our way through the small alleys of the city. After some time, we decided to go to a club which was filled with English people. Even though we wanted to immerse ourselves in another culture, it felt homey to be around people who spoke the same language as us.

At about 2am we went back to the ‘I Amsterdam’ sign, to try and get a picture when it was empty. Although several other groups had the same idea, it was empty enough that we got a nice photo in front of the sign. Amsterdam was a lovely city, somewhere we all plan to go back to (this time with some money).

At 5am the next morning, we packed our things and made our way to the train station. We had to board several trains that day and go through two other countries to get back home: Brussels and France. We were incredibly fortunate to go travelling around Europe on trains, but we couldn’t wait to be back in England, at least we could get a home cooked meal.