I was looking forward to flying to Cebu this October and get my Cebu Starbucks Mug, but unfortunately my trip to the Netherlands coincided with my Southern City date; I chose Holland over Cebu of course.

After seven days of photographing the cities around Holland, I still didn’t have my target mugs from this country, The Netherlands and Amsterdam mugs. Starbucks Coffee shops are not as rampant here like in our country. I think I counted just four near our vicinity, the word “near” quite relative as I didn’t see even one Starbucks during our tour.

The final day came and I still didn’t have my mugs! We were late going to the airport as our bodies finally gave up on us and didn’t let us wake on time. After all our papers were done, the first order of the day was to find the Starbucks Café in the airport; and Schiphol Airport is freaking gargantuan! It’s like Megamall only more confusing.

After almost half an hour of running around, we finally found it.

I paid €12.95 for each mug (it was much cheaper in Starbucks Amsterdam by €3.00) without flinching. It cost Php781.00 in our currency, almost double the price of the Starbucks Mugs being sold in the Philippines.

I was nevertheless very happy with my purchase, I finally got my windmills and Singel Canal Mugs; my trip to The Netherlands is at last complete.

Amsterdam indeed lives up to its title of being the capital of The Netherlands, there are tons and tons of people in the street. I was a bit intimidated at first to shoot with the throngs of European people moving en masse, but I got on with the flow after a few clicks of the shutter.

We visited canals after canals surrounding the center of the city; Amsterdam is not nicknamed as the Venice of The Netherlands for nothing. I love everything about the city; its postcard perfect architecture, the multitude of bikes, the trains, even the infamous red light district, the restaurants, the quirky stores, the food and most especially the grand canals. All of these make me want to quickly find flights to Amsterdam again, and I’m not even halfway through my vacation.