Meeting the Blogger in Amsterdam

So, I’m back from Amsterdam and I had the most wonderful time. You know that feeling when you’ve waited years to visit a certain place and then you’re worried it won’t meet your expectations? Well, Amsterdam was everything I imagined it to be. I fell in love with it on the spot. But more on Amsterdam later, let’s start with ‘Meet the Blogger’.

‘Meet the Blogger’ was an event aimed at interior design and lifestyle bloggers, so I knew I would be in the minority with my museum travel blog. But nonetheless, they put on a great show and it’s always fun to mingle and network with other bloggers, regardless of what genre they blog in. I reconnected with some lovely ladies I’d previously met at The Hive, e.g. Tina from Flying House, Bärbel from Farbenfreundin and Ricarda from 23qm Stil. And something which is always exciting, is getting to meet people in real life that you’ve just previously just conversed with online or whose blogs you have already been reading, such as Ania from The New Diplomat’s Wife, Ilaria from un23 ilaria, and Rina from Finding Dutchland. Of course, I also met many new people and discovered many new blogs, but they would be too many to all list here.

The prize for best business card at Meet the Blogger has to go to Nancy from Nice Nancy, who handed out little bars of chocolate to everyone. I love the slightly tongue in cheek slogan – “tweet it before you eat it!” It totally sums up what has happened to meal times in these days of blogging and instagram-ing.

Despite all the presentations and other conference ‘trimmings’, the highlight of Meet the Blogger for me was undoubtedly the canal boat ride on the evening of the first day. I just couldn’t get enough of the views. I’ll try and post some more pictures over on Facebook, but here’s a little snapshot to whet your appetite:

The second day of Meet the Blogger was dedicated entirely to ‘Woonbeurs’, the Netherlands’ major interior design trade fair. I have to admit I wasn’t as excited about this as all the interior design bloggers around me, so I slipped away to visit a couple more museums in the morning. But I did come back in the afternoon to have a look around, since, you know, I like pretty things too :)

One of the first things I stumbled up, was a stall by the Textile Museum. I swear, I did not know they had a stall. Considering how big the Woonbeurs was, my museum radar must have been in good working order! I think the Textile Museum deserves a post of its own, so here’s a small collection of some others things that caught my eye at Woonbeurs.

Many thanks to every who helped to make ‘Meet the Blogger Amsterdam’ such a great event! I really enjoyed myself.

Right, I’m away now to sort through the hundreds of photos I took in Amsterdam, so that I can tell you more later in the week about the twelve (!) museums I visited there. Hope you all have a great week, and Happy Museum Monday everyone!