Amsterdam

At the end of 2008 my family and I went traveling for six weeks around Europe. It was a holiday of a lifetime - something I will always remember. But why was it so special? Well for one, I know that, with me at 20 years old, my brother at 17 years old, and my sister at nine years old, there are only few holidays left for us to enjoy all together. Before we know it, we'll be overseas, working, simply don't want to go on family holidays anymore, or maybe Mum and Dad will limit their trips to taking Olivia only.

Regardless, I feel the need to share with you the main locations we visited:

• Amsterdam
• London
• Chamonix
• Aosta
• Geneva

One of my favourite places that we visited was Amsterdam. It is unlike any other place I've ever been to, full of a vibrant buzz and the people are just so friendly. I also have family in Amsterdam and it was great to get to visit them and to visit their houses.

While in Amsterdam, we went on a 20km bike ride out to the countryside, passing windmills and canals - such a special experience. We also traveled to Leidseplein - I loved it there - my brother and sister both went ice skating, and we sat next to people enjoying glasses of wine and chatting, all rugged up as it snowed prettily around us. The transport in Amsterdam was a cinch - easy to get around on trams and bicycles.

We did do the expected- by visiting the Red Light District - and I found it utterly fascinating. It wasn't as bad as I imagined it might be. Mind you, when we went it was only about 10.30pm (so there weren't too many drunkards around), and the girls didn't appear to be drugged out of their minds, as I thought they might be. In fact, many of them looked like they really took care of themselves and had nice outfits... still, the journalist in me wanted to find out how they'd made it into that industry? Did they enjoy it?

We visited Anne Frank's house, which I found very interesting and worthwhile, and it was fascinating to see how she and her family had lived during their time in hiding.

But if you want to know what I loved the most, it was easy for me to choose. I loved riding my bike past all the little houses, side-by-side with their curtains wide open. Families were sitting around pianos, kids were doing puzzles together, a woman was patting her dog, a man typed at his laptop - it was a very private insight into the lives of the average Amsterdam-ers. Because we rode our bikes on the ferries over into suburbia, we were able to access these suburban roads and therefore gained a great perspective on life in Amsterdam for the locals. The charming notion of revealing your inner life to others by keeping your house open to the outside is special and, certainly in my suburb in Sydney, does not happen. Everybody keeps their doors shut and their shutters closed - but not in Amsterdam.

Here are some photos from my time in Amsterdam.