"Welcome to Amsterdam where Americans go to be Free."
Yes, we could travel every day for the rest of our lives and still never experience all the world has to offer, however, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We will be visiting Amsterdam again in the near future. We had one hell of a time in Amsterdam. Had I traveled here back in my college days where life's motto was, " “You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does," I have a feeling I would have had somewhat of a different experience. Seeing as I have people and things in my life, now, that are not worth the risk, I refrained from fulfilling my youthful indulgence of lighting up, smoking a reefer, puff puff pass, or whatever you want to call it. Oh, and not to mention the huge chance that for me to succeed in finding employment over here, it will require an extensive drug screen that I am just not in the mood to fail. :) Timing is everything people. Don't get me wrong, we definitely lived it up in Amsterdam and feel that we did get the full experience. This was one of those trips where we were unable to pronounce the name of every single street we walked down, each bar we walked into we met new friends, we sipped on beers we had never heard of and definitely made some memories that will last a lifetime.
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| First picture of the trip. Heading from the train station to the hostel. |
Eric had the day off Friday so we hit the road early enough to make it to Amsterdam by lunch time. The rest of crew would be arriving late Friday night so we decided to go ahead and check into our hostel when we arrived. I will let the few pictures I took once we checked in explain the conditon of our accomodations.
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| The stairs leading up to our room. Eric was wondering how long before I missed a step and tumbled face first down these stairs. They were very steep but I am proud to say that never happened. |
I'll spare you all the bathroom pictures! Thank goodness there were enough people in our group to fill the 7 bed room because I am not sure if sharing a room in Amsterdam with unknown "travelers" would have allowed for a clean drug screen upon our return to Germany. Traveling Europe on a budget makes you not only appreciate what you have but most importantly, it makes you realize that we are all more than capable of living below our means and enjoy it at the same time! Staying in hostels has only added to my experience, not taken away.
After checking in and freshening up, we headed out to grab some lunch and explore the city. There is a ton of Asian inspired restaurants and Italian. We stopped at one pub that over looked a busy square. As soon as we realized that a burger costs equivalent to $20 and a simple beer would have been about $10, we subtley snuck out a side door in search a much cheaper place. We found a cheap little Italian place down the street.
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| Leaving our hostel heading to lunch |
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| I enjoyed a lemoncelo and Eric had a beer. |
Eric's pizza was excellent but I was unable to finish my lunch. It tasted kind off "off" and I kept making myself think they had put weed in the sauce. After lunch, it was a unanimous decision that our next stop would be the
Red light district. Our hostel was only about a 10 minute walk. Along the way, it was really evident just how picturesque Amsterdam is. Although they are man made, Amsterdam consists of a series of canal systems that were built in and around the city back in the 17th century obviously used for trade. They planted trees all along the canals and many of them have now grown over the canals. It really was absolutely beautiful walking by these canals as they sun was shining through these trees and reflecting off the water. I don't think my pictures really do it justice but it really was breathtaking. Also, the buildings along the canals are very similar to those in other European countries. They are all built one ontop of the other. It is interesting too because the buildings are hundreds of years old and the builders kind of half assed their construction. Many of them are literally leaning to the left, right and some evening leaning foward as they foundation was not properly built. Some people told me that there is not much they can do for them and that they will eventually continue to lean in the direction they are going until they fall over and then others told me that eventually they will go in and re do the foundation and hopefully save these buildings.
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| Here you can see the black building is is leaning forward a good bit. It used to be perfectly lined up with the buildings on either side. |
Next stop was the Red Light District. I am not really sure what words to use to describe this area of town. As I said earlier in the post, Amsterdam is a very beautiful, picturesque city. Take that and then throw in a handful of city blocks that have naked girls dancing in the window and you have the red light district. Pictures are forbidden in this area so we had to be sneaky and creative with our picture taking.
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| About to enter to red light district. You can see the red lights to the right. |
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| This, my friends, is what you see up and down the red light district. |
There were rows and rows of these "windows" where the women stand, dance and entice the men to choose them. You would see about 7 to 8 of these glass doors and then, so strategically placed, would be bars and LOTS of sex shops. The rooms the girls stand in look really dingy and gross. They have floor to ceiling gross looking white tile with a cot in the back. When they are "busy," they close the red velvet curtains. To be honest, as gross as it is, you can't help but be intrigued by the district and, surprisingly, it is not a dirty area. You see families and tourist alike strolling down the red light distric like it's just another day in the park. Believe it or not, we found some of our favorite bars in the area. Ok....enough of that. We then continued our tour through Amsterdam. We found a hostel that was having a 2 for 1 drink special so we hopped right in. Hard to pass up a deal that good.
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| Condom art |
We then popped into a pub that we later found out was the oldest pub in Amsterdam.
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| We met a really fun group of local guys that gave us a lesson on what size beer to choose and why. |
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| Eric confused over what size beer to order after our lesson |
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| There were swans everywhere |
By this time is about 9pm and we were supposed to meet the rest of our crew at 10:30. We decided to head back towards the hostel but had time to pop into one more little pub near our place. The place was full but this nice couple (can't remember where they are from) saw us and told us we could sit with them.
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| Our new friends |
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| Admiring Erics military ID |
We met up with everyone back at the hostel and decided to head out for a bit longer.
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| Eric being a creeper |
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| Apparently Amsterdam is known for their french fries and dipping sauces |
We woke up the next morning and knew the first place we wanted to go to was the Van Gogh museum. It was about a 30 minute walk but in a city like this, walking everywhere is the best part. One thing you will learn, though, after 24 hours in Amsterdam is that you are much more likely to get run over by a bike, than a car. Bikes are the main source for transportation here and believe me, you better watch your back. We had a few close calls but thankfully no one was hit.
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| Outside the Van Gogh museum |
As I learned in Italy, I really am not much of an art connoisseur, however, I did thoroughly enjoy the Van Gogh paintings. The paintings that were displayed in the Accademia in Italy were all done in the 200's and 300's, lacked color and were not very exciting to me. Not to say they are not incredible but I have come to learn that I tend to like paintings that reflect my personality....loud and colorful. I think Van Gogh's life story is extremely interesting and it intrigues me how such a depressed and bitter man can create such colorful and vibrant pieces. Unlike the Accademia, I was able to spend a good amount of time in this museum browing his work as well as reading about his life and much to sudden death.
After the museum, four of us went to enjoy an afternoon drink while Matt and Richard did the Heineken museum.
After the brewery tour, we all met back up and decided to do a river cruise. This was the best 13 euro I have ever spent. The cruise took us up and down all the canal streets and gave us a better view of the city itself. I was glad we were able to atleast boat by the Anne Frank House. I tried for days to get tickets but everyone I checked, they were copmletely sold out. I hear that touring the house is alone worth another trip back to Amsterdam. You only have 30 minutes to tour the house once you are in but I have heard it's emotionally over whelming and being in there really makes your mind wonder. I went picture crazy on this boat tour.
After our boat cruise, we had an authentic Indonesian mean for dinner. We had what they call a rice table. They serve a bowl of white rice and then a bunch of authentic Indonesian food to go with it. I am defintiely a fan of trying everything once but out of the 10 or so dishes they served, I could not find one thing that I liked. The food was overwhelming and they are big on coating everthing in a thick peanut sauce which I am not in the least. Of course we still had an absolute blast. The experience is what it is all about. After dinner, we made it out for a few more drinks but after getting in at 2:30am this morning, we decided to call it a night a little before midnight.
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| In the middle of the red light district, they put these VERY easily accesible urinals that the guys took full advantage of! |
Funny side story but Eric and I were trying to figure out if we thought our parents would walk us down to the red light district if we were to have come when we were younger to ensure we get the full Amsterdam experience. I said no but Eric said yes. He did remind me that they happily strolled us down Bourbon Street at the ripe old ages of 9, 10 and 11. So, would ya'll?? :)
