Amsterdam!

Emilie and I in front of one of the canals

Sorry this has taken me forever, I’ve been so busy! I just got back from a long weekend in Amsterdam (and by just, I mean two days ago). It was so much fun! And SO different than any place I’ve ever been before. To start with, the whole city is built on water so there are canals everywhere. It’s absolutely beautiful. I love it.

Let the stories begin! We (me, Emilie, and Steph) left Glasgow Thursday evening, just as it was beginning to snow! We got to Amsterdam around 8:30ish Thursday night, and then we stopped and ate some delicious airport food (note the sarcasm) for dinner. Getting to our hostel turned out to be quite challenging, especially since we couldn’t read any of the signs in the airport and we had absolutely no idea where we were going. I had the address written down, so we just found a taxi and gave him the address. All of the taxis in Amsterdam are really nice cars… like Mercedes and BMWs. We also got quite the surprise from our cab driver as we told him the address.. he informed us that our hostel was in the Red Light District! He then pointed out that “only 20% is the girls, the rest is the oldest part of Amsterdam!” How pleasant. After arriving at our hostel, we decided to stay in for the night (after all, it was like 10:30-11ish once we finally finished checking in) and get a good night’s sleep before Friday’s adventures.

Friday morning we got up bright and early (okay, so, 9:30) and had our free breakfast in the hostel. We then met up with Rosa! (Rosa is in my sorority back at Chapman, she graduated last year and is now getting her masters in Holland). Rosa showed us all around Amsterdam, we saw the “I Amsterdam” sign, so many museums, canal shops, markets, parks, everything! We split up for a bit after lunch (which consisted of some delicious friets doused in ketchup from ChipsyKing!) so Rosa could meet up with one of her friends on her lunch break and Emilie, Steph and I headed for the Anne Frank House. We walked through the entire house, and it’s been kept pretty close to how it was originally. They encased everything Anne put on the wall, but other than that the rooms are empty. It was also small and dark, and the stairs up to the top level are extremely steep and more like a ladder than a staircase.

ChipsyKing!

Rosa and I in front of the "I Amsterdam" sign

We met up with Rosa again after the Anne Frank House, and then we just walked around some more before she had to leave. We walked her to Amsterdam Centraal and then said our goodbyes! Since most tourists come in from Centraal Station, there are loads of tourist shops right accross the street. Naturally, we stopped in all of them and ended up finding some great deals on canal cruises and museum tickets! We took a few brochures back with us, had dinner, then headed off to explore the other side of our hostel.. the Red Light District. 

The Red Light District is definitely an experience. The windows began literally right next door to our hostel. I mean, everything is CLEARLY marked so you know what you're getting yourself into, but still. You have to get used to it; at least, I did. Once you get past the fact that there are barely-clothed girls dancing for you, it's interesting to see how other people react to them. Exploring the Red Light District was fascinating because it's such a different culture than anything I'm used to. As Emilie pointed out, these girls have absolutely no shame in what they're doing, and the guys that participate clearly aren't embarrassed either. That's something I'll probably never wrap my head around, but hey, if that's how you want to make your living then by all means, go for it. To each their own, right?

The Red Light Distrcit at night.
Like I said, clearly marked.

The other thing about the Red Light District (and Amsterdam in general) is that there are coffeeshops everywhere. (FYI, the difference between coffeeshops and cafes in Amsterdam is that coffeeshops don't necessarily sell coffee. They sell other things, namely marijuana and "magic shrooms"). And people are constantly smoking. After exploring the Red Light District on Friday, all three of us came back to the hostel and took showers to try and get the stank of weed out of our hair. Ick. We were all grateful when we got back to Glasgow just for a breath of fresh(er) air!

Emilie, Steph, and me in front of the Concert Hall (back)
and Van Gogh Museum (right)

Saturday consisted of us wandering Amsterdam aimlessly.. sort of. We took a canal cruise in the morning and had tickets for the Van Gogh museum, but other than that we were completely free. We went back to the I Amsterdam sign, did a bit of shopping, and took a ton of pictures. Here's a tip: if you're looking for boots that keep your feet warm and are comfortable to walk in, you should buy them in a place that is freezing and made up of cobblestone streets. For example, Amsterdam. I bought boots there and I can honestly say my feet were never cold (even though the rest of me was) and they are super comfortable! 

a small portion of the bikes we
had to avoid at all times

Another thing we noticed on Saturday is the vast amount of methods of transportation you have to look out for in Amsterdam. There are bikes that will run you over, vespas, cars, buses, trams, horse-drawn carriages, and people. Just to get across the street, you have to go from the sidewalk, to a bike lane, to a car lane, to a tram lane, to a bus lane, to a car lane, to a bike lane, and then finally back to the sidewalk. Talk about stressful!! 

Sunday we ventured outside of our normal zone to the other side of the city. We walked to the zoo (but didn't go in.. we're poor college students, and we decided we'd rather save the 18 Euros than see animals we can see at any zoo) and then down to the Heineken Experience (which we also didn't go into). On the way, we noticed they were closing the street down for something.. turns out it was for a Jewish WWII memorial! We decided to walk through it to see what it was all about. As we entered, we each were handed a rather large brochure. I'm sure this would have been quite the educational experience if it was not all written in Dutch. Ah well. You win some, you lose some. We had lunch at this place called the Pancake Carousel right by the Heineken Experience (pancakes are really big there) and I had these traditional Dutch things called poffertjes. They're basically miniature pancakes doused in butter and sugar. YUM. We also stopped at a few cafes for some hot chocolate (it was really cold) and I ran into a bit of a dilemma at one of them. I really had to go to the bathroom, so I wandered around the cafe until I came to two doors.. one with an H and one with a D. Unfortunately, I didn't speak Dutch, and there were no pictures or any other distinguishing marks. We ended up asking one of the waiters, who laughed at us, but then pointed us in the right direction (it was the D, in case you were wondering). Good times!

This is the square in front of our hostel.

Well, that's all for now. This turned out to be a lot longer than I had originally planned, oops! I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences in Amsterdam. For more pictures, you can check out my album on facebook! 

Love you!!

Mel