Monday, February 16, 2009

Amsterdam




As soon as we stepped out of the cab we knew we were in the land of dreams because we were immediately greeted by a familiar scent wafting through the air. After checking into the hotel and throwing our bags down we decided to go explore and find a coffeeshop.


Instead of being the smart college educated students that we are and buy a tram ticket to the area we were going, we decided to walk about 25 minutes instead hoping to pass many coffeeshops and cool places on the way.


Before I went to Amsterdam I thought it would be coffeeshops on every corner, everyone smoking all the time, and just general debauchery throughout. I was wrong about this and was dissapointed that we had to actually make some effort to find these places we had been researching.

Once we got by the Red Light District, I realized this is the Amsterdam everyone is talking about. Coffeeshops, sex shops, bars, restaurants, basically anything and everything you want you could get around here.


Near the Red Light District is the Sex Museum which we visited for 3 euro and it was hysterical, frightening, and liberating I would say. Everything is just so open and nothing is considered taboo there which is a major change from the US.

We also visited the Anne Frank House, which was incredibly fascinating and heartbreaking. Part of it is really modern and then other parts are like the actual floor and wood and rooms they lived in, you can still see the pictures on the wall Anne had in her room. So waiting in line for about a half hour in the freezing cold was definitely worth the wait.

Amsterdam as a city is really beautiful with little canals everywhere and cobblestone streets. Everyone rides there bike everywhere, I almost got hit by about 30 bikes because I would be absent mindly standing in the center of the bike lane. There are even parking garages for bikes! It's so cool but everyone looks like Miss Gulch with their baskets on front peddling down the road.

Heineken flows like water and instead of stating what kind of beer you want, when you ask for a beer you get a Heineken either a pint of a half pint. Clearly being from London where we down pints quicker than my mom would like to know, we ordered the proper size beer...a pint.

Another plus about Amsterdam is the food. They definitely take advantage of all of the high tourists coming out of coffeeshops because when you do you can buy food all over the streets. Waffles, pastries, french fries (with mayo, weird?), pizza, anything you want you can find. The waffles were unbelievably delicious covered in strawberries and homemade whipped cream.

Overall, my weekend in Amsterdam was great, complete with Purple Haze, White Widow, Heineken, and more food than I could ever normally consume.


2 comments:

  1. hahahaha i love you. it sounds wonderful

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  2. that comment was from me i dont know how to work this high tech blogging business

    ReplyDelete