Amsterdam

Heyyoo

Soo I this past weekend I took a little vacation to Amsterdam for 3 days with Amanda, Sam, Kate, Izzy, Cori, Cori's friend Bryttie, and Izzy's friend Grace. Our flight left London Luton at 6.50 Friday morning, so for some reason we thought it would be smart to leave for the airport late thursday night. We thought we would be better off sleeping a few hours in the airport before checking in rather than maybe an hour or 2 here before we would have to navigate the night busses to victoria and whatnot. I mean we left our dorm at 11.15pm so we could catch the tube to Victoria station where we had to take a bus that left at midnight to Luton. This was a poor decision. Sleep at the airport was uncomfortable and didn't really happen. Eventually, 5.00 rolled around and we got through security and again, sat and waited. We arrived at the airport in Amsterdam around 9...flight is about an hour, with a 1 hour time change. We bought a train ticket to central station, from where we would take a tram towards our hostel. Turns out, we didn't need to buy any tickets, because they never checked for them. Oh well, it was only 3 euro. We got to our hostel around 10ish...it was awesome!! Literally infinitely better than the hostel in Paris. Great location. Very friendly, young staff. It had a large bar and lounge where everyone at the hostel could hang out and just chill. It was very cool. It's called the Flying Pig Uptown...consistently rated one of the top 10 hostels in the world.

Anyway, after we got settled, we searched for food. We found a place where we could get a proper Dutch breakfast, which included eggs, bread, croissants, ham...it was very delicious. After we got some food in our stomachs, we embarked on a journey to find a place that offered canal tours. Amsterdam is a very unique city, in that the city center has large, navigable canals running throughout, its quite cool. We finally found a spot that offered tours, and it lasted about an hour. It was very interesting and different viewpoint to see the city from the water. After the cruise...nap time.

Everyone was pretty wiped after the day of travel, so we took a longer than expected nap. We eventually went out and got dinner around 7, and after that split up for a little bit. Izzy and Kate didn't get to Amsterdam until later Friday night because Izzy had to work at her internship on Friday, so our group was minus them on Friday. Cori and Bryttie wanted to go out on Friday night, so they did, while Sam, Amanda, and I went exploring. Our first stop...the red light district.

Ok, so right now, I want you to think of what you think the red light district is like. Draw a mental picture. Now, if you had the same assumptions as I did, I ask that you erase that picture completely, and replace it with what I'm about to describe. The red light district is an amazing place. It is lively, safe, clean, and overall very interesting. Prostitution in Amsterdam is legal. It is regulated, and very safe actually. The women are their own bosses, have to acquire licenses (and can only do so after testing for and being clean of STD's). They rent out a room, which includes a window to stand in and attract customers, for 8 hour shifts, for 75-150 euro, depending on the time and location. A standard 15 minute session costs a customer 50 euro (we learned all of this on the walking tour we took on Saturday). The thing I didn't expect, and that struck me the most astonishing, is that the women are gorgeous! at least for the most part. I was expecting dirty, nasty looking women. Not the case. They are young, beautiful, and really, just engaging in a very lucrative business opportunity in Amsterdam. The red light district if bright, organized, and...completely different than anything I have ever seen before lol. I expected the atmosphere to be like the neighborhood outside our hostel in Paris...not at all the case. Anyway, if you ever get a chance to go to Amsterdam, visit the red light district, I think you'll be surprised. Oh, and you can't take pictures of the women in the windows...rumor has it that they will literally come out of the room, take your camera, and smash it on the ground.

Anyway, Izzy and Kate and Grace were now with us, and on Saturday we took a walking tour of the city. The cool thing is, is that it is technically free. The guides make all of their wages off of tips, so they have to be good. Our guide's name was Geert (pronounced with a flemmy H sound instead of the G). He was awesome! He took us everywhere in the city, showed us everything we would want to see, and more. He was very knowledgeable and told some pretty funny stories. There are bicycles everywhere in Amsterdam! Literally, everywhere. So, naturally, one of the stories he told was about bicycles. In the canals, there are literally thousands of bicycles. Yes, you read that right, IN the canals. Its a "joke" in Amsterdam that people play when they get drunk. They walk out of the bar, find 2 bicycles that aren't locked, and throw them into the canal to see who's makes the bigger splash. Mean, I know, but they find it hilarious, until it happens to their own bicycle. But, the funny thing is, is that you can't get in trouble by the police, because Amsterdam law says that there has to be evidence of you committing a crime. And, well, the evidence is at the bottom of the canal. It's said that people trying to steal bicycles will just throw them in the canals if they see police coming, cuz then technically they didn't break any laws. Laws in Amsterdam are funny, I'll touch on that later.

The tour lasted 3.5 hours, so afterwards we were quite tired. Nap time again. This time nap time didn't last as long. After our nap, we went to this Moroccan restaurant that Geert had recommended...it was delicious!! I had some chicken Kabob things, great life choice on my part. After dinner we were planning on doing a tour that was actually a bar crawl, where you go to 6 different bars/clubs and get a drink at each and see what they're like, all for 15 euro. Dinner went longer than we expected, so we missed that, and instead just went back to the hostel and chilled in the lounge area for a while and we all called it a pretty early night.

Sunday we had a lot to get done...first stop, Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank house was amazing! It was incredible to see the secret annex and experience what the Frank's and many other hiding out during WWII went through. Again, if you're ever in Amsterdam, this is a must see place. Of the 8 of use in Amsterdam, 5 bought the Diary of Anne Frank after going to the house...the other 3 are going to borrow it when people are done reading it. After going to the house, I think that we are required to read the book far too early in school. It should be read either in late high school or college. It's too hard to grasp what actually happened and the complex situation that occurred during this time. Needless to say, I will be re-reading the book soon.

After the Anne Frank house we went on a bicycle tour of the city...It was soo much fun!! It allowed us to see a lot of things that are too far away to walk, and we covered a vast majority of the city. It lasted for about 2.5 hours, and towards the end, we had to ride through downtown to get back to where we started. It was such a rush riding in the street with cars zooming past and everything...again, I would recommend this to anyone, if you can ride a bicycle that is.

After the bicycle tour we went towards the red light district because Izzy, Kate, and Grace hadn't seen it yet. There we ate a chinese restaurant, which was delicious, and afterwards went to get dessert pancakes, which were amazing and HUGE!!! Imagine a huge plate, with a huge pancake on it, covered in chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and vanilla ice cream...literally amazing. After that we walked back to the hostel and chilled in the lounge for our last night.

The next morning we left the hostel at 6.15, caught a bus to the airport, and ended up getting back to the dorms around 12.45. I had to leave for class around 1.30, so I wasn't home much. I didn't get back until about 8.30pm...it was a long day. But hey, the sun has now been out 3 days in a row!!

Yesterday I went to Hyde Park, fell asleep for a while there, and then rented bicycles with Amanda and Jordan, and biked through the park for like 3 hours...so much fun. I'll put up photos on facebook soon, it was a beautiful day!

Beans comes to London on Friday!! SO EXCITED :) The Battista brothers will be reeking havoc in the streets of London for 8 days! No, actually we'll be doing a lot of site-seeing and giving Beans a feeling for what life in London life is like...should be very fun.

Cheers