March 8, Highlight of the flight (gosh what a long flight, who knew Amsterdam is so north?! More north than London!), Sarah, Mel and I were sitting near a boy from University of Delaware who was also studying in Barcelona, he proceeded to talk to us about Barcelona and where he’s been, etc etc when the safety video starts and I say…”Excuse me, hold that thought!” Sarah and Mel were cracking up for 5 minutes, but I’m telling you! I really have a issue with flying now, I mean 13 flights in 6 weeks was kind of tiring and that darn turbulence and cruising thing [Mel actually saw this guy at the bar last week and one thing asked her was “Where’s that girl who was really scared?” -.- ].
After getting to the super high-tech airport after midnight, we went down to the train stop and missed our first train to Amsterdam Centraal. So we waited with our new group of friends for the next train, wondering what our friend Robin could be up to since she skipped classes and had flown alone super early that day, we only could guess 😉 [<3 ya robin!]
We get to Centraal, the main train station in Amsterdam, literally the city surrounds this station, its almost as if the CENTRAAL point of the city (hehe). Sarah leads the way to our hostel which is pretty close by, though the directions they sent included “Pass Hotel Victoria and go down the second alleyway on the right”….they forgot to add “sketchy,” “dark,” and “narrow.” We got to the famous hostel, The Flying Pig Downtown, and realized there was no way of reaching Robin since she was in a different room, I thought it was genius to send her a facebook message…well there wasn’t internet access so that idea failed. We hung out at the bar of the hostel lobby [I forgot to mention this hostel is on the top 10 party hostels of the world] and met some new people, including a very smelly British guy who asked if Sarah was Irish since he thought he heard an accent (American accent=Irish accent?), he claimed to have woken up in Poland that morning but was going to the States soon and then some Latin American countries and that he was in Australia or someplace the week earlier, sounded like a load of BS to me, plus I couldn’t breath so we went upstairs to sleep shortly. I figured out why the hostel gave out free earplugs…the blasting music from the bar was still super loud in our room.
We found Robin at breakfast the next morning, we went to a museum, walked around the main square by Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, then went on a free walking tour from Sandeman’s New Europe Tours. Our tour guide was a jolly man, Mark, from South Africa who stopped in Amsterdam en route to London and happened to stay, than was in the early 90s. We walked everywhere, saw canals, churches, windows, Red Light District, parts of the University of Amsterdam, posh neighborhoods, hippie squatting neighborhoods, famous coffee shops, Rembrandt’s house, Anne Frank Haus, etc.
Mark knew a ton and I really learned a lot about the history of Amsterdam that I had no clue about before, for example, there was a dam on the Amstel river…hence the port city of Amsterdam came to be. The canals were man made hundreds of years ago and are still around, perfectly intact, the history of the prostitution in the city is what was most interesting. Many ships came into the port around afternoon/evening and left in the wee morning hours, the sailors knew they were going to sin in Amsterdam but they realized there wasn’t enough time to go to confession prior to setting sail on the sea, so the sailors would go to the priests prior to the night and would list off how they would sin, the priests would then set a price on these sins and indulgences were granted by the Catholic Church. The Old Church (literally the name) is also technically in the Red Light District, right at the edge, and the Prostitution Information Center is right behind it. There was many brothels in Amsterdam many years ago since they brought forth revenue, the Dutch even today are fairly conservative people, however, they are very tolerate especially when it comes to trade. That’s also a reasons as to why the Dutch took in Jews from Spain during the Inquisition [who brought their diamond trade with them] and later from Russia. The reason to to why so many things are legal today is also due to the tolerance [and business], everything is taxed and regulated, and it doesn’t do harm; well, human trafficking and mafia involvement with the Red Light District still happens, each of the girls pays for a “bodyguard” which many say is the same thing as a pimp, which is illegal. Also, cultivating marihuana is illegal, contrary to what many people think, but obviously it happens and it’s not even behind closed doors since I saw it in windows of seed shops. I should’ve warned you that this whole paragraph was going to be about history 😉
The tour ended at the Anne Frank Haus which Sarah decided to go into, Robin had already been in it the day before and Mel and I didn’t go in. The three of us went to get traditional Dutch pancakes, more like flat crepes, not rolled or folded, and they can be savory or sweet. The restaurant was freezing, we had our jackets and scarves and gloves on while eating. Did some cultural exploring with Robin later, and afterwards I went to the Van Gogh museum to meet up with Mel and Sarah, so proud of myself for finding it alone using the cool trams 🙂 The museum was probably one of the coolest art museums I’ve ever been to, there was a cocktail bar, lounge and live musicians on the bottom floor and the music could be heard on all 4 floors since the building is big and open. The exhibits were really amazing, but I’m a big Van Gogh fan so maybe I’m a little biased…nah it was awesome. Hung out downstairs at the hostel that night woohooo.
More cultural exploring that morning with Robin and Mel, checked out some shops on the main street that our hostel was on then parted with Robin since her flight was earlier than ours. Mel and I checked out the tulip and flowers markets along the canals, cheese store with a million types (and samples) of Gouda and goat cheeses, herring stand, then met Sarah at the iamsterdam sign…it’s really big and really popular so I couldn’t get much of it in the picture. Did some more exploring, found our way to another one of those cheese stores, sat at a cafe and watching millions of bicycles go by, then it was time to head to the airport, right as the weather was getting bright and sunny finally, but nonetheless, good end to a fun weekend in Amsterdam.
spyinginspain 