Sorry I have really been slacking lately with the posts! I picked up another job so that I could save for my next trip which will either be once again to Europe or…. to Australia to visit one of my closest friends, Melissa! She has accepted an au pair job in Australia so I am trying my best to make a trip over there this summer 🙂 Anywho – a little over a month ago I took a trip out to Amsterdam, Holland, a place I had been longing to visit since I was in the 6th grade and first had seen the film EuroTrip. Well to clear things up it certainly is not anything like it appears in the movie but it sure is an interesting city. My boyfriend Elliot and I took an afternoon flight from London to Amsterdam, unfortunately we lost an hour since there is a time difference but when we arrived in Holland we hopped onto a street car and took it towards our hotel. We stayed at a hotel called the hotel de paris, it was fair for the cost but unfortunately the rooms were small and not very sound proof. We left our things at the hotel and decided to explore the city. We stopped to grab a bite to eat in this shop, FEBO – you insert euro into what is like a huge vending machine and the window display opens up and you can grab hot food. It was so cool! I tried this pastry type item that was filled with some type gravy, I believe it was a croquette. We grabbed fries covered in all sorts of delicious toppings from a chipsy king, which can be found all over Amsterdam. If you are in the tourist area do not be fooled by the men and women who will try to lure you to eat at their restaurants, its a tourist trap and the food in the area is not very good. Oh, and they charge like 5 euro for a soda. There are much better places to eat further from the tourist area, We had a few of our meals we purchased from grocery stores or walked a few blocks off to find good prices and food (but then it was hard to find menus in english!)
The first spot we headed to was the red light district! We visited the museum of prostitution. AND… I lost my drivers license in the red light district! Great job! Perfect place on earth to lose my ID 🙂 Seeing the sex workers was interesting.. on the actual street they were very attractive but if you wandered down a side street… not so much. I learned that the prostitutes need to pay 150 euro a day for their window and they make 50 euro per client, and the client gets six minutes with the prostitute.. meaning the prostitute needs to sleep with 3 men a day before they just pay off their window! We ate dinner at some really nasty spot because we were tired and some woman standing outside of a restaurant was really convincing and i had too many Heinekens.
The next morning we woke up and I had to report my ID lost to the Amsterdam police… We had breakfast, Poffertjes, at De Vier Pilaren. I didn’t even know that they are ranked online for having some of the best poffertjes! They were so good they reminded me of beignets. We then went to see the I AMSTERDAM sign, which was crowded with so many children climbing all over it. We decided to come back later and headed over to the Heineken brewery. I definitely would recommend this to anyone visiting Amsterdam it was probably the best brewery tour I have been on! But at the end they have you pour your own Heineken and as you can see in my above picture mine was anything but okay… The next stop was the Van Gogh museum, because he is my absolute favorite artist – however, I was a bit unimpressed with the exhibit, sadly. We grabbed crepes for lunch from an outdoor stand near the I AMSTERDAM sign, then wandered around soon bumping into an outdoor market. We stopped in a few cheese shops trying all of the interesting flavors – including coconut and asparagus! One of the more interesting shops I stopped in was called the magic mushroom, and when you walked inside there was a mirror in the front with a sign “go on, do a line!” and a few cut up straws and some purple powder. uhm. K. We followed some locals to a super market and had burgers then headed over to Excaliber in the Red Light District to have some… Heinekens (they’re so damn cheap in Holland). Afterwards we stopped at a coffee shop to check it out. I think since weed is becoming more accepted in the U.S. the entire appeal behind it being legal in Amsterdam is not as big of a deal as it used to seem, even tho I did see people smoking blunts like all over the street. We wandered into the Gay area which was interesting, and eventually ended up being invited to an “occupy” party/protest inside of an old college. It was fucking weird man – then ended up going back to our hotel.
The next morning we were leaving for Munich, we had really great sandwiches at this place that was maybe a 15 minute walk from our hotel. I have no idea the name of the place unfortunately but the entire menu was in Dutch anyways. Overall, I was a bit disappointed with my trip to Amsterdam but I believe that is because I had hyped it up so much in my mind since I was in like 5th grade that I was expecting it to be life-changing. On the bright side… I did receive an e-mail that the Amsterdam police found my ID so there will not be anyone trying to escape the country pretending to be me 🙂
A few main things about Amsterdam:
What you have heard about bikes seriously does’t even come close. Everyone really does ride them, it’s almost excessive.
No matter how prepared you think you are, the red light district will shock you. I thought I of all people wouldn’t be shocked b anything. Then I realized that the live sex shows are people actually fucking on a stage in front of you.
It’s not known for it’s food
Be careful for the streetcars/bus, but also take them to get around! They’re such a good price
The canals are everywhere and I think its so pretty
Don’t take pictures of the sex workers
Travel outside of the tourist area ESP if you don’t want to get ripped off
Don’t lose you ID.
Runaway Blond 