My roommates and I just got back from spending 3 days in Amsterdam and we had a great time! Amsterdam is unlike any place I've ever been; it is totally an old town European city that has a lot of history and crazy people! I'm so happy I had the opportunity to go there because it was 3 days I'll always remember.
Our flight left early Friday morning, at 7am! When we finally got to the Netherlands 2 hours later, we didn't have to go through customs or check our passports. I thought that was really funny because I wanted to get a new stamp on my passport! In order to get to the heart of the city, we had to take a train from the Schiphol Airport. We thought we knew what we were doing so we got on the train. It was a good thing we are all loud talkers because a nice old man overheard us talking about going to the city and told us we were on the wrong train! So we had to get off and try again. Finally, after another train, we arrived at Amsterdam Centraal, which is their main train station in the front of the city. From there, we took a tram to our hostel. The people of Amsterdam always use public transportation. There are constantly trams driving around the city as well as trains. The most popular form of transportation however, are bikes! Cars and bikes ride side by side in the street and the bikers even have their own path to ride on. Because of the lack of cars and their use of public transportation, it was a very clean city.
Amsterdam is such a cute town city. There are houses like in the pictures above line the canals that go through the city. Almost every other street you walk has a canal. There are boat cruises you can take down the canals and some even have dinner cruises you can take. We didn't do one because it was way too cold but it seemed like it would be a lot of fun!
We stayed at the Amigo Hostel which was near a local tram stop. It was on top of other local stores and restaurants. We had to climb up super steep steps to get to where it was. It was kind of creepy but I think all the Amsterdam hostels would be like that. In our room, we shared a room with two Ukrainian boys and two boys from Spain who are currently living in London.
We were so hungry at first that we went to a Kebab shop right next to our hostel. It totally hit the spot! Then we took the tram to see the I Am Sterdam letters. There were so many people there since it is one of the most famous Amsterdam attractions. They were much bigger than I thought and we took so many pictures with the sign! Since it was so cold, we didn't want to stay outside for too long so we went and got a coffee. After, we went to (little kids plug your ears and shade your eyes!) the sex museum! It was hilarious. Amsterdam is full of people doing their own thing and marching to their own drum so it was no surprise that there was this museum there. We laughed and laughed at everything in there. It was definitely a museum that I will never forget. For dinner that night, we went to a local chain called Burger Bar. After a long day of traveling and being touristy, we went back to our hostel for some sleep.
On Saturday, we woke up to cold and rain which put a damper on our day. We had plans to go to the Anne Frank House but since the line was so long outside, we decided to postpone. Instead, we went to the Pancake Bakery, a pancake house we had heard great things about. They were right! They were more like crepes than pancakes but they had almost every type of variety in them. I had a bacon and apple pancake which was amazing. We sat inside there trying to get warm and decided to go to the Heineken Experience next.
Since Heineken originated in Amsterdam, they have a whole interactive exhibit where you can learn how they make the beer, the history behind it and of course, drink it! It was a lot of fun learning about the beer and seeing the big vats that were used to make it. They also had Heineken horses, old and new bottles and interactive movies and pictures for us to see. At the end of the tour, we of course got to drink some beers. Downstairs in the basement of the museum, there was a bar and a DJ and people sat around and drank. It was cool to see how they make the beers and then drink the final product!
On Sunday, we went to the Anne Frank house. It was an intense experience seeing where Anne and her family lived during the Holocaust. We walked through the whole house and up behind the original bookcase that led to the secret Annex. There isn't any furniture in the Annex because Otto Frank, Anne's dad, wanted to leave it empty to represent the emptiness that the Holocaust caused so many people. It was really overwhelming to see video footage of the war as well as read real pages from her diary that they have on display. They even had video footage of Otto Frank talking about his family since he is the only one to survive. They had stories about the Frank family and the other family that hid in there as well. They were living in the Annex for about two years before someone (they don't know who) found out about their hiding place. Anne died in Auschwitz only a month before the camp was liberated which I had no idea. It was a very moving experience and I had chills the entire time I was in there. Even though I cannot even imagine what it would be like to live through something like that, being in the actual place where she and the rest of her family were made it even more real to me than just pictures and stories from a book.
After getting lunch at a local place, we headed over to the Red Light District. The only word to describe it is: wow. That is something you would never find anywhere else. While we were walking up and down the streets, we saw signs and people standing in the windows looking for their "customers." I had heard about the Red Light District before but actually seeing it for myself was a whole other experience.
I took so many pictures of the city and buildings that I liked but I wish I actually knew what they were! Instead, I'll post them below for you to look at. Amsterdam was a beautiful city and if I get the chance, it is definitely a place I would love to go back to. Everyone was very nice, spoke some English (!) and the whole city had a great vibe.
