Amsterdam

We arrived at the airport at 9 in the morning horribly discombobulated from our awkward lack of sleep and extremely early traveling. I got about 20 minutes of shut eye that night before hopping on a tram at 4:30am to catch an airport shuttle bus at the outskirts of Prague. We went straight to our hotel, only to find out that we couldn't check into our rooms until 2:30pm, so we found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands. I would have had no problem killing time exploring the city and taking in the culture if it wasn't for the miserable weather. Freezing rain and fast winds blew through Amsterdam all day long Friday, making it hard to even look up from the ground, let alone take in all of the sights and wonder of the city. My very first step out of Amsterdam Central station (inserted picture, beautiful building) went straight for the largest puddle in sight, which was a solid indication that I would be perpetually cold and wet for the next 52 hours. By 11:30, my socks were soaked all the way through and my windbreaker had become totally useless, not to mention I was carrying around a backpack with my passport, computer, camera, and the rest of my clothes. In other words, I didn't get much of a chance to have the greatest first impression of the city. But don't worry, it gets better.

With no destination in mind, we (which consisted of myself, Andrew, Jose, Steve and Isa) wandered the streets close to the center of town for about 3 hours, making st
ops in shoe stores, cafes, street-side food shops and coffee shops along the way. Streets and alleyways wound in every direction, which made finding our way around very difficult. Eventually we gave up on trying to navigate and just walked in any direction. We grabbed lunch at a coffee shop in a thin alleyway near the Royal Palace, which stands at the helm of a magnificent square in the center of town. For your reference, coffee shop means a legal cafe/bar that weed is legally sold, smoked, encouraged, enjoyed, however you want to phrase it. As a proponent of weed usage (depending on age, responsibilities in life, etc.), this was a lovely thing for me to finally sit on a couch and be handed a hot chocolate and a bag of weed that I ordered from the same menu. After a 3 hour nap at the hotel, we collected ourselves and headed back into town, which was just a short (and free) train ride from our hotel. It's pretty amazing actually how trains work in Europe. The entire country is connected via simple and efficient trains that only require payment if you are traveling more than 4 stops (AKA like 3 towns over). I've never realized how much a cheap train system can connect an entire country. Instead of highways connecting every little town in Holland, it's one line of train tracks, leaving so much room for beautiful countryside to brighten up everyone's day. That night we walked through compact areas of bars and coffee shops, which were packed with happy people regardless of the still shitty weather. It was on this night that I saw for the very first time the famed Red Light District, which certainly deserves its own paragraph.

This place was like a page right out of my imagination. What I mean by that is that I never thought a place like this could actually exist in the real world. I didn't enjoy the Red Light district quite as much as I had assumed I would. Perhaps because it's easy to joke about wretched things such as sex shows and blatant prostitution with your friends when your safe in the realm of regulated reality. But when I found myself face to face with a prostitute for the first time in my life, I felt shocked, almost scarred by them.

It was amazing to me how they advertised prostitutes on the street. Instead of letting them roam the streets, prowling for hopeless men or drunk degenerates to take them up on their offer, they stood behind a glass window that could open right onto the street. I watched a guy walk up to a window, the woman opened it, they negotiated price/time (I assume), and he walked right in and she pulled a curtain across the window. You can literally see the bed that they use from the street, it's all right there. I think I lost a chunk of whatever innocence I had left when I saw that happen. Not that it bothered me, as I've always known that this was what Amsterdam was, it's just more surprising to see it actually happen after joking about it all my life. I remember the first time I walked past a prostitute in the window, I looked at her intrigued and searching her eyes for a listless look of helplessness, that she was dejected, tossed into this horrible life and trapped with no way out. At least, that's how I would feel. Instead, she returned my inquisitive look with kissy lips and fingered me over to her window. Not to mention all of the sex shows, which advertised hard-core porno via neon light-up figures of people fucking (which I must say gave me a good laugh). I didn't have the money to go inside and see for myself, though I totally would have and will some day. I learned the Red Light district is more for people like me to gawk at, to see that this is what the world would probably be like without rules and regulations--hoes, weed, and sex everywhere. As a novelty though, I loved it, and it's definitely something I'll never forget.


Back to the city though. Luckily we got to see Amsterdam in the sunlight all of Saturday morning and afternoon, though it went back to rain at night and all day Sunday. We walked through an area called Jordaan, which is beautiful townhouses and small shops bordering canals in all directions. Street markets sold every kind of cheese and meat imaginable. Literally every kind of food that could be sold fresh was on sale--meat, fish, fruits, veggies, full wheels of cheese, even water. It reminded me of street markets in Tel Aviv, with people singing and playing gypsy clarinet between scarf stands and fish tents. We walked all the way to the Museumplein, which is a large grassy oval surrounded by all sorts of museums. The large I Amsterdam letters stood as the crown of this amazing 'quad', if you will, though I didn't find them necessarily spectacular or anything, though of course I got the obligatory picture sitting cross-legged underneath the r. It was at this point that we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which had a surprisingly long line, though a completely understandable one. I loved how it focused entirely on one artist, which allowed for me to get an understanding of Van Gogh as a person and explore his journey as a troubled artist. Every picture was accompanied by a full explanation of when and where Van Gogh was in his life when he painted it, thus combining the artist with his work as opposed to just putting a pretty picture on a wall for people to enjoy its colors.

We walked around the most incredible neighborhoods after we finished the Van Gogh Museum, which luckily included the tail end of the only sunlight we saw that weekend. This must have been my favorite part of the entire trip, just walking around Amsterdam, lost, high, not a care in the world. We passed by a Cheese Museum, which had at least 30 different free samples of some of the finest Dutch Cheese (I was in heaven).
In the basement were exhibits of cheese churners, compressors, mixers, and even a video of cows grazing in a meadow--they really started from the basics. People biked everywhere, way more than cars or public transportation. Canals were lined with stationed bikes without locks and boat houses, which I will live in one day mark my words. People of all ages smoked joints everywhere and anywhere, so at any point you might walk right through a pungent weed cloud and not even notice (or care). Everyone was super nice everywhere we went, though I'm sure the legal weed and hookers had something to do with that. I took some pictures but not as many as I had hoped due to the weather and generally just being distracted by how nice everything looked. Trust me though, I could have taken thousands of pictures, whether it was the Van Gogh, Cheese Museum, generally amazing buildings, night life, views from atop the national library, coffee shops, pretty much anything (those are all things I didn't photograph). I'll upload what I took though via a gallery and on Facebook, so just check it all out there.

I guess that's enough. There is plenty more to tell, but I'll save those stories for another time. Once I upload some pictures, I hope this story will come to life for you, wherever you are in the world reading this, be it Cleveland, DC, Columbus, or even here in Prague. Long story short, I loved Amsterdam, though it was a massively expensive city. I promise to myself that I'll return one day, whether it's with a group of friends or I decide to live there one day. It's beautiful, happy, eccentric, care-free, and home of the best hot chocolates I've ever had. I'm extremely glad I went and it's a trip I'll forever hold dear.