When in Amsterdam

Day 1

Oh the excitement was unreal! My first trip outside of Ireland was finally arrived and none the less it was to Amsterdam to visit my good friend Michael. I was a bit nervous that something was going to go wrong so again and again I checked to make sure I had everything. My flight was at 2:50. I made sure I was out of the door of my apartment at 11:00 because apparently there was a bus that comes around called Air Coach that will bring you to the airport. It comes around every 15 minuted, but I was unsure. I have stood at that bus stop for half an hour before and never saw this so called bus. After standing at the bus stop for 20 minutes, I was getting nervous. Then, the sight of a big blue bus made me so happy. After that bit of uncertainty, everything after that ran smoothly. I ended up through security with 2 hours to spare. I noticed in a lot of European airports, they don't tell you your gate number until 30 minutes before boarding time. So, I just sat in a seating area and read my book. 

On the plane ride there, I got a nice window seat. it was only a hour and 15 minute plane ride, but I still managed to fall asleep. After departing the plane, this is where my second adventure started. I went through the border control, but the guy checking my passport gave me a bit of sass. This is how it went

Security guy: Hello, what is the purpose of your trip?

Me: I'm here visiting

Security guy: No kidding, what is the purpose of your visit?

Me: oh, uh I'm here visiting a friend

Security guy: are they dutch?

Me: no, she's american. She is studying abroad here.

And that was the general gist of it. I was a little thrown off when he said no kidding I was visiting. Seeing how that was the purpose of my trip, I didn't know what the appropriate response would have been. Regardless, I got stamped in and then I turn to my phone where I have a screen shot of the directions Michael gave me to get to Amsterdam Central which was where I was meeting her. The nice thing was the train station was in the airport. I was literally just following where the majority of the people where walking and it just turned into a giant train station. I had some nice dutch man help me buy the right ticket and pointed me to the right tunnel to enter. Then after that I just got on the train with all the tourist. It is pretty easy to spot them. They are the ones with a large amount of luggage looking confusingly at the train map. 

Seeing how I didn't have a working phone or wifi and Michael and I didn't set up a meeting place within Amsterdam Central, I got to aimlessly walk around for a bit. I walked outside, then back inside, then back outside, then back inside. There were multiple entrances and finally I thought "huh, maybe she will be in the one that says Amsterdam Central on top of it." Sure, enough I saw her, standing staring at all the people coming in. I ran up to her back and yelled BOO. The amount I scared her was extremely funny. I was almost on the ground laughing, but it was great to see her again. The rest of the day, we pretty much just caught up talking about of fun adventures abroad. Then seeing how it was Thursday and she had class the next day, it was an early night.

Day 2

The next day, for the most part I was on my own because Michael had classes. I decided to do some tourist things while she was in class that she had already done. But, first off I had to get myself some food.

 Michael pointed me in the direction of a place called Bagel and Beans. It was a delicious breakfast. I had a bagel sandwich with some ice coffee and just people watched. I tried to read a newspaper, but shortly realized that it was written all in Dutch. Then I started a note on my phone about the differences I noticed between Amsterdam and Ireland

Amsterdam vs. Ireland

                                     Dutch                                     English

                                     biking                                     Buses

                                   pay for water                         water free

                             people more reserved            people very friendly

                               outdoor seating                      seating indoors

That is pretty much how far I got before I decided, I should get a start on my day. 

I decided a must do thing would be to visit the Anne Frank House. Michael showed me how to get there and said it would probably be about a 45 minute walk. And it took me about 2 hours. It wasn't because I got lost. For the most part it was easy to find, but the photographer in me took over. Every 2 seconds I was stopping to take pictures. The canals are just extremely beautiful. It was so picturesque. It is hard to capture the beauty in a picture, but I tried the best I could. My main subject was the bikes. Everywhere you look there were bikes parked everywhere. My analogy for the biking in Amsterdam is driving in Boston. It was unreal how aggressive the bikers get and how often they ring there bell to tell you to get out of their way.  

 2 hours later, I made it to the Anne Frank House to find a long line. Then an hour and a half later, I made it to the interior of the Anne Frank House. It was an incredible experience. I realized how little I knew about the Holocaust and Anne Frank's story. You actually get to walk around in the house that they were staying in. They had picture of a recreated version of the living spaces they had. All through out the walk, you get to read snippets from Anne Frank's diary. They had videos of people who knew Anne Frank and the people who helped them hid. At the end, there was an exhibit with the pages actually from Anne Frank's diary. There was also a video of Otto Frank talking about his daughter. The message that I remember the most from what he said was he thought he was very close with his daughter, but when he read her diary he realized how much he didn't know about her. All her internal thoughts and he said it was a very different daughter than he knew. You could be really close to someone, but you will never truly know what their inner thought would be. Walking through the house was a great time to reflect back on life. Being in the house, it was hard to imagine being in an enclosed area for that long of a period and not be able to make any noise. It gave you a real appreciation of how we have it now. But, after that time of reflection, Michael met me right outside of the Anne Frank house because her class was actually close to the area. I decided, since biking was such a big part of Amsterdam's culture, to rent a bike for the weekend. One thing I should also probably mention is that Dutch people tend to run large. They are extremely tall. The smallest bike they had was still a little to big for me. When sitting on it, I had to shift to the side a bit to get even the tip of my toe to touch the ground.

 The rest of the day was chill. I was extremely tired for the amount of time that I spent on my feet with the walking around and walking around the Anne Frank house. We found a pub close by to get dinner at. I asked Michael what was the Dutch food that I need to have. The one thing she could think of was called Bitterballen. She described it as a fried ball of meat. It was really good, but it didn't taste like meat. It was more starchy than anything. That night I got to meet some of Michael's friends and we biked to a pub. We had a few drinks, chilled out, and people watched. I also learned that apparently the Dutch think that apple pie is there thing. They have it everywhere, but it isn't quite like American apple pie. I might be a little bias, but American apple pie is better and I have to admit having withdrawals from it. As in always having cravings for apple pie.

Bitterballen

Day 3

The night before we decided we weren't going to set an alarm and were going to sleep in. I think we woke up around noon. We pretty much spent all day biking around to all the markets. That day, I got to hang out with Michael and her friend Christina. We started off at Vondelpark, which to compare it to anything would be like New York's central park. We just walked around a bit and then headed off to the markets. The first one we went to was Albert Cuyp Market. We walked around there looking at all the different stalls and eating food. We got some really good freshly squeezed juice. As in you could walked them squeeze the juice right in front of you. I also had these things that were like mini pancakes. I forget what they are called but I guess they are another dutch thing. 

So, I guess this is a good time to bring up what Amsterdam is known for. When you think Amsterdam, you think weed and prostitution. Well I can tell you it is a true assumption. If you see anything with the label Coffee shop, that is a place where you can buy weed and smoke it. You can pretty much smoke it anywhere. I thought it was just legal there, but it is still illegal. It is just not enforced. To say the least, every night I got a good prospective of what life in Amsterdam is like. I will wait to talk about the prostitution bit. 

Day 4

We thought it would be a great idea to do Sunday brunch with Mimosas or Bloody Marys. So we looked up a place that had those and found a place called Little Collins. We biked there and we got to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. We were originally going to get Mimosas, but they had these interesting variations on Bloody Marys. We thought we would have to try them. We got a Mexicana Bloody Mary. It as tequila instead of vodka and had lime and chilli powder. It was one of the best Bloody Marys I have ever had. That really isn't saying much cause I haven't had too many, but it was good. For brunch, I got Coconut Crumble French Toast (Dad, I'm starting to turn into you! everything coconut). I must say it was a great brunch. 

 With our bellys full, we were ready to get on with the day. Seeing how it was my last day, I wanted to make sure I got everything I wanted to do in. So first, I wanted to get a picture with the Amsterdam sign. It was so crowded with tourist and if I put the time and effort into I could have gotten a cool creative picture. But, I was feeling lazy, so I just did something simple.

So, now to Amsterdam's prostitution. I didn't get as much experience in this department then I did with the other one. But, we had to make a visit to the Red Light District. Granted, we were there at like 3 in the afternoon, but in the windows, right in plan view, were prostitutes standing there half naked. Michael was telling me about the sex shows they have. She was saying it is a little bit more than just live porn. They make it artistic. There was something about a candle, but I'm not going to get into that. 

To say the least, my trip to Amsterdam was enlightening. I got to learn all about what my friend's experience has been in Amsterdam and live that life for a weekend. I got to take a journey through Anne Franks life and see the beauty for the Amsterdam's canals! In the end, it was a great time spent with one the best, oldest friends of mine.