Amsterdam

Amsterdam

I guess I should begin with what I expected Amsterdam to be; a quaint little city with damns and rivers, houses with pointed roves, and people in wooden clogs- oh and legal drugs and prostitution. Welp, it was all that but more.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city with even more beautiful people living there. I swear every Dutch person I saw had this natural beautiful glow to them. Dutch people are also, as a whole, the friendliest, warmest, most hospitable culture I have ever encountered. They are so incredibly willing to help you out and to show them their city. In fact, at one point on our last day we had walked the 5k to a little bus stop that was supposed to be more direct than the usual bus that stopped right outside out hotel. So on a whim, we decided to check it out- maybe it would save us more time. We were wrong. The bus stop was in this charming little town and in the 25 or so minutes we waited, I think we saw A car pass by. Luckily, there was a little restaurant beside it so we popped in to see if anyone there new anything about this bus. The woman working quickly jumped out her seat to help us thinking we would be her, what seemed to be, only customer that day. When we began asking about the bus you couldn’t help but notice the disappointment in her eyes that we weren’t eating there. But, nevertheless, she was more than willing to help us. She told us to have a seat, offered us a drink, and began making phone calls to our hotel, a cab company, the bus company, etc. It was the kindest thing I have ever seen a perfect stranger do for me. After another 25 mintues or so had gone by, we decided it would be the most logical thing to just walk allllll the back to the original bus stop. The experience made this mishap all worth while.

All in all, the trip including a lot of walking around and bike riding! Amsterdam people are known for riding their bikes everywhere and tourists are encouraged to do the same. As a bike rider though, you must be prepared to follow strict trafficking rules so beware. Suze and Maggie claimed to not have ridden a bike in years so they were a bit skeptical but we pushed on through. It was a beautiful day when we walked into that bike shop and I swear, the second we walked out the sky opened up and it started to pour. Riding a bike amongst crowds of people for the first time in a while in the pouring rain proved to be difficult. More difficult for some however, but I won’t get into that (Maggie)

That night, Saturday, we walked around the infamous Red Light District. UM I don’t really know what to say about this. There are literally women in little closets with glass doors wearing hardly anything just waiting for someone to literally buy them. It was really the single most disturbing thing I have ever witnessed, especially as a woman. These poor women, and their poor mothers. But what’s even worse is the disgusting men who walk down these streets with shit-eating grins on their faces.

It almost makes me feel bad for the amazing, friendly natives of Holland who want tourists to see their beautiful country for way more than a place to buy women and drugs.

On a brighter note, earlier that day we went to the Van Gough museum and I fell in love with crazy ol’ Vincent. I absolutely loved every single one of his paintings they had there. The one that stood out the most that I hadn’t seen before was ‘the bedroom’. It’s just a simple little painting of neutral coloring of a bedroom- one bed, one window, not much else. Apparently it’s just supposed to make you feel relaxed and ready for sleep and it really really does calm you down somehow. I wanted to buy it! But I didn’t. Another interesting little ditty about Van Gogh has to do with the last painting he did before he died (actually, I may be misconstruing this but the I’ve got the basics of it) Anyway, it’s a really creepy looking landscape with dark black crows flying about. Rumor has it that he knew he was going to die and therefore painted a painting of death.

OH there was also this other one- that was done in the later in his life when Van Gogh was in the mental instution and he painted this pretty dreary looking landscape of right outside the hospital. He said however that the painting was an imagine of how the other patients in the hospital viewed life- Vincent though still was able to see the beauty in life and not the dreary view he painting even while in the institution.

Needless to say I love Van Gogh now.

We stayed in this pretty hilarious hotel too. It was basically a 1970’s bachelor pad. Our room had 2 HUGE king sized beds with an upstairs. HILLARIOUS. We called it ‘the lounge’

That’s about it on Amsterdam. I love dutch people.

Roughing it in the airport cerca 5am. Watch out for the guys on the rights debut album. Italian covers of Stevie Wonder songs.

Amsterdam! from one of the many bus rides that weekendSup canal

Dutch people really like riding bikes

This was pretty much the coolest thing i've ever seen. A life size airplane engine and wheel. AND you can climb it.

Represent

PACE

This was the inside of our hotel room. SOOOO hilarious
'the lounge'

"lousy food and warm beer"

"I AMsterdam"
how cleva?