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Published: April 23rd 2007
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Just returned from a fabulous weekend in Amsterdam! I absolutely loved this city. It is just so dichotomous and interesting...never a dull moment. You turned one corner and saw gorgeous, tree-lined canals with people riding bicyles with their kids alongisde them on the cobblestoned streets, and you turned another corner and saw magic mushroom shops, sex shows and prostitutes in the Red Light District. It was so different. The airline Ryanair changed our initial flight to London from 5 pm to 10 am, so we had a very, very long layover in the London Stansted airport waiting for our next flight to Amsterdam...that airport is not big enough for an 8 hour layover. Anyway, we finally got to Amsterdam and then to our hostel downtown quite late, at about 11:30 p.m., and were surprised to find our hostel still alive with activity and crowds in the lounge/bar area downstairs. There were also tons of people still checking in at the same time, so it was nice not feeling isolated walking through this foreign city so late at night. We crashed after checking in to get up early the next morning.
Friday, we headed out for the Anne Frank House
to try to beat the lines; we failed, but thankfully didn't wait for more than 20 minutes or so. It was a very simple museum, but very powerful with its notes and commentaries from survivors. After we finished there, we moved on to FOAM, a modern photography museum that seemed to focus mainly on photojournalism exhibits during the time we were there. This museum was also very intense and it was hard to look at some of the pictures, but I loved it. There were some astounding works of photojournalism in there. We wandered the incredibly beautiful streets crossing over the canals as we window shopped and looked for a place for lunch, settling on a cute little sandwich shop after a long morning of walking. We walked through Dam Square on the way back to our hostel and saw that it was filled with carnival rides, games and Dutch pastries. It was very lively and colorful! We took a short rest and headed out again; we stopped for amazing Dutch stroopwaffels and carried them with us to see the infamous Red Light District. It was definitely more shocking than I was expecting! There are just narrow alleyways all over
the place filled with prostitutes beckoning from big glass windows under neon lights advertising their availability. Crazy. We headed back to the hostel to hang out in the lounge for a while, and as we walked over to the cushiony area, I ran into Jenny, one of my closest friends from home that I've known since we were five!! Of all the places in the world we could have been, we ran into each other at this hostel in Amsterdam! It's such a small world. Anyway, we hung out with her and her friends for a while, then grabbed a bite to eat nearby before crashing relatively early.
Saturday, we got up early enough to hike over to the outskirts of the city in a residential area called Noordermarket, an adorable little open-air market every Saturday morning with fresh food, plants, necklaces, and more handicrafts and products from the Netherlands. We perused that for a bit, then walked to the opposite end of the city towards the Heinekin Brewery. This "Heinekin Experience," as they call it, was one of the cheesiest, most touristy things I've ever done, but Kyle and I had so much fun!! There were tons of multimedia and interactive exhibits and you received three beers plus a cool free gift with your entry - and we talked our way into 2 of the free gifts. We had a blast. Afterwards, we stopped at a cute outdoor cafe for lunch, and then wandered around some more until we stumbled upon Vondelpark, a sprawling, grassy area with the famous I amsterdam sign. It was so cool to be there in person. We shopped a bit for prints and native souveniers as we made our way back to the hostel, rested for a bit there and chatted with some of our international roommates in our 12-person room, and then head out to look for dinner. We were amazed and frustrated at how many places stopped serving food by 8:30 or 9:00 in Amsterdam, as we are so acustomed to eating at no earlier than that time here in Spain. We finally found a fun, lively Irish pub that served dinner until 10, so we ran in and placed an order for some very un-Dutch but still good food before they closed the kitchen! We took a final swing around Dam Square and the strangely mesmerizing Red Light District before heading back to the hostel. It was a great weekend, and I'm getting so sad to have to leave Europe in just a few weeks!
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