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Rijksmuseum
At night, from museumplein. Under renovation so I didn't bother going in on the advice of mr. mime.Well, hello everyone and hope you had a happy halloween. This is amsterdam... the redlight district, mushrooms, museums and all...
Our trip to amsterdam began on a bus, a "luxury travel" coach that had approximately 0% luxury included. We left on 8 o'clock on a thursday night, and I began the trip by wisely checking out 1984, and A Brave New World before my departure in the library. Two great great books, especially 1984 and I enjoyed them immensely while I was on the bus.
Once we started moving I decided to stay awake as long as possible. My 6'1" frame was rather cramped in the seat... the journey was uneventful until we missed the ferry by 3!!! minutes and had to wait in dover for an hour and a half. Ouch. By the time we got on the ferry it was 3 in the morning and sleep was like a dream. Unfortunately a girl told me we needed a passport on the ferry (she was totally wrong) and I sprinted back downstairs, only to learn we didn't need it and came up to find that all sleeping positions were definitely occupied. So I wandered around the ferry and
Snoozing
Asleep just before 4 am eventually had breakfast (I was starving at this point) at 3:30. Our travel steward had told us ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD on the coach, which was an outright lie, so I didn't have anything packed for munching. The breakfast marks the 2nd time I have eaten out since I arrived here in the UK. No joke, I have been avoiding it because it is so expensive! After devouring that I passed out in the bar area on a couch. Basically pounding/rave/dance music provoked my skull for the one hour I slept, from about 3:30 until 4:30. Darby was kind enough to take a picture of my passed out self. Oh, while in dover I saw the infamous white cliffs, albeit at a distance and from a slightly skewed angle. No picture, my camera's flash is a little underpowered when it comes to illuminating an entire cliff. The rest of the bus ride saw me sleeping fitfully.
Once we got to amsterdam (yay!) we checked into the hostel around 10:30. It was a nice place, nothing to exciting, with 6 beds in a room. While everyone else showered and ate or whatever I took off to explore, by myself once again.
None of my British friends really are interested in these kinds of trips and I'd much rather spend time sightseeing than making friends in a coffeeshop and buying ludicrously priced food. I left the hostel and walked until I hit some stores, and then walked some more! I immediately found myself in the museum-plein, a large grass area surrounded (more or less) by museums! I picked and chose which museums I went to, and well that comes along later. Before I left I printed off a map and a list of things to do from the internet. The first day I hit a lot of the free things that looked interesting. And walked around, a lot! My map reading skills of city locales was non existent before this trip and I spent the better part of the day wondering where the heck I was. But I am an amazing wanderer, because I found some really interesting things. Within 15 minutes I found the infamous large chessboard with its lifesize (almost) pieces right next to the hard rock cafe! I actually sat and watched two older gentlemen play, and they were very, very, very.... VERY good. I love chess and enjoyed
sitting there, watching these two masters duel eachother. Each one had a set of friends that they would banter with and invariably make a wise move. The amazing thing is when one finally got a crucial upperhand, with a one pawn advantage near the end, there was still atleast 10-11 moves until his checkmate, but he conceded because he knew it was over. Basically, they were good. One of them had a son that was probably 5-6 but was amazingly aware of what was happening. Probably a future pro.
From there I went off in search of a bejinhof, or a hidden park. It took me a very long time to find it, despite having a map clearly marking its location. My misguided venture (a 2 hour detour) allowed me to see a lot of amsterdam and find a mall with a 5th floor sky cafe/bar which was pretty neat, even though my pictures from up there don't do justice. I also found a mushroom shop. I also stumbled upon the tulip market, basically a half mile of fresh flower markets, or stalls. Mixed in was a lot of marijuana plants/kits. See my pictures.
From there I finally
found the bejinhof, which contained an amazing, "hidden" catholic church. I was invited in by a local older lady that didn't speak english. Hand gestures eventually got me in, although she made me put away my camera, take off my cap, and be quiet. Inside a priest was doing some type of rite. I mostly sat in the back and tried not to move. A different atmosphere, for sure. The bejinhof-park was right next to a very busy part of town, but amazingly separate and quiet. So I went, in the space of 2 minutes, from a crowded shopping center, to a quaint park, to a sacred place of reverence. Neat. Outside I checked out the oldest house in amsterdam, which has barely been modified since 1475. From there I went to the amsterdam historical museum, which was free due to renovation and read about the history of amsterdam. I also went to the gallery, a collection of paintings owned by the city of amsterdam. Most dated from the 1600-1800 time period.
Let's see, from there I went back to the hostel. However on the way, I ran into some americans, (who thank god knew where the hostel
Me and death bike
Notice advertisement turned correct way on front of basket. even was) I walked with them for a bit before being teased into the Van Gogh museum. The other Americans weren't interested, so I once again went solo. And I'm very very glad I went when I did. Call it goodluck, but friday night just happened to be the van gogh museum night, so for the normal cost of attendance I got a bunch of free extras. Live music from a talented indie/artsy band that featured a um cello and some semi-famous poets (didn't write down names, oops) reading their poetry and talking about it. I was quite happy to visit the museum, although they didn't have the famous Starry Night painting I hoped they would (dang, huh Joan?). But still, it has the largest, by far, collection of Van Gogh's around, and also had collections from his contemporaries and predecessors. Pictures not allowed, but I took the time to look at each picture and read about/listen to its backstory. The museum is a place that you could probably spend a lifetime, and I managed to stretch out for a good 3.5 hours, and felt I could have stayed longer. Most people (I am guessing) spend less than an hour
inside.
From there I went to my hostel. And by that I mean I got lost and wandered around the dark in amsterdam for a good hour in the general area of the hostel before asking for directions several times and finally finding it. I then ate food I had packed (rice and bagels) for dinner on the trip. Back in my room I met up with a cool american named hollis and ended up drinking a pint (well or three) with him, john and a couple girls before heading out in search of an absinthe bar. Unfortunately it was closed. Instead us three guys plus one other I forgot the name of (oops) went down to the redlight district on a friday night around 12. Definitely not a location I would ever go to on my own. Even during the day. Along the way we found an excellent bakery. Then, things started to get extraordinarily seedy. Every open alley/street corner had its own young man in a puffy jacket that was hawking any illegal drug you could want. Making eye contact in any manner would illicit a one word question, or a series of them. Cocaine? *pause* Ectasy?
*pause*... many of them had different sales pitches, "free sniff of my best coke man"... So, yeah. The frequency of these guys rose drastically as we actually made it to the redlight district. There were literally guys that apparently stood there and just said "coke" every 2 seconds or so. coke...coke...coke...coke...coke...coke...cocaine...cocaine...cocaine...ectasy...ectasy...ectasy... Like a drug bullfrog. And of course there was the prostitution itself. No pictures, because it is a very good way to get your camera thrown into the canal because there are bouncers. Basically, the first two floors for a good 3-4 city block on both sides of a canal are full of body sized windows that contain prostitutes. They are lit in ultraviolet, which tends to make the girls more attractive, especially from a distance. Above the window is a simple red bar light, similar to a flourescent tube light, except red. The girl's room's consist of the area where they stand, and behind that is a a door that leads to a bed. Door closes when customer comes in. The girls themselves do everything they can to entice you into joining them from their windows. Nothing pornographic, although they are clad in lingerie... they just wink, gesture
for you to come in, single you out among your friends with their body language. There were probably 100?? or more of them along the section that we walked. And for every two prostitutes there was an individual peddling drugs outside. In retrospect, a friday night is probably a good time to go because plenty of tourists...and other people are strolling along with you, so you don't get singled out to much and are generally very safe. On a different night, where you and your group of friends were among a minority there, it might not be as safe.
After that we headed back and slept. I ate breakfast the next morning rather late and started out around the city. Went to a diamond factory which was a free scam. Similar to a timeshare bit. Then saw a bubble blowing mime. I guess this museum hired him, he was quite nice because I chucked him a euro in his pot after taking a picture. Told me some things to do and see, and which museums were a rip off, including his. With this knowledge I went straight to the maritime museum and paid a paltry 5 euros for an
excellent museum. It had an impressive collection of egyptian artifacts and an amazing christian art exhibit of sorts that involved juxtaposing parts of scripture onto modern life in an abstract way. The display won several artsy fartsy awards from non religious institutions and was well put together. Most of the series of displays were large HD quality films of ordinary, yet extraordinary things. Hard to explain. I then headed to the city center, which I had not visited yet. It had several iconic scenes, like Madame Tussauds (s?) and the city hall, which was closed for renovation. The city center also contained some very colorful protestors and characters. The monkey outfit really cracked me up, (see pic below) but the dude in it was seriously agitated I did not give him any money. hehe.
I then worked my way out to the Anne Frank house/museum. On the way I got a bite to eat at a pizza place, which I took a photo of. some pizza?! Anne Frank's house was a super neat/cultural museum and although it wasn't put together all that well (imho) it's location in the Frank's actual hiding spot made up for it's shortcomings and well
small space.
Next, I was walking somewhere when a bike caught my eye. Up until now I have not mentioned that amsterdam is bike city. Every road has two bike lanes and many roads are bikes only. It is bike city. And it is very easy to get obliterated by a bike if you're not looking. No joke. You get the ring ring, ring ring and you move or get plastered. But the vast majority of the population uses these bikes to get around. And, I knew there were rental shop places. So I found what was probably the cheapest one around. 8 euros for three hours. Got the bike, snapped a pic before I took off and zoom! I'm not sure what the bike shop owner thought about me wobbling uncertainly down the back alley towards the tourist/bike/car mecca of holland. Basically if I had not bought a bike back in the States this summer, I would never have survived. This thing had 3 gears, and 2 brakes. Of those 5 items, maybe 3 worked. Seriously it was an adventure. Riding this bike around without a helmet (or with one) is by far the most dangerous thing I
have done in europe. No joke, every intersection was an invitation for death and I had some amazingly close calls, one involving a train. I'm not kidding it was very dangerous. But man it was fun. The only thing is I got some ridiculously bad advice. You see, bikes are 'supposed' to get the right of way pretty much all the time. But according to random biker number one, cars will try and 'play chicken' to speed their journey but if you just hold your bike on course they will bail and you're good to go. And I saw that this was true 100% of the time. But 90% of the time I tried it, I almost ended up in the canal or barely missing ramming a parked car, tourist, lamp pole, power pole, bench, or whatever else was around. Every encounter I'd be like, not this time, I'm gonna win, but I'd almost get plowed over and end up half bailing half falling, half stopping my bike while narrowly avoiding serious injury. Finally, thank all god, biker number two saw me literally run into a bench after one of my brazen attempts and told me that yes, the information
I received earlier was true. HOWEVER, because I had rented a bike, the front had an advertisement for rented bikes, and all drivers in amsterdam would see this and call my bluff because they knew that I would bail and or chicken out because i was a tourist, unlike the other 99% of residents who would actually hit the car because they are bike crazy. If I had really played chicken I would've been blasted into a holland hospital no doubt. So I turned around the little advert and made it along my merry way like I was a resident. From then on, travel was much easier and nobody tried to run me over.
Along my fantastic bike ride I saw plenty of neat things and stopped to take a picture every now and then. Eventually I checked in 15 minutes early because honestly, I was happy to not be seriously injured. I did massively enjoy intentionally riding up behind unsuspecting tourists and absolutely going to town with my bell/ringer. Hehe, watching them jump and scamper while I scowled like I was up to something important and couldn't be bothered really made me happy. The best part is once
Marijuana
For aspiring farmers, these are not fake I'd gone by I'm sure they could see my reversed advertisement and realized I was just renting a bike and didn't really have anywhere to go or a hurry to be in. Hahaha.
From there i went back to the hostel, getting lost again. Then I met a very nice Italian girl there named Valentina. We had dinner at the hostel and a couple pints of heineken before strolling around Amsterdam at night. It was a nice cap to an excellent trip.
Wales and Britain I had gotten used to. Yes, they lean further left and it is drastically different here. But Amsterdam is like a whole new world of... from a western perspective... sins and vices. Illicit drugs are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Not to worry, I have NEVER done drugs in my life, and I suppose amsterdam was a test for me, but I made it through unscathed. And as far as prostitutes go, when they'd beckon me as I walked along I'd more often than not slow up, stare down at my feet, blush, then quickly walk away like I was afraid. Which I was I suppose.
Make sure you turn on sound
Tulip/flower market
a few block were dedicated to flowers along a canal for the video below!
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Troy
non-member comment
I love it!
Sam, reading your blog is like a history lesson. I really liked the bike part especially the sign. How are Americans treated in that part of the world? How do your peers feel about you? Keep up great blogs. I look forward to reading them everytime you travel and I know it must take awhile to get it written and insert the pictures. Pops