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Published: September 9th 2009
Hello everyone!
Well our time in Amsterdam has now come to an end so thought we would write a little to let you know what we have been up to.
Well, we left London Saturday night to begin our journey over here on the National Express Bus, after around 11 hours of which we probably only slept about 3 we finally got here, although it was 6am in the morning and we were at the bus station which is about 2 miles away from the center. We sat around the station waiting for the sun to come up and trekked all the way to the center carrying our backpacks. Although we were really tired, it was such a nice walk in along the canals as there was just no one around. We didn't have any drink on us either and had to wait till we got right into central station before we could buy anything.
For the Sunday night we had arranged to stay with an Italian guy called Nico through the website couchsurfing.org. He lived over in North Amsterdam which you had to get a ferry to. The ferrys were free and came every half hour, so wasn't too bad. We had planned to meet him at 11.30 on the other side so to kill some time we went to tourist information to try and make sense of the Amsterdam public transport system and then chilled in the library which was nearby.
We dropped our bags with Nico, who seemed like a really sound guy, and we headed back across on the ferry to go back to the centre. We had arranged to meet up with a lady who we had got in contact with through Keele Alumni. We met Anne and Phillipe on Sunday afternoon. They lived right down in South Amsterdam away from the tourist district. They kindly took us on a little tour around where they lived, giving us lots of information & history around the area. They were really helpful too and lent us this book of theres which gives a load of different walks around Amsterdam, explaining each area really well. They also looked up some information for us and found these free lunchtime concerts we could go to on Tuesday and Wednesday. We ended our afternoon with them at the Hilton Amsterdam which had a little cafe at the back right on the canal.
We headed back up to the center and our first little wonder around the city, we had planned to meet our host Nico in town later but our tiredness hit us now and so we found a cheap supermarket bought some 50cent cans of beer and 1.99 euro bottle of wine and spent the evening at Nico's flat where he kindly cook us some yummy Italian pasta and we all chilled out for the evening with Ste and Nico having a little jam on the guitar 😊
Monday afternoon was spent walked around the western side of the center. Although we had caught up on our sleep at Nico's (on a waterbed), our legs were a bit achey after all the walking we had done yesterday. It was nice though, we had bought some bread from the supermarket the day before so sat down and had some nice lunch. We had left our bags our Nico's for the afternoon so we had to go back over to get them before we got the tram down to our new host (from couchsurfing) for Monday and Tuesday Night, a english guy called Barry who lived just out of the center.
Barry had a lovely little house with 4 floors, our room was at the top. He made us feel really welcome and although he had to leave to go to an dutch class he gave us a key and told us to make ourselves at home and chill out before we went out for the night. He was going to come and meet us in town after his course to take us to a few bars and a walk round the red light district.
We went into town and had arranged to meet this other couple through couchsurfing, Jan & Hannah. Jan is from Belgium and Hannah is from Suffolk. We spent a few hours with them before Barry came and joined us later. We hit a few bars and had a walk around when Hannah and I bumped into this random American man in the toilets (unisex). He had been traveling with his wife over Europe and said they hadn't met anyone yet. So we invited them along with us and ended up the best night. Barry took us around and we ended the night in this little bar called Nasty, dancing to random 90's music.
For Tuesday, Ste and I decided to walk to a different area near the botanic gardens, which we didn't go in as you had to pay! 😊 But we found this really cute little park right on the canal where we sat for a few hours, reading, sleeping and eating. I was reading the book Anne had given me and it turns out the park is a memorial park to for all the Jewish lives lost. It has this memorial there which was all broken glass on the ground reflecting the sky, symbolising all the broken families and lives lost. Just around the corner was also another memorial. It was an old Jewish theatre, but during the war the Jewish people from Amsterdam were taken here to wait for their train to the camps. It was just used to hold hundred of people who were wainting to be taken away. When you go inside the theatre doors, the building our the back isn't actually there anymore, just the walls where the stage was and now there is monument standing there in memory.
We headed back to Barrys after our lazy afternoon via a Lidl, where we bought some food for dinner and lunch for tomorrow. We planned to meet up with Jan and Hannah again this evening in the same bar as last night. Barry joined us later too with some of his other couchsurfing friends. We ended up in this really lively bar which had this dancefloor downstairs, we stayed for a bit but it was soooo hot and sweaty. The others left and Ste and I began our long stroll home.
Barry had kindly offered to lend us his bikes whilst we were staying with him so Today (Wednesday) Ste and I finally braved the roads and went on a bike ride. It is so mad riding here, I don't think they follow right of way and everyone just goes. But we survived, watched a free lunchtime concert, had lunch in a lovely park, wondered through a local market. This evening we are getting our bus to Krakow. It leaves Amsterdam at 8.45pm and arrives in krakow 4pm tomorrow 😞 so not sure how much sleep we will get. We haven't been able to get anyone to stay with in Krakow yet, so think we will book a hostel for tomorrow night, found one for £3 a night 😊
Will write again after krakow.
Lots of Love
Layla & Ste
A few of photos can be seen on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49670&id=272700319&saved#/album.php?aid=49670&id=272700319
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Sarah
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Hello Both Sounds like you're having a wicked time already! I'm very jealous and looking forward to the next installment. Lots of Love xxx