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Published: June 21st 2010
The Netherlands. Holland. Amsterdam.
Someone asked me the other day is there one place I didn’t like from all the travelling I’ve been doing over the last three months, and I couldn’t think of one town or city I didn’t enjoy. And then I came to Amsterdam.....
I don’t mean to be harsh, it’s just that it wasn’t my cup of tea. For starters, I wasn’t supposed to come to Amsterdam, but as happens with travelling plans don’t always work out. The plan was to come to The Netherlands and go directly to The Haige to stay with my old flatmate Roybn who is currently working there for the UN, but at the last minute she was required to go to Lebanon for work so I decided to still come to Holland and check out its capital - Amsterdam.
Now i'm sure Holland has some nice parts to it, but there seems to be only a few reasons people come to Amsterdam, drugs being the main one. So you can imagine my take on a city that's focus is to get high, where your dorm room mates are constantly passed out, you can't buy coffee at a
Canals
the city was full of them'coffee shop' and the 2nd biggest attraction is to negotiate a deal in the red light district - there are not even that many windmills. But I did manage to find some great areas around Amsterdam and have a good time. See below.
On arrival from Belgium it was late afternoon, so after settling into the smokey hostel I joined a few fellow Auzzies to go watch Australia's first world cup soccer match. So, I was in Holland, watching Australia v Germany, sitting in an Irish pub after a Vietnamese lunch drinking Heineken and about to tuck into some Irish stew to watch a game where the German's kicked our arse. Very multi-cultural I thought. And it was great being in Europe while the world cup is on as the atmosphere is amazing and very patriotic.
The next day I thought I would do something the Dutch do well on this extremely flat country - bicycle riding. So rather than get lost I joined a bike tour that took us across the many canals, out of the city, and out to the countryside which was not far away (and to get some revenge on nearly being run over
by the thousands of Dutch cyclists). Our crazy guide Petra (litterally, she was a space cadet who had smoked a bit too much over the years, even lived in Newtown in Sydney for a while - says it all really) took us through the city, past parks, canals, a windmill and to what the Dutch are known for - clogs and cheese.
After trying on rather comfy wooden clogs (guess what people are getting for tacky souvenirs???), watching the clogs get made and sampling some rather good Gouda cheese washed down with more Heineken, it was time to ride through more countryside, through the nice Vondel Park (where anything goes and has an original Picaso sculpture) then get off the bikes and join in the Dutch painting the town orange as they were playing Denmark in the world cup soccer. With the Dutch winning the soccer the town went off which made that night's pub crawl just that extra bit fun.
After waking up from said pub crawl I headed into town for a walking tour hoping to see what Amsterdam was really about (and was surprised my American stoner room mates were able to wake up and
Action shot....
of sampling Heineken....goes well with bike riding find the meeting point as well). But of course I had a Fred moment and thought shorts and thongs would suffice - nope, it decided to be freezing. ERROR!.
However amongst my goosebumps I found more canals, Anne Franks house, Van Gough's museum, houses that lean forward due to a sinking city, 'coffee shops' for those who partake in that (which seems to be most people - and apparently Australians are the 2nd in the world for it after NZ), a Heineken Brewery, weird art, bicycles, stoned cats and stupid mini cars that don't require a licence.
I'm not sure that I should have been so excited to then have found wagamamma's for a meal and had the backpacker joy of finding a laundromat to have clothes that were clean (and free of cannabis smoke). But while waiting for my laundry I walked away from the more seedy area of the city and found a great market (called AlbertCuyp market trading for over a century) and a residential area which was much nicer. and hopefully the real Amsterdam.
I hope I'm not being too harsh on Amsterdam, but I think I saw more more than many who
come here for its main attractions (since I was conscious). I probably won't rush to come back to the city. Having said that, I made my own fun and here are some photos to show that. But I won't lie when I couldn't wait to leave seedy hostel and make it to my last European location and the one I had most looked forward to.
Next stop - BERLIN
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