I AMsterdam

A Friday with no classes meant another weekend to travel around Europe. This weekend's destination: Amsterdam. A group of 7 of us (Ari, Angela, Catherine, Esther, Eric, Alex and I) left Thursday evening to start our weekend trip. After our flight landed around 9pm, we ventured to our hostel. Our hostel was in a great location, about 10 minutes from Central Station, and in the center of Amsterdam. Around 10pm all of us except Ari (she had an earlier flight) made it to Hotel Our Home, the hostel we were staying in. As soon as we opened the door of our hostel, we were greeted by the steepest stairs any of us have seen in a while. Our first was reaction was just to stand there laughing. Eventually, we went to check-in and met Ari. After we were checked in Eric, Esther, Angela, and I went to walk around the area near our hostel. As we were walking, Eric saw a street that had a lot of lights on so we decided to walk down the street. Within a minute, we realized we were in the Red Light District. The street was filled with erotic shops that had videos, costumes, bunnies with penises, and places to watch live porno shows, and of course the women in the windows. As we were near the end of the street, these shop guys said to us, "Girls. American girls like big c***s. We have them. Come licky licky." When they said that we just walked by laughing. After our walk down the Red Light District, we headed back to the hostel.

Friday, March 25th

National Monument in Dam Square

With a busy day ahead of us, we got up early. Before we left, we went downstairs to the kitchen for our home cooked meal: eggs and toast. Afterward, we went on a free 3 and a half hour walking tour. Our tour started at the National Monument in Dam Square. Other sites our tour included were Oude Kerk (The Old Church), The Jewish Quarter, Royal Palace, The Jordaan District, The Dutch East India Company, The Begijnhof Covent, the Widest Bridge and Narrowest House, the tallest point in Amsterdam (1.2 meters about sea level), Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church), numerous canals, and much more. During our tour we were able to get a free sample from a cheese shop since cheese is huge in the Netherlands (Holland). The cheese aged for 2 years and was delicious.

During our tour we learned the following: Oude Kerk (Old Church) is as old as the Red Light District. The location of church in the Red Light District is on purpose because the church sold salvation so they thought the Red Light District was the perfect spot to sell salvation; In the Red Light District the youngest prostitute is 18 years old and the oldest is 82 years old. The 82 year old has a 2 week waiting list. The streets of the Red Light District have the Big Mama street, the Asian street, the pretty girl street and the structural street. Don't take pictures of any of the women. If you take a picture of one woman, all of them will come beat you up; the Royal Palace has been under renovation since 2006 and was expected to end in 2009. Sadly, the plan has not been going well. The palace originally started as a town hall; the houses in Amsterdam lean because they city is built on mud. In order to stop the houses from moving more, pillars have been added into the foundation. 
 

above: The Sin statue outside the Oude Kerk 

right: The group at Begijnhof Covent

in front of 1 of the 1,082 canals in Amsterdam

                                  


After our tour, we went to get lunch in Leidseplein. This square is known as the entertainment square. As we eating lunch, we were able to watch men break dance and an African band perform music and martial art dancing. 

While in the square I couldn't resist trying the traditional frites. Anywhere we walked in Amsterdam, we saw a place to buy frites, which are just french fries in a paper cone with a topping on it. Usually the topping sauce is frite sauce, which is similar to mayonnaise. Although, other toppings are available. I thought the frites were okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the sauce, but what is traveling without experiencing the food culture of the city?

Anne Frank House

Afterward, we went to the Anne Frank House. Seeing the house was surreal. I can't believe 8 people stayed in the Secret Annex for two years. During our tour, we saw actual pieces of the wall that showed the growth of the children, the posters Anne Frank hung on her bedroom wall, the actual toilet from the home, the actual attic still intact, the Oscar awarded to Shelley Winters for her performance in the film The Diary of Anne Frank, and the actual diaries Anne Frank wrote in. It was a great experience to see the house and envision what life was like for the 8 people living in the house. To think that a many pieces in the house are still intact. 

After about an hour and a half in the Anne Frank House, we headed back to the hostel to relax and figure our the rest of the night.


The rest of our night included walking around the main area of Amsterdam. Since Ari, Alex and Catherine didn't see the Red Light District at night, we went back down the street.

Red Light District

Church of St. Nicholas

Saturday, March 26th

My last full day in Amsterdam was another busy day. In the morning, Angela and I met Angela's friend and then went to the Keukenhof Gardens, which are also known as the Garden of Europe. The park is the largest flower garden in the world. According to the Keukenhof website, approximately 7 million flower bulbs are planted in the park, which covers an area of 31 hectares.

The weekend we went was opening weekend so a lot of the flowers didn't bloom yet. Either way the garden was gorgeous. During our 2 and a half hour walk through the garden was saw tons of flowers, swans and a wooden windmill. We also embraced our inner children and went to the kid section of the park. There we enjoyed looking at sheep, bunnies and baby pigs.I really enjoyed my time at the Keukenhof Gardens and I glad I went since the gardens are only open March to May.

After the Keukenoff Gardens, the three of us headed back to Amsterdam to meet up with the rest of the group. Our first stop before we met them was the infamous "I amsterdam" sign. Trying to take a picture with the sign was difficult since so many people were there. Luckily, I was able to get at least one without tons of people.

While waiting for the rest of the group, Angela's friend showed us around the area. We walked around Museumplein (the area with the "I amsterdam" sign), Vondelpark, and Hoofstraat (the street with the most expensive stores and the location of the only Tiffany's in the Netherlands). When we finally met up with the group, Ari, Esther, Catherine, Alex, Eric and I headed to the Heineken Experience.

The Heineken Experience was awesome!! One of the first things we did was try to fit 6 of us into the old Heineken label to take a photo. After our photo shoot, our 2 hour long walk through the old brewery began. During our experience we saw old bottles, the different phases of the Heineken logo, the gold medal Heineken was awarded in Paris, the ingredients included in Heineken, the old brewing room, part of the bottling process, the Heineken horses and stables, soccer jerseys of the teams Heineken has sponsored, and much more. We even got to go on a simulated ride that made us go though the brewing process. Halfway through our tour we got a free tasting. During one point, we even played a game to see if we are beer pouring masters. Our tour ended with 2 free drinks in the Heineken bar.The Heineken bar was a lot of fun. The TVs around the wall showed pictures of many famous cities around the world.

Once our Heineken Experience was over, we walk around a little more on a mission to find some dinner. Since most of us had to catch a flight at 9:35am on Sunday, we had a relaxing night of just walking around.


My time in Amsterdam was a lot of fun. I didn't know a lot about Amsterdam before I booked my trip so I wasn't sure how much there was to see. After looking up information on the city and going to Amsterdam, I quickly realized there was tons to see. The city was so pretty with the different buildings and the endless canals.