Long Weekend in Amsterdam

We’ve been in Amsterdam since Thursday night. We are staying at a nice centrally located youth hostel that has breakfast included. On Friday we visited the Van Gogh Museum, then did the other “must-see” and walked through the Red Light District after dark. It was almost as I imagined, although I didn’t realize just how prominent the red lights are actually displayed, it is one of those things you have to see to understand. And even then you may not understand it…it seems so sad to me.
We stopped in a coffeeshop too, an award winning one called The Greenhouse that we learned about from the nice Brit who ran the hostel in Bruge. It was the perfect place for two non-experienced smokers to get a taste for what the coffeeshop atmosphere is like. We were soon befriended by a high and happy Mexican who kept us entertained for an hour or so, which made the weary bartenders pleased, since they were sick and tired of talking to the “Chatty Kathy” from Mexico City.
Amsterdam is more unique than I ever imagined. I think it is like Vegas — you just have to see it to believe it — although it has tons more charm than Sin City, but quite its far share of sin. The network of bridges and canals is fascinating and fun to wander through, but the bikes and trams scare me! As a pedestrian, I fear for my life at times 🙂 Really, it is not that bad, you just have to stay on your toes. The bikes truly are a wonderful part of life in this city, but I prefer biking on backroads. I’m not sure if I am up for big city biking just yet.
And I probably won’t get the chance. Today is our last full day here and it is raining…we were going to go to Vondelpark with our books but we should have done it yesterday when the sun was shining. It looks like maybe another museum this afternoon, or just a lazy day catching up online and planning our next few weeks of travel.
Hostels in Amsterdam