Adventures (And Misadventures) in Amsterdam

I finally have a few moments to sit down and write about my weekend in Amsterdam, so I will take advantage of it. Amsterdam is an amazing city with something for just about anyone from the regular touris, to the art connoisseur, and even the utter sleeze-ball. Amsterdam is the only place that can mix high culture with blantant debauchery within the same city. It is the most unique city I've ever traveled to.

Friday morning, I woke up ready to embark on my journey to a new city and a new country. I barely slept the night before, I was so excited. Kaylin, Amanda, and I took the metro to the train station, and boarded the train to Amsterdam. The four-hour train ride was relaxing and the scenery was beautiful. The train went through northern France and into Belgium, where we stopped in Brussels and Antwerp (an important WWII site). As the train sped through the country side, farm-checkered Belgium turned into windmill-speckled Holland, where we stopped in Rotterdam and the Hague before finally arriving in Amsterdam.

I stepped off the train and into a different world. Throughout the train station, absolutely nothing was in English. Everything was in Dutch. I figured that they would have everything in a few key languages, such as English, French and German, but they stuck with Dutch. So we wandered around the train station for around twenty minutes trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. We couldn't even find the bathroom, because we didn't know what any of the signs said. Eventually we found the information desk with people who spoke English. Our first order of business was to find the tram that would take us into the city and to our hostel.

They pointed us in the right direction where we finally made it out of the stubbornly Dutch train station. We were immediately greeted by people who were there to help travelers with the tram system. The trams are the primary system of public transportation in Amsterdam, and they are quite efficient. I personally like the metro better, but the tram was great, too. We talked to a guy (in English!) who told us which tram we needed to get to our hostel, and where we needed to purchase our weekend unlimited tram pass. After buying our tram passes, we had our first of many misadventures involving the tram.

We hopped on the correct tram and had our passes validated, then sat down for the ride. Remember how I said that Europe doesn't do air-conditioning? The trams were no exception. It was so hot and stuffy, I thought I would suffocate. But watching the city rolled by my window more than made up for it. There were so many shops and cafes and interesting looking places, as well as amazing Dutch architecture. Forgetting about the oppressive heat, the fact that I was acutally in Amsterdam was sinking in. Something I had dreamed about for years was right before my very eyes, surrounding me. It was such an awesome feeling. I was shaken from my reverie by the annoucement that we were approaching the stop at which I needed to exit. The annoucements were completely in Dutch, but fortunately there was an electronic sign that showed the names of the stops. Otherwise, I would have never even know we were there. Kaylin, Amanda, and I gathered our bags and made our way to the door of the tram. But right as we made it to the door of the tram, the tram started moving again. Apparently we took too long. We just chuckled to ourselves. We could just get off at the next stop. In theory.

As it approached the next stop, we were ready to walk out the door. If only we could get it open. We must have looked like a bunch of cave men poking and banging on some unfamiliar technology, because no matter what we tried, that door did not budge. Before we had a chance to figure it out, the tram started moving again. This time it turned a corner and went a long way before it actually stopped again. When it did stop again, fortunately someone else was getting off at that stop as well and we just followed them. Apparently there is a button on the handle that you have to press to open the doors (who knew?). So we got off at this stop, not really knowing where we were. Our hostel was a few blocks away from the original tram stop anyway, so now we were really lost. Where is Rick Steves when we need him?

I pulled out my map of Amsterdam (not Rick Steves, which would have been better), and we sat down on a bench to try to figure out where in the hell we were. We looked up and saw the Van Gogh Museum across the street, which is a land mark that was easily identifiable on the map. Once we found that on the map, we were able to figure out where we were and how to get where we were going. Our hostel was about a twenty minute walk away (no easy feat when toting luggage), but we finally made it.

Kaylin and I checked in and everything was fine with that. But our friend Amanda realized that she had checked into the other Stayokay in Amsterdam (there are two), which was on the other side of town. So Kaylin and I put our things in our room before going to find Amanda's hostel. Our room had twenty beds, all bunkbeds, and all girls. I had the bottom bunk (which I much prefer). It was on the fourth floor, but I had the luxury of an elevator (which I haven't had in a month!). The room overlooked Vondelpark, which is the central park of Amsterdam, so it was a beautiful view.

After unpacking, the three of us sat down and tried to figure out which tram we needed to take to get to Amanda's hostel. It didn't take long and we headed toward the tram. Once we got on the tram, we knew we had a long ride, so we just scoped out the scenery. But after a few minutes, we started to get the feeling we weren''t going in the right direction. It was getting more industrial by the minute, so we knew we had done something wrong. We got off the tram and immediately realized we had stepped into a rather unfamiliar side of town, and it was a little dodgy....

We looked on the map and saw where we needed to go and we started walking. Quickly. We wandered around the area for about half an hour to forty-five minutes before finally finding what we were looking for: the road that Amanda's hostel was on. And it was a much less shady area than the one that we were in previously, thank goodness. She checked into her hostel, then we got back on the tram (the right one this time) and made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe, because we were starving.

Hard Rock Cafe was great. It was the first American food I'd had in a month, and they had a two-for-one cocktail special that we indulged in. I got the twisted macaroni and it was amazing. There wasn't a gift shop though, which was disappointing because I wanted to get a t-shirt.

After eating, we went to Anne Frank House, which was a really great thing to see. I have read Anne Frank's diary twice, which made it that much more interesting. To see the place that she had to hide with seven other people for two years, completely in fear of being discovered by the Nazis was a chilling experience. They had black-out curtains over the windows, so it was dark and cold even though it was really warm outside. Imagine being cooped up in such a small place for that long and never being to go outside or make any noise or even just feel safe. And Anne was 12 - 13 years old when she was in hiding here, so she couldn't even be a child while here. She and her family were eventually discovered by the Nazis and Anne and all of her family, except her father, died while in the Nazi concentration camps. Anne was only thirteen, and died a few weeks after her mother and sister were killed. She didn't even know that her father was still alive. Two months after her death, all the surviving jews were freed from the concentration camps by the Allies and the war was over.

After the moving experience at Anne Frank House, we walked around town, taking pictures and looking in little boutiques until night fell. Then we made our way over to the Red Light District. Night time is oddly the safest time to go to the Red Light District, because there are so many tourists and such. It was a very strange place, somewhere that was interesting to see once, but that was enough for me. They had prostitutes that would sit in the windows in bikinis or lingerie, with neon lights and black lights illuminating them. They would randomly point to the men as they walked by and try to get them to buy them. There were people who would stand outside of the strip clubs and try to get people to go in and see the show. The guy at one place was announcing that they had student discounts with a student ID. Apparenly you get student discounts at strip clubs in Amsterdam, but not at the museums (not one single museum had a student discount!).

During the walk through the Red Light District, Kaylin ran into a light post and hurt her head, so we headed back to the dorms. I was so tired from the long day that I fell asleep around midnight, but I didn't really sleep well.

Part Two is coming up shortly in the next blog. Its lunch time.