Amsterdam

On the 13^th of October we arrived in Amsterdam just before midnight. Out the front were many trams, number 3 took us straight to our Hostel, The Flying Pig Uptown.

The hostel was quite large with a basement level bar and smoking room , followed by 5 levels of dorm rooms. The staircase was extremely narrow with small steps, making it quite unpleasant to walk on but still the dorm rooms were large and had big cages under the bed to keep our belongings.

 The following day we walked from our hostel into town, crossing over many canals, dodging cyclists we eventually found the boutiques De 9 Straatjes / Nine Streets. The day progressed with lots of window shopping and the occasional stop off to browse inside. One shop I really loved was a vintage one, jam packed with 60’s – 90’s recycled clothing. Tempted to buy everything insight, I did a quick lap of the store and left empty handed, saving both my backpack and credit card.

We stopped at a café for coffee and lunch. It reminded me a lot of the cafes back home except the service was terrible! I don’t usually like to complain but we waited 2 hours for a soup and toasted sandwich. In general the service in Europe in comparison to Australia is extremely different. Our hospitality industry could defiantly teach them a thing or two!

 That night we went to the apartment Michael’s cousin was staying at and hung out for awhile before heading out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Afterwards we went and checked out the Red Light District. It wasn’t as ‘in your face’ as I had suspected. Prostitution is legal in The Nederland’s. The girls work for themselves and are expected to pay taxes in return for free health benefits. Each girl rents out her own room and works for herself, which I found a bit strange, I though they’d have pimps!

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was very informative and taught as a lot of history about the Dutch, including how they where the first to develop the system of selling shares in a company to raise capital. We went to the very first stock exchange building, walked down ‘Heroin Alley’, through China Town, past the Red Light District – via ‘Big Mamma’s Lane’ and the ‘Elite Lane’, across the largest canal in Amsterdam and then the tour finished opposite Anne Frank’s house.

That afternoon we visited the food market where we tried some delicious caramel waffles and then headed back to Anne Frank’s house hoping the entry line had reduced since earlier that day. Thankfully it had and we only waited half an hour.

The Anne Frank Museum has been my favorite tourist activity so far on my trip. The Museum is a bit like a maze, guiding you through the individual rooms of the building that Anne Frank and her family hid in for almost 2 years. The building was Anne’s Fathers business, which he created a hidden house in the back of incase they ever needed to go into hiding.

Throughout the maze are artifacts, videos and quotes from Anne’s diary, which share the whole story throughout the building. I found the Museum extremely moving and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam in the future.

Afterwards we went to a brewery, which is next to one of the only remaining windmills in Amsterdam and then headed to the Red Light District to have drinks with some friends.

I really loved Amsterdam! Even though it rained the whole time, it’s been my favorite city so far. I can’t really pin point why but I just felt a lot of creative energy from the city and it also reminded me a lot of Melbourne.