I just left Amsterdam and headed for the Schipol airport to check into my hotel for the night. Tonight I get a whole room to myself. I work tomorrow so I have to be presentable for that. I’m staying at the Radisson near the airport which means a nice room and some amenities I’ve not had for a few days. It also means no wild nightlife, but I’ll get back to that in a few days.
This morning I got up super early. I got a lot of sleep yesterday so I woke up at something like 6am. Caught up on some Internetting while waiting for breakfast to open at 7am and had my free hostel breakfast. More of the same.
After breakfast I said goodbye to my good hostel, checked out and headed for town. I was in desperate need of doing some laundry. I rode my bike towards the Central Station looking for laundry and had no luck. So, I headed to the Red Light District, where anything is possible!
First street I turned down I found an automat and got that rolling. Not cheap! EU 3 for the washer, EU 1 for the soap and EU 3 for the dryer. That comes to $217. I did meet a really nice guy from Mexico who’s been travelling Europe as a student for a while and got the low down on some of the places I want to go. Sounds like I am going to want to reserve my rooms in advance, if I can. He got stuck in a really shitty place in Amsterdam cause he didn’t book ahead. He had a lot of other tips too, but I won’t bore you with the things important to an international traveller like myself. (Oh, haha!)
Laundry done I went and returned my bike, then dropped off my backpack in a locker in the station. That thing is heavy as hell. Then it was off to The Rijksmuseum.
I like art, don’t get me wrong, but that one didn’t do it for me. They had quite a few Rembrandts but nothing I actually recognized. I have to admit I just sorta skimmed through. I did notice signs everywhere for stuff I did recognize at the Van Gogh Museum, so I decided to go there too. I walked around the corner and met The Line. I know Amsterdam like the back of my hand though and I don’t do lines. Fuck lines. I hopped a tram down to the info center, got my Van Gogh ticket in 30 seconds, hoped back and walked right past that whole line.
The Van Gogh Museum was much better, for me. Many paintings I recognized and wanted to see. I saw Sunflowers, of course. They also had a Rambrandt vs. Caravaggio mix up thing and that’s where all the “good” Rembrandts were. I don’t know their names but I saw quite a few paintings I’ve seen prints or pictures of my whole life. That was cool. My favorite was “Saint Somebody or the other writing in a book being held open by a skull.”
Then I went to the Sex Museum. The information said I would be shocked and enraged. Yea. Maybe before the Internet. I see shit like that before breakfast. Trannys? Double penetration? ANAL?! Oh god! Shut my eyes! *Sigh*
On the recommdation of some dude I met during the Heineken tour I decided to take a canal tour. They have these squat little boats that take you through all the canals and that was a lot of fun. Got to see the harbor, and parts of the city away from the main area that I had missed. They love them some boats. It was kinda chilly today but that didn’t stop everyone in the city from sitting on their little boat and having a party. I learned that the little fences alone the canals on the sidewalks were put there in the 60s at the cost of 100 Gilders per meter to stop cars from rolling into the canals. They said they still average about 1 car per week taking a dunk.
Not ready to leave yet I decided to head back to my favorite place in the world, the red light district! Saturday and Sunday I thought I had found the red light district. I was wrong. TODAY I really found it. Man, crazy. I found these alleys that I could scrape both walls with just by sticking out my elbows and they were solid hooker windows left and right the whole way. I really wish I could have taken some pics. The quality was also a lot higher. I guess that’s where you have to know to go, or something. I learned, by overhearing, that a blowjob is EU 25 and everything else starts at EU 50.
I also went into a few smoke shops just to say I did. I couldn’t actually figure out how to buy something 🙂 I think you have to at least have a clue to get to that part. I guess it’s all behind the counter.
So, I’m done with Amsterdam. I had a lot of fun. It’s a cool place but I think I would have had a lot more fun if I were travelling with someone I know. I had a hard time meeting people. I am shy enough to begin with; I’ve never been good at just walking up to a group of people and trying to get involved but when they are all speaking a different language it’s even worse. Oh well, I’ll be a tourist this time and plan to come back with friends some day.
I could definitely live in Amsterdam.
Tomrorow I head to Breda for a few days to work then I find a new country to go to. I’ve been leaning towards Brussels and doing beer tours, but I think the Mexican kid convinced me to go to Germany instead. Travel is so plentiful and cheap it’s just awesome. You can just walk into the train station, pick a country and go. So that’s what I’ll do.
More pics are up on Flickr. I also took a lot of videos today but haven’t decided where to put them yet.