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Amsterdam....land of legal drugs and SEX....not that I did either one of course, but it's a fact.
So, while Elise was here, we decided that it would be a cool idea to take a trip up to Amsterdam while she was visiting, and I agreed. However, on the day that she arrived, I got wind that the DB was going to go on strike the Monday before we wanted to go. Therefore, I decided that we should take a bus...which we did. We went to Frankfurt and found that to take a bus from there to Amsterdam was going to cost about €56 vs. the €100 that is was going to cost to go on the train. However, the catch was that it was going to take about 2 hrs longer to get there on the bus, but for saving almost €50, I was okay with that since we still had to pay for our Hostel on top of the ticket. Anyways, the night before we went to buy the tickets, Elise, Monica and I all went out drinking and I convinced Monica, albeit drunkenly, to come with us to Amsterdam. She relented and met us in Frankfurt the next day to buy our tickets.
Here's another catch... we had to be there REALLY early since the bus left at 6am. Luckily Monica's not perpetually late or whiny when it comes to getting up early and going somewhere, so we were able to get to Frankfurt and catch our bus no problems. So we're on the bus stop and we go to load up and the guy who's loading my luggage puts a sticker on my ticket. Well, when I got to get on the bus, the driver takes this sticker from my ticket as well as my ticket. I kinda panicked a bit b/c I thought I would be able to get my luggage, so I explained to him that I needed the ticket b/c I needed the sticker b/c I needed my luggage....but wait....what happened? HE DIDN'T SPEAK GERMAN!!! Or English for that matter, so I just kinda took a seat and hoped to God it would be ok when we got to Amsterdam...which of course it was. Anyways, the trip on the bus was pretty un-eventful...though I noted that they really do have a lot of rivers hemmed in by Dikes and it's kinda weird to drive along and notice that the river is much higher than the road....and that at any moment if there were a leak, we'd be goners. Ah, that was my thought then. But, like I said before, it was a pretty uneventful ride and we arrived in Amsterdam right on schedule no problems.
So, when we finally arrived in Amsterdam, we realized that the station that we had to go to to get to our Hostel was another 10 minutes with the train from the station with the buses....so we jumped on a train, and went to the Centraal Station. Once there, we followed the directions from the station to our hostel. It was a little interesting considering that the hostel was down this little sketchy alley (something which becomes important later) but we found it nonetheless. When we walked in, I noticed something immediately....it REEKED of pot. And then I saw something I don't think I've ever seen during the day...someone smoking a joint. Like all out in the open and everything. Well, we got everything situated and then decided to go ahead out and do some sight-seeing since we had a large part of the day left to kill in Amsterdam. We walked over to the tourist office and picked up a city map, something which I bought mainly to have later as a decoration, but it was coo anyways. After leaving there, Elise said she knew where things were and for us just to follow her...which we did. We ended up first stopping at the Sex Museum. This, I must say, was quite interesting. Everyone who thinks they're ok with sex and all needs to go to this museum...it'll make you re-think that. Everything I learned about early Modern Europeans and stuff (the prudishness and stuff) was completely contradicted by this museum....I now feel like high society lied to me and everyone is internally a sex-crazed nympho!! Yes, I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but at least it was enough for me and I no longer needed to consider going to the Sex Show....that's something I don't think I could've handled. Yet, the most interesting parts of the Sex Museum had to be the Chastity belts (of which I took pictures) and the part for Sadism and Animism. VERY ODD, but informative nonetheless. After finally completing the museum, we walked down to Dam Square and looked around at some of the tourist shops and things before finally continuing on to the Heineken Experience. However, as we began our trek to the Heineken exhibit, it began to rain. We then decided that we'd take the tram, but we didn't see a place to get tickets. So, Monica and I decided we weren't going to take the tram, we'd just walk considering how often the German Security comes around and checks the tickets. Elise, however, got on the tram and left us. At that moment, I don't think I really understood the deal, and I don't think I get it now. Regardless of my understanding, Monica and I proceeded to the Heineken Brewery on our own (which wasn't that far anyways) just to find out that it was closed. DAMN!!!
After this, we wandered around town until we came upon a Greek restaurant that served us some AMAZING food. It wasn't all that expensive either, only about €18 a person.... but you got a lot of food. Dinner was really good, it was cool to just sit and hang out with friends and have intelligent conversation WITHOUT the possibility of narrow-mindedness or someone wanting to start an argument. After eating, Elise stopped by a store to get some mushrooms for later, and we then marched back to our hostel. However, once we got back, Monica and I wanted to go out to the souvenir shop b/c we wanted to grab something, so we ducked out while Elise saved us a table at the bar. This, my friends, is where the sketchy alley comes back in to play. So, we found out through Elise (as well as I read online before I came) that people will, at night, sell illegal drugs to you by whispering, "Hey, you want some of this" or something like that while walking ddown the street. Well, as Monica and I were walking, this happened to us. We were walking and this black guy is walking towards us, and before I know what's going on he's opening his jacket a little whispering "Hey, you want somea this" or something like that. It took me a while to register what happened, but then Monica was like, "OMG did you just get propositioned by a drug dealer!!" and then I was like, "Yeah, serves us right by being in the sketchy alley!!!" Well, that was our first night in Amsterdam. Nothing more to tell. Monica and I went to bed around 11 and Elise stayed down playing cards with some guys she met. I don't know when she came to bed b/c by then, I was OUT!
We woke up the next day around 10, an d got going. We walked back over to the tourist station by the Centraal Station and reserved ourselves a ride with the 100 interesting things of Amsterdam tour as well as a tour of the Anne Frank House @ 4:30. The Boat tour was interesting, but then it started to rain, and it put a little bit of a damper on the day. After that, we wandered around the city, stoping at FEBO to get food. It was quite interesting. Monica and I had been wanting to try some Dutch food, but we didn't know where we could go about getting some, but we eventually found some at this FEBO place. It was like a huge row of Vending Machine doors, and you had to put money in and then take out the food....very interesting....very modern...and VERY delicious!!! After eating (and going through the Red Light district and having ppl click their nails at me and stuff) we headed towards the Flower Market to do a little shopping. Once this was done, we walked around....and around.....and around in CIRCLES!! Finally, we ended up back at the main station, but Elise didn't realize that's what it was and asked me where we were. So I told her we were at Centraal Station, and that Dam Square, the place for which she was looking, was to our left. So then I was like, "Ok, let's go look at this big church and then go back to the Square." She said fine, and then Monica and I turned around to go to the Cathedral, and when I turned around, Elise was walking off in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!! Like who does that?? So anyways, Monica and I got a little perturbed b/c not only did Elise NOT have a cell phone which I could call, she also took our Anne Frank House tickets and reservations with her! OH, I was so angry! So we decided to finish at the church and then walk back to the youth hostel to try to find Elise. This, however, turned up nothing, and We finally decided to just walk to the Anne Frank house ourselves and try to explain our problem to the people there and hope that since I made the reservation under my name, we could still get in without having the paper tickets. Well, luckily the people at the Anne Frank House had a record of our information and was able to let us in, so Monica and I got to see the house. The house itself was quite interesting. It wasn't furnished or anything, but the clippings that Anne put on the walls were still there and they also had her diary...you know, the famous one that everyone reads. I was actually surprised at the largeness of the rooms in the Annex. It's not like a huge house size or anything, but it's a decent mini apartment for someone or a coupla people. Anyways, it was interesting, and it was REALLY cool to get to go through the bookcase. Very sad though. Anyways, after leaving the Anne Frank House we went to the Torture Museum. Elise had said that it was going to be boring, but we went anyways and it ended up being really interesting. In this one part of the museum there was this chair with nails and stuff in it and I put my arm in to take a picture....then it kinda got stuck, but I managed to pull it out, but not before some minor pain!!! I also got to take a picture with an Iron Maiden....which was also kinda cool. Anyways, when we finally got back to the Youth Hostel, Elise was there and said she'd been looking for us and all, but by that time we just didn't care anymore, and we went out to eat at this Pancake joint (which wasn't worth it at all) and then came back and went to bed b/c Monica and I had to be up early to catch the train back home.
Well, the next day (Thursday Morning) Monica and I woke up at a decent hour and got our stuff together to go back to the bus station and get back to Mainz. All went well, and eventually we were on the bus set to come back. Well, I don't know what was going on, but the bus ended up becoming about 45 minutes behind schedule (not to mention the fact that the schedul said we'd be back in Frankfurt by 3 and we weren't REALLY scheduled until 6) so when we stopped in Koblenz, Monica and I disembarked and took the train back to Mainz, which ended up being a lot faster. Both of our parents were arriving the next day, so we quickly parted ways and (I assume fot her) cleaned and got ready for the 'rents. My memories of Amsterdam will forever be....interesting. It was a really cool place, and I think I'd definitely want to go back to the Netherlands again. Up next? High-tailing it over Germany with Mom and Ryan.... that'll be FUN!! I'm SO EXCITED!!!
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