Adventures in Amsterdam

Getting from Dublin to Amsterdam was much more enjoyable than my other trips...primarily because we didn't have to fly RyanAir for once. We were actually assigned seats on our AerLingus flight, although we still weren't offered complimentary water or sodas....guess I'll have to wait for my flight back to America for that! When we got to Amsterdam, we had to take a short train ride to the city center. We had a hard time figuring out the ticket kiosks and went to the information desk for help. Turns out there is a 50 cent charge for buying the tickets from a person instead of from the kiosks. When the nice man told us about this, we all looked at each other ready to head back to the kiosks and try again. We were lucky yet again though when he laughed at us and said he would  remove the charge for us. Yet another example of how we are cheap college students!

The first night we had to stay in 2 separate hostels because one was completely full. When Colleen and I went to check into our hostel, we were told to put our bags into a broom closet. This ironically happened to us again the next day in "Bob's Youth Hostel" where we yet again had to throw our belongings into a Harry-Potter like closet under the stairs. The hostels were about what you would expect in Amsterdam. I saw one too many rats for my liking in the lobby of Bob's and the man sleeping a foot away from me in the first hostel must have been about 40 years old with the loudest whopping cough I've ever heard. He snored so loud I couldn't sleep all night. Colleen had problems too and apparently tried to tug his comforter to wake him up--to which the snoring would stop temporarily only to be replaced by a painful sounding animal roar. I'm convinced the reason I now have a cold is because of this man. But, alas we did not go to Amsterdam to hang out in our hostel!

Putting my bags under the stairs...

First touristy thing we did was tour the Anne Frank house. Amsterdam didn't have any student prices, but Colleen and I were willing to pay the 10 euros to see the Anne Frank house. It was very interesting but all the more depressing to see in person. It's hard to really wrap your head around the fact that they hid there for almost 4 years. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures so you guys will just have to imagine it or visit it on your own!

After that Colleen and I went to the red light district. It truly was unlike anything I've ever seen. The women rent out a window with a door handle on it for hour long intervals. When a guy is interested, he'll walk up and she'll open the door and they'll discuss prices. We saw a few too many men accept the prostitutes offers. Once again I was afraid to take pictures of them...it's considered really rude and if they see you they will come out and smash your camera to the ground (this happened to Colleen's friend...). But I will say that the prostitutes during the daytime were MUCH less attractive than the ones at night. We went back to the red light district at night on Thursday and the women there were actually really good looking (if you ignored the fact that they were essentially naked). 

On Wednesday, Colleen and I attempted to find this free canal boat tour we had read about on the internet. We didn't have much luck, however, and instead decided to just ride the ferry back and forth across the river. The amount of bikes in Amsterdam is something I don't think I'll ever forget. It seemed like there were more bicyclists than pedestrians. The ferry was filled with bikers, but we acted like tourists and took pictures the whole time.

Parking deck for bikes

On the ferry!

After the boat tour, we went to the IAmsterdam sign to take pictures. Although the weather wasn't very good at all, we still got some good pictures in!

Full sign

M for Maggie!

Overall, I really loved Amsterdam. It was just so beautiful the way the canals are set up throughout the city. I wish we could have gone on a canal boat, but I'll just have to do that next time I go!

At one of the many canals

On Thursday, we were off yet again to Germany! I'll try and blog about that today too if I have time!