Amsterdam

After Barcelona, the next city was: Amsterdam. Here, I met up with my bro's girlfriend Asia and her sister Katie. We would be here for a long weekend. Surprisingly, I didn't make any entries in my diary while I was here. Looking back, it was all a bit of a haze. I guess that's the charm of Amsterdam.

We met up at the Amsterdam airport. After getting my bag, we took the train into Amsterdam. We walked a little ways from the train station and had some lunch. Here we met a guy who also just arrived and was here for a huge party/concert. Apparently, Amsterdam was going to be taken over by people going to a White Party (everyone dressing in white)--a local futbol stadium was going to be taken over by DJs and white-clad people for an all-night rave. It sounded interesting, but our Maltese friend said tickets would be hard to come by. Oh well.


We ended up taking a canal tour to get the lay of the land and to kill time before checking into our hotel: Hotel Fantasia. Once we were checked in we went to the Anne Frank House. This is a museum which is at the original Anne Frank House. Remarkably, I have never read the Anne Frank Diary. Eventhough I hadn't read it, the museum was very powerful. She was a remarkable young woman, and is a testament to how strong people can be. It was an emotional experience, and I'm glad we went here at the beginning of our stay.


Amsterdam is a city overrun by bikes...as it should be. The bike paths aren't just painted on pavement, they were built exclusively for bikes. The hierarchy is BIKES, autos, and then people. So, you have to always be mindful of bike bells.

Well, while in Amsterdam, you have to make a visit to a "coffee shop". We went to one recommended by a nice Canadian girl we met. This "coffee shop" was tripped out inside with swirling murals, trippy sculptures, and cool music. The "coffee shop" was called Damp Kring.

We also made it to The Van Gogh Museum. This museum was awesome. Several of Van Gogh's top works are displayed at this museum. We hung out here for a few hours. We also strolled around the surrounding park as well (posed in front of the "I AMsterdam" sculpture).

After the Van Gogh Musuem we made it to one of Amsterdam's bigger parks: Vondel Park. There were tons of people here hanging out, picnicking, making out, walking dogs, fishing, pedaling "beer mobiles" (you have to see one of these!), etc. We had a few snacks here and then we went over to an open-air theater. We first listened to an Argentinian pianist (he was alright---very jazzy), and then we listened to a band called Sensual (Brazilian chill band)---they were awesome.

All in all Amsterdam was ok. Seemed a little too Vegas-y for me, but what were we expecting. I had an almost full Amsterdam experience, but I'm sad to say I never did get a "Royale with cheese"! Oh well! :)