Anyway, the past weekend I was in Amsterdam, aka the land of prostitutes, "soft-core" drugs and dozens of canals. We arrived a little later than planned Friday afternoon and once we put our stuff down in our pretty nice hostel, we were off to grab some grub for lunch/dinner downtown. On this trip there is a lot of people who shall take the place of the personal pronoun, we. We consists of myself, Rachel, Mike (a UCL student who goes to American University in D.C. but has a girlfriend who goes to friend), Dalila (Mike's girlfriend who is good friends with Rachel), Corey (UCL student who goes to Penn), Jennie (another UCL student who goes to Penn) and Michael (one of Rachel's travel buddies from her trip before school and who we met up with last weekend at Oketoberfest). Here is "we" (minus myself) when we are figuring out how to get somewhere:
Starting from the left: Corey, then Mike, then Rachel, then Dalila, and Jennie who is blocking Michael.We were all starving so we pretty much sat a the first relatively cheap cafe to grab some food. I ended up getting a toastie, a small sandwich with meat that was "toasted" (obviously). Here is our view from the restaurant so you check out the picturesque view that we had while we ate:
As you can see the city is quite beautiful. The town is filled with trolleys, canals and many cyclists. And when I say many, I mean, a lot. They had more people riding bikes than cars, which I guess would make sense as it is the bicycle capital of the world. And to be a little dorky, the textures on the ground were so different and to use my knowledge of urban design, this is to enforce the separation of different ways of moving. For instance, the road would be one kind of brick if it was not meant to be used that much and it would be a different brick if more cars used the road.Once we finished up eating, we started to walk around and check out the town. This is where things started to get tricky. Since Amsterdam is laid out in concentric circle with its canals and the Dutch language has numerous words that start with Leinds- and end in -plein, we got a little lost.
After walking around for about 2 hours we made it to the Palace. I really don't know why it was there or why it is important, but it is pretty big and I guess beautiful. Here are some pictures from our walk and of the palace:
Here is a picture of Mike and Dalila trying to figure out how to get the palace.
Here is a small street that was home to more pedestrians and shops than bicyclists.
Here is a strip of houses along one of the canals.
The top of the Palace.
The bottom of the Palace.
Across from the Palace, the had a phallic monument, again I do not know what for.
After the long journey, we ate again but this time a Argentinian steak house, which was right around the corner from the palace. It was very good and relatively cheap (3 courses from 13 euro or so). Here is my steak:
By the time we got out of dinner, the palace area was packed and people we sitting on the monument:
Once we got our direction, we made over to the Red-light district, which was appropriate marked by red lights:
In this area, there were live sex shows, porn shops and prostitutes. It was quite an experience as the prostitutes (wearing bikinis) were inside their doors and try and get people to come in by dancing. Just so everyone knows no one took part in any activities and/or visual experiences. Also, photos are strictly forbidden so the photo that I have above is the best one I have of the area. After walking some more, we decided we had enough and decided to take the 2 mile or so walk back home. Here are some pictures from the walk back:
The next day we woke up relatively early so we could get the free breakfast from our hostel. After that we walked to the Anne Frank Huis (House). Again we walked and I took more pictures of the pretty city:
I almost forgot to mention that boats were another popular choice of Amsterdamians. The used them both to travel and live on.
Once we got to the Anne Frank House, there was already a line wrapped around the corner. Like the Red Light District, the Anne Frank House did not allow any pictures to be taken. The house was very moving and it gets quite emotional. Here is a picture from the outside of the house:
After the house, we decided to walk some more around the city centre and look for some food. One great thing about the city is that there was such a great variety of food. Since the city is so international, there is numerous stands that serve food from all over the world. I ended up getting a sandwich from this Greek place. It was really good. We ended up eating on the edge of the channel. It was just so nice out and pretty much perfect.
Another great food that I think everyone loved there was these chocolate covered waffles. Every sort of pastry place served them, but in there own way. Some would serve it warm, others with ice cream and even others with whipped creme. Nevertheless, they were very good. Here is picture of me eating mine:
After getting a little lost (like 2 miles out of the way), we ended finding the place that we wanted to go to, a giant chess set. It wasn't all too exciting and it turns out that some of us actually saw it the day before. This one guy was there both days we walked by it:
Since we were so close to our hotel, some of us needed to take a nap (not me) while others played cards (Rummy 500). After everyone gained some energy, we decided to grab some dinner in this area of Amsterdam called Rembrandtsplein, or something similar. We ate at this Italian restaurant outside and it was pretty good. You just don't realize how "bad" the food in London is until you go to other places in Europe and see how good it is there.
After eating, we walked back to our hostel. At this point all of our legs were tired from walking so much and as soon as we got to our room we all pretty much passed out. By 11:00am the next day, everyone was ready to go and we decided to get breakfast at the Pancake Corner which is basically a crepe place which was pretty good, but the service sucked. Once our stomachs were full of more delicious food, we made our way to the Van Gogh Museum.
The museum is located in a big park and is really nice. Here is a picture of the area:
The museum behind it is the state museum, which holds the "Nightwatch" by Rembrandt. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go check that out.
The Van Gogh Museum was pretty nice. Not all of his most famous pieces were on display though. The most famous pieces there were the Sunflower picture, his self portraits and the painting of his room. Once you are up close you can really appreciate his style and his brush stroke. It is pretty amazing as he was not a painter for that long (about 10 years), but he did so many paintings (around 800 or so). In case you were wondering, there was no picture taking here either.
By the time we left the museum we were all hungry again. Some people got waffles while others got these really good fries. I just picked off other people's snack choices. Eventually we ended up getting dinner and being the adventurous college students that we are, we ended up getting Indonesian food. It was really good.
At first we were skeptical about going there as no one was eating in the restaurant, but then we figured we at least would get really good service unlike in the morning. They ended up serving the food pretty quickly and to keep it warm the kept it on these warmers in the middle of the table. Here is the group:
Michael ended up leaving early in the day, but Dalila's friend that is studying in Rotterdam came up to see her. Her friend, Kevin I think, is at the far left.
Here is the outside of the Indonesian Restaurant.
As we made our way back from dinner, we had to get one more waffle which turned out to be the best place. They made them fresh and you could get anything you wanted on them. It was sooooo good.
The next day, Rachel, Jennie and I had our flight at 8:45am so we had to get up pretty early. We got in on time and made it just in time for class. Although, it was hard to make the transition from traveling mode to studying mode, I think we did pretty good even though we were pretty tired. But I made up for my tiredness later as I fell asleep at 7:30pm and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning.
This weekend I am taking a break from traveling and probably starting my assignments that are due in a few weeks so I can get ahead. I am pretty excited NOT to travel and enjoy the city I am living in. Stay tuned as I will probably being writing about my weekend, sometime early next week. And by the way GO PHILLIES!
By the time we got out of dinner, the palace area was packed and people we sitting on the monument:
Once we got our direction, we made over to the Red-light district, which was appropriate marked by red lights:
In this area, there were live sex shows, porn shops and prostitutes. It was quite an experience as the prostitutes (wearing bikinis) were inside their doors and try and get people to come in by dancing. Just so everyone knows no one took part in any activities and/or visual experiences. Also, photos are strictly forbidden so the photo that I have above is the best one I have of the area. After walking some more, we decided we had enough and decided to take the 2 mile or so walk back home. Here are some pictures from the walk back:
The next day we woke up relatively early so we could get the free breakfast from our hostel. After that we walked to the Anne Frank Huis (House). Again we walked and I took more pictures of the pretty city:
I almost forgot to mention that boats were another popular choice of Amsterdamians. The used them both to travel and live on.Once we got to the Anne Frank House, there was already a line wrapped around the corner. Like the Red Light District, the Anne Frank House did not allow any pictures to be taken. The house was very moving and it gets quite emotional. Here is a picture from the outside of the house:
After the house, we decided to walk some more around the city centre and look for some food. One great thing about the city is that there was such a great variety of food. Since the city is so international, there is numerous stands that serve food from all over the world. I ended up getting a sandwich from this Greek place. It was really good. We ended up eating on the edge of the channel. It was just so nice out and pretty much perfect.Another great food that I think everyone loved there was these chocolate covered waffles. Every sort of pastry place served them, but in there own way. Some would serve it warm, others with ice cream and even others with whipped creme. Nevertheless, they were very good. Here is picture of me eating mine:
After getting a little lost (like 2 miles out of the way), we ended finding the place that we wanted to go to, a giant chess set. It wasn't all too exciting and it turns out that some of us actually saw it the day before. This one guy was there both days we walked by it:
Since we were so close to our hotel, some of us needed to take a nap (not me) while others played cards (Rummy 500). After everyone gained some energy, we decided to grab some dinner in this area of Amsterdam called Rembrandtsplein, or something similar. We ate at this Italian restaurant outside and it was pretty good. You just don't realize how "bad" the food in London is until you go to other places in Europe and see how good it is there.After eating, we walked back to our hostel. At this point all of our legs were tired from walking so much and as soon as we got to our room we all pretty much passed out. By 11:00am the next day, everyone was ready to go and we decided to get breakfast at the Pancake Corner which is basically a crepe place which was pretty good, but the service sucked. Once our stomachs were full of more delicious food, we made our way to the Van Gogh Museum.
The museum is located in a big park and is really nice. Here is a picture of the area:
The museum behind it is the state museum, which holds the "Nightwatch" by Rembrandt. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go check that out.The Van Gogh Museum was pretty nice. Not all of his most famous pieces were on display though. The most famous pieces there were the Sunflower picture, his self portraits and the painting of his room. Once you are up close you can really appreciate his style and his brush stroke. It is pretty amazing as he was not a painter for that long (about 10 years), but he did so many paintings (around 800 or so). In case you were wondering, there was no picture taking here either.
By the time we left the museum we were all hungry again. Some people got waffles while others got these really good fries. I just picked off other people's snack choices. Eventually we ended up getting dinner and being the adventurous college students that we are, we ended up getting Indonesian food. It was really good.
At first we were skeptical about going there as no one was eating in the restaurant, but then we figured we at least would get really good service unlike in the morning. They ended up serving the food pretty quickly and to keep it warm the kept it on these warmers in the middle of the table. Here is the group:
Michael ended up leaving early in the day, but Dalila's friend that is studying in Rotterdam came up to see her. Her friend, Kevin I think, is at the far left.
Here is the outside of the Indonesian Restaurant.As we made our way back from dinner, we had to get one more waffle which turned out to be the best place. They made them fresh and you could get anything you wanted on them. It was sooooo good.
The next day, Rachel, Jennie and I had our flight at 8:45am so we had to get up pretty early. We got in on time and made it just in time for class. Although, it was hard to make the transition from traveling mode to studying mode, I think we did pretty good even though we were pretty tired. But I made up for my tiredness later as I fell asleep at 7:30pm and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning.
This weekend I am taking a break from traveling and probably starting my assignments that are due in a few weeks so I can get ahead. I am pretty excited NOT to travel and enjoy the city I am living in. Stay tuned as I will probably being writing about my weekend, sometime early next week. And by the way GO PHILLIES!
No comments:
Post a Comment