Red doesn't mean stop

Back from my weekend in Amsterdam! I feel a bit odd writing this blog as I haven't yet concluded whether or not I actually LIKED Amsterdam as a whole - but maybe I'll have made up my mind after writing about it. At any rate, here goes.

It took longer/cost more than expected to get from the low-budget airline airport to CENTRAL Amsterdam, but I've spent enough energy being irritated at that so I won't go into detail; but after a plane, a bus, a train and another bus, we arrived at our hostel which unfortunately was situated about 20 minutes (by bus!) outside of the city center. However, I will say that although its location was unfortunate, the hostel itself was quite nice: comfy beds, private bathroom, a really good breakfast and very reasonably priced. So after settling into the hostel, my friend Sarah and I headed out into town. After traveling all day we were pretty tired and it was already pretty late by this point, so we just found a little cafe (Amsterdam is DEFINITELY not lacking cafes!) and just hung out and had a drink, pretty low-key.

The next day we headed back into downtown Amsterdam to look around. Now although I found some aspects of the city to be just plain bizarre, the city itself (the architecture, etc.) was lovely. It reminded me a lot of Bruges, a really pretty city we visited in Belgium, as there were tons of canals and many brick houses. There were also bikes EVERYWHERE which I thought was really cool! (We had actually thought about renting some ourselves but it was kind of expensive, and since our hostel was so far outside the city center it just didn't really make sense.) Some of the canals even had ducks and swans swimming around - it was quite charming! So we spent most of the day just wandering around. We also tried a dutch specialty called "poffertjes", which are basically bite-sized pancakes that came with tons of butter and icing sugar - they were delicious!

One "attraction" we did go see was Anne Frank's house. Although we had to wait in line to get in, there was no reduced price for students and there wasn't really anything to 'see' in the house per se, I still thought it was totally worth the visit. It was so cool to just be in a place where so much had gone on. We were actually able to go behind the bookcase and into the Annex which is where they were in hiding. All the windows were boarded up so you could kind of get a sense of what is must have been like to stay there in the dark 24/7. They had printed out quotes from Anne's diary all over the walls, and there was one entry from Christmas eve 1943 that I found particularly moving: "I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I'm free." We were also able to go into Anne's room, where you could see all the pictures she'd put up on the walls to make it more cheerful. I was a bit bummed that there were so many people - you weren't able to stay for very long in each room and I would have liked to spend a bit more time just being in an place with such a powerful story - but it was really, really cool and I'm so glad I took the time to see it.

Another part of the city we of course had to go see was the infamous Red Light district. For those of you who don't know, prostitution is legal in Amsterdam, and the Red Light district is where one would go to "take advantage" of this. Now I'd heard that there would be prostitutes just standing in the windows waiting to attract customers, but hearing about it and SEEING it are, as I discovered, two completely different things; I was beyond shocked when I saw these women in real life! It was just too bizarre. I guess it's good in a way, as this way is probably much safer for all parties involved, but it still makes you kind of sad to see. Plus (I can't emphasize this enough) it was just WEIRD to see LIVE, barely-clothed women standing in windows. As well as having windows upon windows filled with prostitutes, there were also an array of sex THEATERS where you can apparently (I say apparently because I did NOT check them out first hand, I read about them in a guide book) see live sex shows; yes, two people literally having sex on a stage. There were also sex shops on every corner where you could buy anything imaginable relating to sex. To sum up... it was a lot of sex for such a small city!

So even after typing up this blog, I still can't really determine whether or not I "liked" Amsterdam as a whole - it definitely wasn't what I was expecting, but I'm glad I saw it! Honestly it's worth it to go there for the shock value alone as it's a pretty 'unique' city in a lot of ways!