Amsterdam, You're Crazy

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We get why Amsterdam has a reputation, now- the city has the most amazing energy. Whether you're into partying hard, buying prostitutes, getting high, or being mellow, Amsterdam accepts you.

DAY 1
We got into Amsterdam at 11:30 Monday morning. We were able to get a few winks of sleep on our 3-hour plane ride, but other than that we were running off of fumes from the past 24 hours. Leaving Amsterdam's Centraal Station and entering into downtown was amazing: you can see the old architecture and new modern designs combine to create the unbelievably unique city. As we walked and walked (40 minutes) closer to our hostel (The Flying Pig Uptown) the city grew older. Every block had an alley or two that we wanted to explore. The Flying Pig Uptown is conveniently in-between Vondel Park, the Rijks Museum, and the Arts & Antiques district- which was perfect for us because we can't keep up with the downtown Amsterdam nightlife crew.

We checked-in, showered, and somehow rallied to go out (still haven't slept in over 30+ hours). We meandered our way into an alley that (to the untrained eye) was totally for tourists. Men were standing next to their restaurants' menus and calling you in for a sales pitch like cars salesmen. Apparently it worked, because 5 minutes later we were sitting down for our first warm meals of steak and chicken paired with salads and fries. Full and satisfied, we set out to explore more of the city. 

Cafe Huevel stole our hearts- its people watching is the best in the world. The inside of this cafe/bar is great on its own: dark interior with euros stapled to the wall and mismatched lamps with only a handful of beer selections.

We sat outside and the friendly bartender came out around 5:00 to serve all of the customers cubed cheese, liver and mustard. It's positioned on the corner of 4 intersecting streets along a canal, which are crazy busy during rush hour. Enjoying a few beers and wine we watched people whiz by for hours.  For us, this was the first time that we were able to sit and observe the people of Amsterdam. Here's what we found:
-Everyone is beautiful
-A good coat is everything
-Tailor your clothes to fit
-Pair your coat with skinny jeans
-Old, worn & trendy sneakers or new, gorgeous heeled boots

After watching gorgeous people pedal by us for an hour or more, we continued to explore the city's corners. We found another corner bar (close to "Tourist Avenue") and had a drink watching people stroll and moped by while listening to conversations in foreign languages. 

With a few drinks in our system, we gained the courage to explore the Red Light District- the liquid courage was more for me than Mike, who was eager to window shop. On our walk there, we discovered a couple of very cool, exposed wood-beams styled bars, one of which we stopped in for a drink. The brown and gold wallpaper, paired with the dark wood beams gave us inspiration for our future business aspiration, BeerBeans (c). From there, we finally made it to the "window shopping," although 8:00pm on a Monday probably isn't the best money-making hour, so the windows weren't stock-full, but we certainly saw some scantily clad ladies. 

 The Red Light District is unlike anything we've ever seen. The ladies work and call-in any passerby who seems even remotely interested, no matter how young/old attractive or gross he is. They twist their hips, fix their hair and give you a wink like living lingere mannequins standing in floor-to-ceiling windows with a red fluorescent light illuminating them. But other than the women (which is obviously the main attraction), the area is filled with cool bars, coffeeshops (smoking bars) and restaurants. On our way back to the hostel, we passed an alley restaurant with an adorable outdoor seating area with big round lightbulbs strung overhead, hanging plants, and a great vibe, so we had to stop for a beer.

DAY 2
The following day we woke up, had the complimentary hostel breakfast (hard boiled eggs, toast, cereal and apple juice- I thought I was getting iced tea.. Not a pleasant surprise) then enjoyed a macchiato in the Rijks Garden watching kids enjoy the fountain that shoots water up from the ground and surrounds you.

My feet had developed debilitating blisters, so we decided to rent bikes from Black Bikes rental and scoot around the city. We pedaled to Jodaan, then went downtown to the flower markets, over towards the Red Light District, and up through Vondel Park. We dropped our bikes off and had a picnic of bakery bread, Gouda cheese and wine in the Rijks garden again. Except, we foolishly bought non-alcoholic wine, which just tasted like gross apple juice. Apple juice fooled us twice in one day in the forms of iced tea and Chardonnay..

Back to Cafe Huevel for drinks and rush hour people watching, then to the hostel for a happy hour beer. With a few Euros left in our pockets to have a few beers out on the town, we slowly walked (because I was limping from even more agonizing blisters) to the Red Light District again to Old Sailor, a brown wooden bar that feels like you're inside a wood ship. The bartenders are tired and grouchy, and the environment is lively like drunken sailors (all of whom are giddy from seeing the window women). We made our way down to the end of the road, where it was a bit quieter, to find a cool, dark and modern bar with a tall illuminated wall of liquors that had random decorations of lamps with fringed lampshades and stuffed birds. The bartender came out with his staff meal and offered for us to taste his fried cheese sticks-- thinner, crispier and more delicious than mozzarella sticks; more like fried wonton cheese sticks.

On our way back to The Flying Pig Uptown we stopped and ate frites with mayo and ketchup/ "frite sauce" (a weird combo that only seems to work on frites) on the canal and watched a man fail to steal a bike.

DAY 3
Breakfast and blister taping, then off to explore Noord. We walked to Centraal Station and took a 2 minute ferry over to the northern part of Amsterdam to find windmills with no such luck. As we crossed the river, we noticed The Eye Museum (film museum) to our left, which looks like a white modern spacecraft and decided to check it out.

We walked into the cafeteria where people were dining and art students were drawing while overlooking the river through the walls of glass. Not sure if we snuck downstairs or if it was free, but we went down into the museum and looked at old cameras and how the technology has progressed. It also had a couple of fun interactive elements: a green screen where you star in your own short silent film and a "flip book" creator- records you dancing/moving around and then chops it into segments so you can buy the flip book at the end of your museum visit. There was also a cool 360 Panorama room, which had rows of movie reels projected around the entire room. You could then pull a lever and watch segments from different old/current foreign films. We then went and sat in a "pod"- our personal little movie theater and played a movie quiz (Mike won 6 to 2…). Then we stayed in our pod and watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for 30 minutes until Hagrid frees Harry from the Dursleys. Such a good movie- totally sucked us in.

When we left The Eye it was starting to rain (so we didn't feel so bad about watching a movie in the middle of the day), so we took a short, still limping walk and then headed back into the city to go to The Van Gogh Museum. The drizzling rain turned into an absolute downpour, so we scurried from cheese shop to cheese shop having samples and bits of stroopwaffle. We made it to the Van Gogh Museum around 4:00 and stayed until closing at 6:00. It was so wild seeing original Van Gogh's, Monet's (an inspiration to Van Gogh) and Edvard Munch's (whose work is very similar to Gogh's). Van Gogh's heavy-handed brush stroked, vibrant colors, and famous works of art that we studied in art classes are stunning to see in person. But his less impressionist and more realist paintings of landscapes and homes are what really blew us away. He was so talented in so many forms. Truly a crazy genius.

Back to the hostel for Happy Hour, and we met two friends- Stu from Australia and Anant from L.A./ originally India- and spent the whole night chatting, drinking and smoking. A great last night in Amsterdam.