We Broke Amsterdam

July 26, 2015

Let me start this off by saying that the Dutch are hands down the nicest people we’ve encountered so far. Our Amsterdam adventure started off a little shaky. We got off one stop to early from the train and missed one of our connections. We rerouted with a little help from people at the stations and made it only an hour behind schedule.

After dropping our stuff off at the hostel we started the search for food. It is always challenging to find food for groups larger than 5 or 6 so we split up for dinner. We ended up eating at this Italian place because pizza is always a safe choice. Our waiter was incredibly nice –much nicer than our waiters in Prague who threatened some of our group. We loved him. It was refreshing to actually receive good service for once. He even gave us directions to the red light district when we left.

We set off for the red light district and walked through relatively quickly. I had braced myself for naked women dancing in windows doing provocative things but it really wasn’t that bad. Most of the girls had lingerie on and were relatively modest compared to what I was expecting. We went off to a bar and enjoyed our first night.

The next day some of us elected to sleep in instead of getting up super early to go to the Anne Frank House. I think we needed a little time to catch up on sleep in order to be fully functional. Once we got moving we picked up coffee and bagels and headed to a park to eat. The rain started shortly thereafter and we decided a museum would probably be a good idea. We ventured off to the Van Gough museum where the line snaked around the building and then changed our mind and went to the Heineken brewery. There was no better decision we made that day. I didn’t realize what all was behind the company or how green they are or how good they are at advertising. At the end of the tour we went up to the rooftop bar. It was pouring rain and storming terribly outside at this point so we stayed inside for a while before meeting up with Lauren for lunch.

Fallen tree outside of the Anne Frank House.

After putting food in our bellies Lauren, Alyssa, and I made our way to the Anne Frank House. Our timing was a little off. Lauren told us that the rain was supposed to stop, but she was lying. The rain turned from slight drizzle to torrential downpour in a matter of minutes. We kept ducking into store or front stoops to get out of the rain. Their rain jackets soaked through quickly and my umbrella kept turning inside out but we made it. A lot of the streets and bridges had been shut down because of fallen trees –it was crazy. Two of the three streets leading to the house were blocked by fallen trees.

We only waited in line for 30 minutes which was incredibly short but also very cold. It was a very humbling experience being in the house where they hid. We even walked through the original bookcase that hid the annex. To think that they stayed there for so long only to be caught was so sad.

Afterwards we visited the Tulip Museum and the Cheese Museum before eating dinner at a café. We had a traditional Dutch meatball dish which was delicious. Our table was right by a window and as we were eating we suddenly saw flashes of light. When I looked up I thought it was some sort of fireworks or flares. The police had blocked off the bridge near where the sparks came from because a tree had fallen. We soon realized that one of the tram lines had sparked and snapped off the line. Thank goodness that the area was roped off, otherwise someone would have been severely shocked. The trams remained stationary for the rest of the evening.

Stroopwafels with my lovely roommate.

Today, our last day in Amsterdam, we went and got bagels again. We walked over to the “I Amsterdam” sign and indulged in stroopwafels –SO TASTEY. We didn’t do a whole lot in Amsterdam, but it was definitely one of my favorite cities so far.

Our love for Amsterdam was unrequited. We endured cold rain, blocked roads, falling trees, and sparking tram lines. I think we loved it so much that we broke the city. Even though the weather was terrible we still made the best of it. Until next time, Amsterdam…I’ll be back for sure.