Amsterdam

May 26-29

A short flight landed us in The Netherlands. With just a few days before we have to meet a few friends in Paris, we were taking the opportunity to explore Amsterdam. It was our first visit to the city, and the country, and we weren’t really sure what to expect.

Amsterdam is a strange city. On one hand you have beautiful architecture and a city made up of canals that give the entire place a very romantic feel.

But on the other hand you have stag and hen parties crowding the streets, the seediness of the red light district, and wafts of pot everywhere you go.

They do have Heineken bottle openers in your hotel room, so there’s that.

We spent our three days walking almost nonstop through the streets and parks.

We ate at a few cool places. The first night we went to Foodhallen. I don’t speak the language but I would assume that Foodhallen translates to food hall and that perfectly describes the space. It was a huge building filled with different food stalls.

There was a great variety, but we found some incredible tacos and basically just sat there for a few rounds of food. These were probably the first good tacos since we’ve left the US.

We went to Anne Frank’s house and were hoping to go on a tour, but apparently you have to buy tickets pretty far in advance (they were sold out at least through the next week). So we just saw the outside. I’m not saying this is the only attraction of substance in Amsterdam, but it’s the only one I know about, so I was pretty bummed we didn’t get in.

One of the things that Amsterdam is famous for is the bicycles. There are people riding bicycles everywhere. Just crossing the street is basically an Olympic sport. What I don’t understand is why no one is wearing a helmet. Seriously. No one. Kids on bikes – no helmet. Kids in carts being pushed by their parents on bikes – no helmets. What is this, 1975? Everyone looked picture perfect riding their bikes with their dresses and their heels, but I’m more of a safety first kind of person in this arena.

We did walk through the red light district. It was seedy. I understand the thought that by legalizing prostitution you empower the women to do what they want with their bodies. However, I just can’t get behind it. It’s a lesser evil than what we saw in Medellin, but I don’t like it. We were talking with someone about it in a bar and he said that the women want to be doing it. I just can’t believe that they would be doing it if they had other options.

This is not a picture of the red light district. It’s more something to get our minds off of it:

So that’s really it. Amsterdam was a beautiful city with very nice people, but I think we maybe aren’t the city’s target audience.

Or maybe we should have gone to visit some of the museums. Or just sat and ate tacos for three days.