Allie in Spain (and Ireland): A Brief Stint in the Netherlands

Ok so, I debated with myself tirelessly over whether or not to actually write this blog, because I know the minute that I say I went to Amsterdam, you're all going to make assumptions about how that weekend unfolded. I, however, am writing this in defense of Holland's capital city. Despite it's seamy reputation, there's actually a lot more to it than what stereotypes assume and I really enjoyed seeing it.

The reason I decided to go to Amsterdam is because some friends and I were trying to coordinate a place to meet up and it was pretty central for all of it. One of my friends from BU, Jessica, is studying in Paris right now, and her twin brother, Zach, who goes to UT Austin, is studying in Prague. They got in on Thursday night with 2 of Zach's friends from Prague and I met up with them on Friday evening, since I had to wait until after my classes were over to fly in.

Our hotel (yes an actual hotel!) was located in a nice location, but it's pretty far from the central train station. Zach met me at the train station and we walked through the city to get to there. It's near Vondel Park and the museum district. I was really surprised to see that the city is actually really beautiful and green. The canals are really awesome and it's a lot of fun to walk around in. Upon reaching the hotel, it was already around 10:00 (circular canals make for a city that's really easy to get lost in, thanks a lot Zach) and we headed out to grab some dinner since the group had been waiting for us.

We had some positively mediocre (but only 5 euro) pizza, and then headed down to the infamous red-light district. So for those of you who haven't been living under a rock, you know that prostitution is legal in Amsterdam. The government regulates the industry to ensure good "working conditions" and the girls are required to get tested every other month. Although my inner free-marketeer sees the efficiency of this policy, walking down a street with a bunch of women dressed in lingerie, tapping on windows and being gawked at like circus animals was a very unsettling experience. It felt awkward, uncomfortable, and perverse, to say the least. This part of the city is obviously very seamy, and pretty much everyone around you is under the influence of something or other. We headed into a pub to hang out for a while where 2 of the guys in our group proceeded to get in a very uncomfortable altercation with an angry Irish man (ironic) over who got use of the pool table next. Jess, Zach and I were all exhausted so we decided to let them fend for themselves and head back to the hotel. We had a hilarious encounter with a Scottish man on the way back who thought that Zach was some German person who he knew and then we proceeded to talk about how said Scottish man hates rats for about 10 minutes...oh interesting experiences abroad.

The next morning, we woke up and headed for the Van Gogh museum, which was conveniently about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. We sat in the little park in front of the I amsterdam sign and enjoyed some delicious dutch apple "pastry" (really it's cake, but this was breakfast so I'm calling it pastry). Dutch food is surprisingly delicious. So, the van Gogh museum. Van Gogh has always been one of my favorite artists since I knew what art was, so I was thrilled to go and see some of his most famous works like the "Sunflowers" (you know the one).

After this, our goal was to find a boat to give us a canal tour, but we got a little sidetracked by delicious dutch pancakes. Everyone seriously has to go to Amsterdam just to try these at some point in their lives. Zach and I shared one that had apples, which we put a little bit of powdered sugar and syrup on. Delicious. Then we got one that was goat cheese, spinach, pine nuts and garlic oil. AMAZING. Seriously one of the best things I've eaten in my life. I know I say that about everything, but it was awesome.

Next, to continue the food fest, we stopped into a couple cheese shops which have the most amazing types of cheese just sitting around, waiting to be sampled. Pesto cheese. Goat's cheese. Sheep's cheese. Garlic herb cheese. Cheese overload. I was seriously in heaven. Ultimately, we were unsuccessful in finding a boat to take us on a canal tour. We wanted a smaller boat so it would be just us, but most things left from Central Station which was far away and we just kept getting distracted by other sites. It was really fun to just walk around the city and enjoy the atmosphere though.

Later that evening, we headed over to the Anne Frank house for some more cultural activities. It was really interesting to see the annex that she and her family actually lived in. Interesting/creepy. The original diary is also usually there, but they had a stand in while we were there because the original was out for preservation. Sad. We had to wait in line for a really long time to get in, so it pretty much killed the rest of the day, but it's one of those Amsterdam must-do activities. After this, we headed back to the area near our hotel to get some dinner and hang out for a bit.

The next day, I didn't have time to do much. Thanks to prohibitive costs and planning convenience, I was flying back to Dublin via Brussels. Jess was headed back to Paris on a bus through Brussels, and the rest of the group was headed to Brussels and Bruges for a couple days because they had a long weekend. It was also SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper for me to fly out of Brussels, so I just decided to travel down with them and get a couple hours there to see some stuff. In the morning in Amsterdam, we got some delicious bagels for breakast and headed over to the I amsterdam sign for some token tourist photos. We had to get on the bus at 12:30, so we didn't have time for much beyond that. In Brussels, I had a couple of hours to walk around, but didn't really see much. I'm not sure there's much to see anyway. It would've been cool to eat there, as I've heard the food is really good, but oh well. Maybe next time.

I got back to Dublin around 10 (the flight's only about an hour) on a Sunday night, ready to rest and get back to another week of work. My only trips remaining in the summer are to Northern Ireland and London so I'm glad that I got the opportunity to travel back to the mainland one more time. Who knows when I'll be back over here again. And Amsterdam is actually a really cool city, even above the influence. There was also A LOT more to do there than what I was able to do in the short time I had and I would definitely go back if I had the opportunity. Here are some photos, most are credited to Zach Boven: