Alles Amsterdam

Easter weekend, this year, I decided on going to Amsterdam. Travelling solo has added a different aspect to the trip. Boy, was I in for an awesome surprise :) This city is the epitome of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

I sat in a shoe!

 On the Thursday, I headed to Warsaw to spend the day with my friend Erin. My flight was only at 6 am the following morning but I wanted to see more of the city as it's so beautiful. It was absolutely freezing though so we huddled in various places to keep warm. I didn't want to spend money on a hostel so I watched a movie before catching the last bus to the airport. At the airport I napped and waited (along with losing yet another pair of stupid gloves) until my flight. Surprisingly, many travellers do this if their flight is early; just sleep at the airport!

The view from one the many bridges

It only takes two hours to get from Warsaw to Amsterdam so I was there in no time. I found my hostel, checked in and off I went to explore the city. I stayed in a hostel outside the city so I had to get used to the train stations really quickly. As I stepped out of Central Station I was bombarded by the most amazing sights :) Amsterdam is a bustling metropolis and for some reason the atmosphere struck a cord right from the get go. I was overwhelmed with everything about the city.

Clogs... Clogs everywhere...

Some awesome street graffiti of
Einstein and Lady Liberty

I had a free walking tour at 11 am so I found my way to the Dam Square that was the checking point. Free walking tours are my favorite thing about being in a new city. The guides show you the big, important things to see but also add a touch of localism that you just can't find alone as a tourist. In two hours you are jam packed with new facts and general information. For example, Amsterdam is named so because a dam is found along the river Amstel that runs through the city. It is a relatively young city, only founded in the 1200s AD comparing to others in the east that were created in the 900s, but Amsterdam has been a metropolis for hundreds of years and boasts having the largest amount of varying nationals in the city. Stopping there, I learnt a lot and my brain was content with the knowledge I absorbed :)

As it was Easter weekend, it was super busy in the touristy sections of the city that I of course had to discover. The streets are alive with coffeeshops (these are the legitimate places to smoke weed) and souvenir as well sex shops. I had previously asked the tour guide to where the best coffeeshops were located and headed in that direction and had my first space cookie. Never having tried eating weed before, I was expecting the same sort of high you get from smoking it. Funny! A body high is totally different to a mental one. By the time it properly kicked in, I was high as a kite! Best, most amazing, scariest high I have ever had. I'm a little thankful I decided to go home and take a nap (sleep deprived) because I was not functioning at all. I thought I was going to swallow my tongue and at one point I was pretty sure I was dying. Time slowed so still that ten minutes felt like hours! I was KO by about 9 pm and I still woke up high the next day. The stuff was good shit is all I'm saying :)

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Saturday I spent with a friend looking at the prettier areas of Amsterdam. We went to the local flea markets that sell the most amazing everything; from food to clothes to antiques. It is tradition to go to the markets on a Saturday morning and have apple pie afterwards and so we did exactly that :) The nine streets and Jordaan district are really quaint, picturesque areas that made me just fall in love with the city even more.

Coming from South Africa, hearing Dutch was quite interesting. To those that are wondering if Afrikaans is at all similar to its mother language then yes to a certain extent you are right. I could understand a bit but a lot is not the same. Pronunciation is completely different and so is spelling. Though reading signs etc I found easy enough to do. 

The only thing that took real getting used to are the amount of bicycles on the road. Photos just cannot truly justify how many there are. I heard a "tring tring" every 5 seconds from a cyclist that wanted one pedestrian or another to "move bitch, get out the way". Not in those words but you catch my drift. Cyclists rule the streets. They are at the top of the transport food chain. Screw the cars, who needs one when the whole country is so tiny.

That night I went out to discover the Red Light District. It's actually a good and respectable district; just as safe (which is very) as the other districts. Rule number one though: do not take photos of the women. They will leave their booths and kill your camera.  The women range from gorgeous and young, to "I'm pretty sure that's a man". A session lasts 15 minutes and you can pay up to 90 euros. Peep shows, live shows, gay bars, you name it and its pumping with tourists. 

Sunday I spent outside the city in a beautiful little town called Haarlem. This place truly stole a piece of my heart. Shops are closed on Sunday but that didn't stop me from exploring. It seemed almost like a ghost town with no one about and when the snow started falling, I truly felt in a little fairy tale for a second.

All the alleys in Haarlem look like this

Monday came and went as I checked out the hostel and spent my last day out in the city. The Sex Museum (some things just can't be unseen), the Bloemenmarkt (flower market) and Leidseplein are just a few other things I saw before going home.

If you don't secure your bike, there's a strong possibility someone
will throw it into the river :)

I think I'd like to live here one day. There is something about the Netherlands that captured me and hasn't let go...

You find some odd things in the city