I heard a few people call Amsterdam “The ‘Dam”, so I’m just going to assume it’s a real thing that is socially acceptable to do.
Let’s just say that Amsterdam is like Vegas on steroids. It’s a 20 year old’s dream. I mean this in the best, most family-friendly way. But, still, maybe mom and Grandma shouldn’t read this post. Or maybe I’ll just summarize verrrrry briefly. Also, there are very, very few pictures. Which makes me want to cry, but I suppose I’ll get over it.
Our time in Amsterdam started off rough. Obviously, our flight had been delayed, it was pouring rain and we got lost. OBVIOUSLY. So we finally got to our apartment around almost midnight and were greeted by our host, who clearly was under the impression that we were up for some tea and chit chat. No, lady. No. I fell asleep with my eyes open and struggled to haul my bag up the stair. Just before retiring to our room, we remembered that we were each lugging around 35 pounds of sweaty, damp, and overall rancid smelling clothing. This might be too much information, but I was on my last pair of undergarments. Code red. So, staring at her washing machine, we kindly asked if we could do some laundry. She declined. Seriously. Declined.
So we spent our first hours of daylight in Amsterdam in a laundry mat. Woo.
Good start. Then we walked, in the rain, to the city center and wandered around.
IT WAS SO AWESOME. AND SO INCREDIBLY WEIRD. These people are so accepting and open and it was just so strange. Sex shops everywhere. “Coffee shops” advertised cannabis and were scattered in every single side street. People smoked marijuana while they walked down the street. The whole city smelled like it! Their souvenir shops contained keychains, magnets, bongs, and grinders and, I’ll say it again, it was just so damn weird. There’s no other word for it.
So, we wandered around, admiring the architecture, and eventually made our way to Dam Square, where we were set to meet our tour at the National Monument. Except, for some reason or another, our tour guide never showed. Sort of bummed, we were both happy enough to grab some chocolates, sit on the bridge, and soak everything in. Laughing about everything and anything, Sarah and I were loving this city. Finally deciding to do something (mostly because we ran out of chocolates), we checked TripAdvisor, and decided that the Sex Museum would give us a good chuckle. And it did. Because I know that my audience includes my mother, I won’t go into details here. But there was a sculpture of a giant, 7 foot penis. Obviously we have a picture in front of it. Someday I’ll throw that picture into the collection of pictures I show at Sarah’s wedding.
Then, we did a self-guided tour around the center. Since Sarah had already been to the Anne Frank house, we skipped that main attraction. I wish I had more pictures of the city, as the architecture was amazing and beautiful, but 1) it was (surprise) raining, and 2) I honestly just forgot…
At 8pm, we rolled up to a bar in the Red Light District and joined a pub crawl. We met a whole lot of people from all over the world and I think at one point we were getting hit on… but I couldn’t understand what they were saying so we just awkwardly giggled and shrugged. We’re such charmers, really. But we did make a few friends, and we got some good laughs out of everyone else making fools out of themselves. We never set our drinks down, and we were careful not to lose each other, so all in all, I’m pretty proud of myself.
Seriously, weird, weird things in these souvenir shops.
^We have no idea what these were but we got them at the chocolate shop.
And those are, basically, the only pictures we got of our adventure throughout our favorite city in Europe. It’s a tragedy, really.
Sadly, we had an early morning flight to catch the next morning, so this was our only day in The Dam. But, as they say, ’tis better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, right?
Comments