I arrived in Amsterdam via overnight ferry and train from London to Harwich and on the Holland side, Hoek van Holland through Rotterdam. The customs guy was quizzing the crap out of me. Where you goin? Where you been? What are you doing here? Where else you going? He just smiled at me when I kept on rambling off all of my places. "Is this documented" he said. I told him to check my blog. On the way in I noticed a ton of graffiti and shanty houses everywhere. Business buildings and all were just covered in graffiti. The countryside had fields just like the states, but they have creeks of water running through them everywhere. They also have brown sheep everywhere. Nothing like the midwest.
Spent the first part of the day in Amsterdam just walking around. I met a few other travelers on the overnight ferry we took from London. They just happened to be from the US (Chicago, Miami and San Diego) and we decided to just walk around together. We went into one of the many cafes for lunch. I had a goat cheese sandwich and an ale from one of the local breweries. The cafe was cool. The place was full of bean bag chairs and low tables. We scheduled up a bike tour for three hours. One thing we all noticed was the amount of pot smoke in the air. It was totally unavoidable. It was Monday afternoon and every coffeehouse was open and had people in it. I wonder how
Amsterdam has a functional economy? Oh yea, weed and prostitutes. Apparently, Amsterdam used to also have legal heroin usage but it was banned. The crazy thing is that the government still gives heroin to about 500 addicts simply because they cannot break the habit (according to the tour guide, I've not verified this.)On the bike tour, we visited several different parts of the city including the Vondelpark (locals call it fondelpark) where public sex acts are legal and the Amsterdam Zoo, the many breweries Amsterdam has and eventually stopped at a cafe for more beer and some homemade falafel's. The tour lasted about 3 hours. It was booked through orange bike, if you are interested. We got to see an old jail where they used to put prisoners back in the day. When the water levels would rise, it would flood and the weak prisoners would drown.
FACT of the day: New York Central Park is modeled after the Amsterdam Vondelpark.
I met some more backpackers at the hostel from France, UK and Australia. We decided to venture out to the famed Red Light District. Holy crap, that was interesting. I wish that I could have taken more pictures but there is a no picture zone in place. (cmon, did you think this place had NO laws???) We were in the middle of the place and felt very safe actually. I've never seen so many sex shops in one place either. 8 way vibrator you say? This place has it! Pretty much everything on both sides of the street and in each alley was either a bar, strip club, coffeehouse or a red glowing window with a practically naked girl in it pointing at you saying come here baby! To be perfectly honest, most of the girls were not even all that attractive. Probably the most insane thing I saw was at the top of this building with the windows wide open and for all to see this guy was having sex with two girls and they were not trying to be discreet. Everyone was just looking on from below with their jaws dropped.
...and that was when I realized I was definitely not in America anymore.
I woke up on the second day in Amsterdam and walked around the market. I had to hunt down a McDonalds to verify something on the menu. Allen, there was only a "Chicken Royale." ... and what is up with not serving hashbrowns? What kind of crap is that? Burger Kings have been everywhere. No taco bells, but I've seen KFC. I didn't really see that many fast food places in Amsterdam though. The food at the street shops is way better and about as cheap anyway.
I walked back to the Amsterdam Centraal station and stumbled into Nate from Arizona. Another solo traveler. We met two Canadian couples who were all over 68 years old and have been backpacking, yes, I said backpacking for the last 42 days. So we are all on our way to Brussels now. I'm typing this on the train and will upload when I get some wifi. I'm already at 17MB of my 50MB of international data plan. Google Maps with street view rocks!!
My Amsterdam pictures are here.
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