I have to admit that until right before I left for my trip,
I had no idea whether Amsterdam was its own country or just a part of the
Netherlands. To be honest, all I knew about Amsterdam was that it was legal to
buy and smoke weed in the ‘coffee shops’ and there was a huge Red Light
District in the city were prostitution was also legal. These being the only two
things I knew about the city, I was a little hesitant when my friends suggested
that we visit the city on our way to Copenhagen, Denmark during our five day
break. But, I decided that I was only abroad once and if nothing else it would
definitely be an experience to see such a liberated city where it seemed that
people could do whatever they wanted.
Within minutes of being in the city on Wednesday night after
we arrived, I learned two very important things. First, Amsterdam is NOT its
own country- it is the capital city of the Netherlands. The region of the
Netherlands where Amsterdam is located is commonly called Holland and the
people speak Dutch (not to be confused with Danish). Second, the city has much
more to offer than smoking and prostitutes. From the moment that we stepped off
the train that we had taken from the airport into the city, we began to notice
how friendly all of the Dutch people were. We had some trouble finding our
hostel in the dark, and we found many people who were more than happy to give
us directions, and in perfect English which is always a plus. We finally found
our hostel- one of the most famous hostels in Amsterdam called ‘The Flying
Pig’, and were surprised to see that the lobby of the hostel was a bar that was
hosting a huge Halloween party! It was Halloween but we had heard that not many
Europeans get dressed up for the holiday so we had not bothered trying to stuff
costumes into our already overweight suitcases. However, some of these people
at the hostel were wearing some of the most elaborate costumes I have ever
seen! After putting our stuff in our room, we headed out to meet up with the
rest of our friends who had arrived earlier that day and to explore the city
for a while. On our way to meet our friends we kept passing so many pastry
shops with all of these huge Belgian waffles covered with chocolate, whipped
cream, strawberries, sprinkles… anything you can imagine! We suddenly realized
how much we had missed waffles since we had been abroad so of course had to
stop to try some. They were so good and were perfect for the cold night! (It
was only about 35 degrees… a bit of a wake up call compared to San Sebastian).
The next morning we bundled up and headed out to explore the
city. We first went to the Anne Frank House and museum where we could walk
through the actual house where Anne Frank and many others hid during the Nazi
invasion in the Netherlands. The attic part where they were all living was much
bigger than I had imagined it would be and it was amazing that they were able
to stay hidden for as long as they did. However, the museum blacked out all of
the windows and kept the lighting low which portrayed how dismal and depressing
it was to live up in the attic in constant fear. At the end of the museum there
were pages from Anne Frank’s actual diary which was really interesting to see.
Although kind of a sad start to our day, it was very interesting to see and
still just shocks me that so many people had to go through these types of
situations.
Another aspect of Amsterdam that I did not expect was how
beautiful and charming the entire city is. There are many canals that run
throughout the city and the buildings that line the canals are all unique
shapes and colors. There are no tall or modern looking buildings which helps to
keep the city looking old and authentic. Along the canals are many house boats
where people permanently live on the water and there are also many different
types of boats. We walked along the canals for a while, all amazed by how
beautiful the city was and how much more ‘european’ it felt compared to some of
the bigger cities like Madrid and Paris. We were also amazed by how many people
rode around bikes. In many cities, San Sebastian included, there is a separate
bike path for bikers, however in Amsterdam there was an entire separate road!
In my Marketing class in San Sebastian, we were all assigned
groups and had to choose a company that we would do a semester long project on
and give weekly presentations to the class about different aspects of the
company. One of the groups in my class has two Dutch students and their group
chose Heineken because it is made in Amsterdam. It has been really interesting
to learn about the company and all of its different marketing strategies and I
was really excited when I saw that we could tour the Heineken brewery in
Amsterdam. Of course, all of my friends were happy to go as well so we spent
the rest of the afternoon at the brewery. The tour was really interesting; my
favorite part was probably seeing the Heineken horses! Apparently when Heineken
was first being made the horses were a huge symbol for the company because they
were used to transport the beer around the city. Now, the horses are not really
used but they still have a big stable in the brewery.
Learning how the 'correct' way to drink beer
After the brewery tour it was starting to get dark so we
made our way to the hostel and were shocked to see all of the Christmas
decorations and lights that were already up! It was so pretty, but, don’t get
me wrong I love Christmas decorations, it seemed kind of early for Christmas!
Only November 1st! When we got back to the hostel we were asking for
recommendations for places to eat dinner and everyone told us that the Thai and
Chinese food was really good in the city. Not exactly authentic Dutch food, but
what is Dutch food anyways?? Thai sounded good to us, especially because there
is strictly only Spanish food in San Sebastian and we had not had Asian food in
months. We made our way the China Town and found that there were so many good
places to eat and had delicious Asian food! After dinner we decided that we
needed to go walk through the Red Light District because we were all pretty
curious as to what it actually looked like. We were unsure of exactly where it
was, but all the people we asked responded that we would definitely know once
we were there. And they were right. We turned this corner to follow the canal
and all of a sudden we saw hundreds of red lights illuminating the street. I
thought that the area might be pretty sketchy and were glad that we were with
our guy friends, however I was amazed by how many ‘normal’ people were just
walking down the street. Police were also patrolling the entire street which
also made me feel better. But, despite how safe I felt and how clean the area
was, I was still shocked by what I saw. Basically the street was just lined
with all of these glass doors with prostitutes standing behind them, luring men
inside. It was pretty disgusting and sad, but definitely a sight to see to say
the least…
The next morning we had a few hours before our flight to
Copenhagen so a few of us got up early and went to the ‘IAMSTERDAM’ sign which
is in front of the VanGogh museum and is one of the main touristy attractions
of the city. The VanGogh museum is under construction, so a lot of the exhibits
were not open and we didn’t have much time so we didn’t go inside.
On our way
back from the sign we found this huge outdoor Tulip market and walked around
for a while. Holland is the main producer of Tulips in the world and during the
summer there are thousands of fields of tulips and in the winter they grow them
inside. The market had so many beautiful flowers and also lots of tulips bulbs
that you could buy. Within the market there were also lots of cheese shops
where we went inside and taste tested lots of different types of cheese- so
good!
After leaving the market we headed back to the hostel and made one final
stop to have apple cinnamon pancakes- another food we had been missing! We were
all sad to leave such a beautiful city but were excited that our trip was only
half over and were eager to get to Copenhagen. I would say that Amsterdam has
probably been my favorite city so far because it is just so beautiful, unique
and clean and our hostel was awesome and everyone was so friendly.
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