Amsterdam, Netherlands

Here is how this all statred. I met some cool girls up on the North Irish coast. They were studying Irish history, literature and politics down in Dublin. When I went down to Dublin I met up with them for dinner and drinks and had a grand ol' time. Shannon said that her and a friend were going to Amseterdam the next weekend and said that I should come too. I was like, "sounds awesome, but I have this thing called work that I have to be at on Friday." So I looked at flights that left Friday night and got back on Sunay. These were a bit too pricey, so I was feeling a little bummed. Amsterdam sounds like it would be sweet. After talking to my dad about going I asked our HR guy here at Aepona if I got any leave days. It turns out that I get 4.5 days of leave. My eyes got big and I started asking if it would be possible to take off that Friday and grab a cheaper morning flight to Amsterdam. Barry told me that I could as long as my boss signed off on it. I got back to my desk and imed my boss to ask if I could take the day off. I started telling him the story and then asked about that Friday. He started typing something back to me and then stopped. A minute or two passed and the he replied with "all set." I was estatic. I am going to Amsterdam.

Over the next couple of days at work every proceded to tell me how great Amsterdam was. My boss in particular. Turns out that he has been a number of time for stag nights and the like. Over the next two lunch periods he told me all of the Do's and Don't's of Amsterdam. Like Do what you can only do in Amsterdam and Don't listen to the guys who say "charlie, charlie." So with a good idea of what to do and what to expect I get ready to go to Amsterdam.

Day One

I get into Schiphol by my direct flight from Belfast at around 12:30. I boarded the train at the airport to take me to the city center and got in there around 1:00. I was suppose to meet Dave and Shannon at the Wiston Hotel, the place where we were sleeping, at 2:00. So I figured that I would ask the information guy where the hotel is. Damien, my boss, had told me that the hotel was right in the thick of the Red Light district, so when the TI guy told me that it was well south of it, I was a little confused. I trusted him, since it was his city. I shouldn't have. I have no idea what he thought I was looking for but he sent me a long ways away from where I was suppose to be. Luckily there was another TI right where he sent me, so I aksed again there. They showed me a different, and correct, spot on the map to go. Thankfully at 2:10 I showed up and met Dave and Shannon in the lobby.

We dropped my stuff off in the room and then headed out. Dave and Shannon had arrived on Thrusday evening. They had flown into Brussels and hitched a ride on a train to Amsterdam. They had already done a little tour of the Red Light District the previous night, so we decided to stay out of until night fall. That way I wouldn't be disappointed. We pondered what there was to do with the time we had and settled on doing a boat tour of the canals. It was a wasted six euros. The entire thing was this is a building and look at its gabels, ooooo now look at the gabels on that one. By the way, gables are the tops of the front of a building. They can be elaborately decorated and will have a furniture hook protruding from them. When moving, people in Amsterdam must use this hook to raise and lower things through the windows since the halls and stairwells are too narrow to move anything up and down them. Anyways, with the boat tour behind us we went to the coffee shop called The Doors. I got a Heineken and my friends perused the local goods. We settled in some chairs outside and chilled for a while.

We finished up at The Doors and decided to have Dave show us around the non-Red Light District parts of Amsterdam. We walked around and found a couple of cool residential places, one of which Dave swears he will be living in when he moves to Amsterdam. But that is a story to be shared later. It was time for dinner, so we started to make our way back to the Argentinian resturaunt that we had picked out earlier. We ordered Argentinian steaks. I ordered mine medium which evidently means uber rare. It was good but would have been much better had it been cooked more thoroughly. After dinner we went to a pub for a drink to kill some time before it got dark.

It started to get dark so we decided that head on down to the Red Light District. First and foremost, it is a crazy place. We stopped in a pub for some drinks and then when it was about 10 pm we headed out for a tour of the windows. Dave knew his way around, being in Amsterdam for your 26th day will do that. There were red lights everywhere (hence the name, The Red Light District), and under everyone was a window, and in every window was a woman (hopefully a woman), and for every woman there was a price to be paid. On the main street you probably saw two women out of the lot who shouldn't be standing in those windows let alone wearing as little clothing as they were, but in general these women were pleasing to the eyes (and they knew it). As you walked by, they would do what ever they could to try and get you to step into their lair. All you had to do was keep walking to keep you money in you wallet. We kept walking because Dave was giving us the full tour of all the windows, not just the ones in the main areas. Turns out the further from the main street you get the homelier the women became. Sometimes you would walk on the opposite side of the narrow street hoping they would even think that you might be interested. Anyways, we finsihed up our tour of the windows and started walking around the general area of the Red Light District. Around every corner you found more red lights, live sex shows, coffee shops, smart shops, XXX stores, small eateries (which had to be making an absolutle killing) and gift shops. The Red Light district is one huge tourist trap (and the girls try to keep you there as long as possible). With the night getting on, Shannon and I part ways with Dave, who has other "errands" to run, and we head back to the Winston. We had through one of the gay areas of the district and right past the Cockring on our way back to our room. I crashed on the floor while Shannon cursed at her lighter for being out of fuel. Neither one of us hear Dave come in a few hours later.

Day Two

Day two came around 11 am the next morning. We grabbed a quick breakfast and then hopped on a tram for the Museumplein (Museum Square). Down here there are a number of museums, but unfortunately all we closed for renovation with the exception of the Van Gogh. Turns out they are going to be closed for the next few years. The Van Gogh Museum isn't all that big. If you wanted you could be in and out in an hour. On floor -1 there was an exhibition of Manet and his seascapes. There were also some works from other painters that influced or were influenced by him. The ground floor is the entrace and gift shop so you you have to heard up for the galleries. On the first floor there were a good number of paintings that make the permanent collection of the museum. There is also a small collection of modern art from one of the museums that is being renovated. The second floor contains a study area which a number of desks and books on art and van Gogh. There are also some cool case talking about x-rayed painting that van Gogh had done. Evidently he was a bit thrifty at times and reused canvases or retouched paintings. The top floor contains another gallery of paintings.

After the Van Gogh Museum we walked on over to the Anne Frank house. More info here. There was a good wait for it, but had found a way to pass the time, the box game. We got in and paid our money. There is a set path to walk around the house. The first stop is a room that has a video on loop and earphones that play the audio in several different languages. The tour takes you through the area of the house where people worked. Then you went through the secret door behind the bookcase and entered the world of the Secret Annex. The tour was intense and moving. The living quarters were cramped, especially for seven people. They couldn't go outside and the couldn't make any noise during the day. That is no way to have to spend three years. At the end there is a book that is dedicated to all of the Jews that were taken and killed by Nazis. I saw a grown man look away from it with tears in his eyes. There are some powerful emotions that well up when you stand faced with the tragedies and horrors these people experienced.

The three of us where in a pretty somber mood when we left and talked causually for a while. We headed back to a coffee shop that we had passed along the way that was decorated like some sort of van Gogh painting. I had bought a drink and some cookies at another store and was going to sit and enjoy them while my friends had their break, but a lady came out an yelled at me that I couldn't eat my own food. Bah on her. We finished up and went back to the Red Light District for some Chinese food. I had heard that Nam Kee was suppose to be very good, but it was packed, so we went to the store next door. It was also very good. Large portions and lots of pork, chicken and beef. Mmmmmmmm....good.

To pass the time until sundown guess what we did, we went to a coffee shop. I know what you're thinking, but yes, we went to another coffee shop. This trip was a little more interesting. We were sitting outside minding our own business when a older man came up and asked us, "Ummm, excuse me. Where are all of these windows I have heard so much about?" This is was too much for one of the guys that was sitting on the other side of the patio. He may have had a bit too much to smoke because he didn't stop laughing for 5 or 6 minutes. Don't get me wrong, it was funny but it wasn't that funny. The same guy had two friends with him who did even register that anything had happened. They were off in their own little world staring at the ceiling. We headed inside and took a table next to the window. We had perfect seats for the next event of the evening. A couple sat down and the wife lit up a spliff. The man wasn't looking too good and his head started bobbing. Next thing we knew he was going into mild diabetic shock. His eyes wre rolling back and it looked as if he was passing out. His wife got him some orange juice and that seemed help, but minutes later it all happened again. This time the orange juice she got had like a cup and a half of sugar in it. The man looked fine and his wife went back to her joint. We kind of took this as our cue that it was getting dark enough to head back out to the Red Light District.

The night went much like the previous. Wandering around looking at the girls and drinking. Shannon definately had a case of the munchies and down a good bit of baclava that night. We went to the same store twice and the guy recognized us the second time and gave her a free peice. Mostly just spent the time chilling and hanging out then once again Shannon and I parted ways with Dave and headed back to the hotel. Again, he returned later satisfied on women and falafls.

Day Three

We woke up on Sunday and got an expensive breakfast. �8 is too much to pay for a fry. Anyways, it was 12:30 when we were done and I wanted to catch the 2:00 train to the airport. We wandered around and I took some final pictures of the city and the train station. Central Station is kind of cool. It has two towers, one with a big clock and one with a dial that shows which way the wind is blowing. Also with the abundance of bikes everywhere there is a multi level parking structure for bikes only. I said my goodbyes, hoped on my train and headed home. It was a nice and easy trip back and a good weekend had by all. Though I didn't go absolutely crazy, I know that Amsterdam is where the party is happening.

Other Things

Dave's life plan goes a little something like this. He is going to get his PhD in Irish Studies (or some equivalent subject) and then come teach courses on Ireland in Amsterdam and live on the canals in a (legal) house boat. To supplement his professor's salary he is going to open up a coffee shop and purchase and rent out some windows. Some of the finer points of this plan have been glossed over for good reasons.

The box game is a great way to waste time waiting in line or when one of the participants is stoned out of her mind (or both). Shannon and Dave learned the game at a required acting class they had as part of their program in Dublin. It is played like this. The first person says, "Okay, get something out of the box." The other person gets something out of their pretend box and holds it in their hands. The first person now asks them what the got out of the box and the other person tells them. The first perosn says something about the item or asks a question about it and the then other person has to respond to it. I'll give you an example that we had when it was Dave's turn to take something out of the box.

Shannon: "Ok Dave, get something out of the box."
Dave: "Ok got it."
Shannon: "What is it?"
Dave: "It is a joint."
Shannon: "Ok, what are you going to do with the joint?"
Dave: "I am going to light it."
Shannon: "And then what?"
Dave: "I am going to take a hit off of it."
Shannon: "Ok, sounds like you're going to be feeling good here. Then what?"
Dave: "Then I pretend like I am going to pass it to you and laugh when I don't give it to you."
Shannon: "That not very nice. Ok, all of the sudden you drop your joint that you just took one hit off of. What do you do?"
Dave: "I look sad."
Shannon: "And then what?"
Dave: "Then I remember that weed is a lot cheaper here than in the States and I roll another joint."

Here would be another example:

Les: "Ok Dave, get something out of the box."
Dave: "Ok got it."
Les: "What is it?"
Dave: "A hooker."
Les: "What are you going to do with that hooker?"
Dave: "I am going to f**k her."
Les: "Ok, It think you win."

I think that you get the idea of how the game works now. Sometimes you can get people to say that they are Communist dicatators or that they paid a sea gull named Frank (whom they thought was actually a pretty Dutch boy) to have sex with them.