Amsterdam is known for its Red Light District with naked women on display like in shop fronts, for the Coffeeshops where you can smoke and buy weed or magic mushrooms. A city founded by two sailors and a sea-sick dog. It’s the city with over 70km of tiny canals and thousands of bridges. But also the place where 150.000 jews lived before the systematic genocide of the Holocaust including Anne Frank and her family. There’s a cat museum, too.
I arrived on Monday afternoon took a short stroll around the city and did something that may sound completely normal to you, but was a spectacular thing for me: I bought two pairs of jeans! I figured that I didn’t need to do any hiking anymore and after I had left my guitar with Jana and Craig in London, there was plenty of extra space in my backpack. It made the hell of a difference to me to no longer wear my brown hiking trousers with zip-able legs-parts. I almost felt civilized again. It’s the small things in life, you know?
Even though it was Monday, the hostel organized a pub crawl with six pubs with a free drink at each place. Somehow these bars were not like regular bars, more like small nightclubs with thumping loud music, disco lighting and wild dancing. Cheap liquor was poured down ones throat directly from the bottle. Getting drunk badly would have been pretty easy. However, I mixed non-alcoholic drinks and left after the fifth bar, making my way home without falling into the canals.
Of course Amsterdam also has these free (tip-based) city tours and luckily I had a pretty good guide, taking us through the Red Light District and famous other sights such as “secret Amsterdam” and to the narrowest house in the city. Did you know that 20.000 bikes are thrown into the canals every year? We went for a drink with the guide and a few people afterwards.
The last day was spent mostly in an art museum (it was raining) — a lot of other people had the very same thought and the museum was clogged with people. The museum had been reopened only a week before and luckily was small enough to see it all before experiencing brain-overload after a while. And no, I didn’t go to the Van Gogh museum — comparing the admissions to other countries, the prices are ridiculously high.
I was tempted to try Magic Mushrooms, but as around 30-50 percent end as bad trips, I’d rather have some friends around me when I’m trying it. So I had a good, but short trip to Amsterdam, a really must-see city, but I’d like to return here some day. For some more experiences, hah.
Who can know
The thoughts of Mary Jane
Why she flies
Or goes out in the rain
Where she’s been
And who she’s seen
In her journey to the stars.Who can know
The reasons for her smile
What are her dreams
When they’ve journeyed for a mile
The way she sings
And her brightly coloured rings
Make her the princess of the sky.Who can know
What happens in her mind
Did she come from a strange world
And leave her mind behind
Her long lost sighs
And her brightly coloured eyes
Tell her story to the wind.Who can know
The thoughts of Mary Jane
Why she flies
Or goes out in the rain
Where she’s been
And who she’s seen
In her journey to the stars. (Nick Drake, The Thoughts of Mary Jane)
