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| Amsterdam poster children |
Early Wednesday morning the four of
us said bye to Mama and hopped on a train for a short ride from Herentals,
Belgium to Amsterdam, Holland. The trip only took around 4 hours and because
the train gave us a wonderful view of the Netherland’s country side, I didn’t
mind a bit of it. When we arrived around 12, there was no kind of passport
check or security stop from country to country, which was a strange concept to
me though made traveling a breeze. We lugged our backpacks on and after an
interesting 45 minute walk through the bike infested streets and canals of the
city center, we made it to our marijuana scented youth hostel. The name of the
place is the Flying Pig Uptown (which is conveniently located right next to the
beautiful Vondelpark). This establishment is easily one of the coolest places I
have ever been in my life. There are abstract murals all over the walls
depicting different musical legends, the bar downstairs serves White Russians
by the pitcher, mellow electronic music pulses through the lobby, and the host,
sporting waist-length dreadlocks, comes to greet us from the smoking room.
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| Smart shops errryyy where |
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I absolutely loved the leaning houses
surrounding the canals. |
I had been in Amsterdam for about an hour now
and it was already one of my favorite places in the world. The city is clean
and historic, the canals are beautiful, everyone rides bikes everywhere,
“coffee shops” are a-plenty, the weather is mild and the people are happy. We
spent the next 3 days visiting the Van Gough museum (which was pricy, but
amazing), dodging traffic on rented bikes, exploring Vondlepark, chillin’ in
coffeeshops, sightseeing on a canal tour, hitting up the sex museum, and
hanging out with other travelers from our hostel. It was a bit of change of
pace going from quiet dinners with 80-something year old Mama, to nights out in
the “Fun Capitol of the World.” Amsterdam was for sure a trip I will not soon
forget.
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| gotta get that canal pic |
