A Very Long Wrap Up of Amsterdam

We're back home in Raleigh. *le sigh* At least our flight home was made easier & more relaxing thanks to eating space cakes for breakfast right before we boarded. Ahhhh, only in Amsterdam.

We had some connectivity problems our last few days in A'Dam & I didn't have the patience to deal w/ it and try to blog. I mean, seriously, wouldn't you rather be outside enjoying your vacay? Especially since we actually had some nice weather! The 2nd to last day I even wore sandals w/out socks & my capris!

Let me try to figure out where I left off. I think I'll just give a bit of a rundown of our last few days, then come back & write more of a "review" that will hopefully help other travelers later.

After all the Scots left, Amsterdam seemed awfully quiet. Seriously, imagine 20,000+ Scottish people taking over A'Dam, drinking them out of beer & singing, singing, singing. It was wild. Oh, and the Scots loved Frank's beard - people would stop us on the street and want to take pictures! We met quite a few people this way. The Scots in our hotel were the best. They were all super friendly and welcoming (we may just be going to Scotland to visit for our next vacay), but Man! Could they drink! Seriously, they must have the constitution of oxen or something. Our hotel went through their entire weeks worth of beer in less than 4 days. And the liquor situation wasn't much better. On Monday morning they had no vodka at all, maybe 50 bottles of beer & only 2 of their 6 draft beers were available. Whew! Drunk or not they guys were awesome & we exchanged emails and facebook pages, so we can keep in touch.

Speaking of booze - the bartenders at our hotel bar were also pretty awesome. We ran into them every day since we passed through the bar to leave & usually finished our nights off w/ a drink downstairs before heading up to bed. Also, they're all friends w/ each other and hang out at the bar, even on their time off. Wouldn't it be nice if we all loved our place of employment so much?

There is more to our Amsterdam trip than the Scots and our hotel bar, I promise. Wanna hear about the hookers in the Red Light District? Or the Live Sex Show? Or the famous Coffee Shops? Hahaha. Oh yeah, there is of course the art. I suppose that ole Van Gogh guy could get an honorable mention.

Yeah, let's talk about the awesomeness of the Van Gogh Museum. We didn't buy advance tix for this one (even though I tried) 'cause Frank didn't want everything to be planned in advance, he wanted to have some leeway. Ok, fine. The day we went to the Rijksmuseum we walked over to VG to see about buying tix for the following day, but they won't let you do that. The ticket lady told us to come around 10:30-11 in the morning, right after they open 'cause they're pretty slow then. So, that's what we did and thank goodness because the place was WAY more packed when we left a couple hours later. Right now, in addition to the regular collection of 200+ works by VG, the museum also has a special exhibit called Colours of the Night, which focuses on all of VG's (and some of his influences) work done at twilight or in the evening, etc. The highlight of the exhibition is the very famous Starry Night, of which I have a beautiful print in our living room. Needless to say, seeing it up close in real life was pretty amazing. It was really interesting to check out how his style changed over the years. With such an extensive collection of work in one place, you're really able to get a feel for the art. It was totally worth it and I would go again in a heartbeat.

After VG we wandered around that area of the city and headed in the general direction of the Heineken Brewery. IDK how, but we managed to walk right past it the first time....you know, the huge building you were standing next to 10 minutes ago, yeah the one w/ the huge Heineken sign? Yeah, that's the one. Duh. The Heineken Experience is an interactive tour of the former brewery (the actual brewery has since been moved out of the city center & the old one has been turned into this museum) and it's pretty lame. I s'pose if you LOVED Heineken or knew nothing about making beer it might be interesting, but for us it wasn't worth it. Thankfully they throw in 2 small beers w/ the price of admission.

We took a lot of long walks through town and around the canals. Checked out an outdoor market where we ate some delicious Gouda cheese. A lot of our time was spent sitting around and people watching, which is a hot Dutch pastime when the weather is nice. In most restaurants and coffee shops we tried for the window seat (or outside when we could), so we could check out the passersby and just take it all in.

Sex, sex, sex. It's everywhere. Well, particularly in the Red Light District, which is basically where we were staying. We were on the fringe, not quite in the center, but still - we in avoidably went there almost everyday. There are a ton of sex shops, live sex shows, peep shows, and of course, prostitutes standing in their windows. Surprisingly, the area isn't filthy or seedy or run down or gross. It's maintained just as well as any other part of the city. While you're more likely to encounter guys that say, "Psst" and try to sell you hard drugs while you're in this part of town, it's not scary. I never felt vulnerable or anything.
Ok, back to the sex. Women in their windows...it's an interesting experience. It's not like there are only windows in the seedy dark alleys, oh no, they're right on the main streets. The girls are in lingerie or panty/bra or bikinis. Some of them look bored out of their minds, are on the phone, doing their makeup, talking to the girl next door, etc. Others are dancing, knocking on the glass, trying to catch your eye in some way. It's like a train wreck, really. It's kind of surreal that they are real people.
(I'm generally in favor of legalized prostitution. I mean, it has existed since the beginning of time & is everywhere, so why not legalize and regulate it. In Holland the prostitutes pay taxes, have healthcare, hell they've even got a union! At the same time, you know that none of these women told their parents when they were 12 that when they grew up they wanted to sell their bodies for a living. )
In Amsterdam when they say live sex show - they aren't kidding. Of course we had to go to one! In fact, we got buy one, get one free tickets. lol Since we bought tix for the night show during the day, we got the afternoon show across the street for free. Um....yeah. The afternoon show was in a creepy, gross, small theatre and it was generally fucked up. The evening show, however, was much better - all things considered that is. The theater was nicer & cleaner, the people were far more attractive & there was beer. I can't decide if I actually want to give the details of this cultural experience, or just leave it for you to imagine. Just know that there are strip teases, dildos and more positions than you've ever done all in one night, all in one show, on a stage in front of you.

Coffee Shops, as you might imagine were very popular on this trip. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it might be better that way. :-) It was so casual and socially interesting to me. I liked to sit and smoke and just watch the other people. We tried a bunch of different places and different "flavors". We ate a bunch of space cakes too. Those suckers rock. I loved how it was so just not a big deal.

Amsterdam was a great city. We really enjoyed ourselves and felt so welcome and comfortable there. I think we'll eventually go back for sure. I loved that it was so culterally diverse - all kinds of different people, different food, things to explore. It's like NY, only smaller and better.

All the pics are on F's computer, so I'll upload them soon & add some in, or post a link. We have hundreds.

I'm sure over the next couple days, before I head back to work, I'll continue to write as the mood strikes. For now, it's back to the dreaded reality of laundry.