On a Eurotrip, a weekend in Amsterdam is comparable to a
college football team’s marquee game. You do your best not to get complacent
and let it overshadow your current challenge, but you’ve had that weekend
circled all season. This weekend, indeed, was a thriller.
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| The place is, literally, crawling with tourists. |
Amsterdam might just be the greatest mistake on the planet.
Aside from the omnipresent dank scent of marijuana consistently invading your
nostrils and clothes alike, the constant inquiring whether a girl you just
looked at is a hooker or not, and the prostitutes in the Red Light District
stationed across from a church in clear rooms so that desperate men can
conveniently and literally “window shop,” this is a great family-friendly
location! And by family-friendly I mean I would never consider bringing anyone
that has a glimmer of a chance of having good morals to this city.
But, when you’re young, it’s a life experience. The entire
city is old school, colorful, and carved with canals, so for the 70% of the
city that’s wacked on drugs it’s probably like walking around Wonderland with
Alice herself. The man holding a yoga pose for a couple minutes in one of the
squares while wearing black jeans, boots, and a backwards women’s swimsuit was
a testament to this. The first night we bounced around three of the squares
that hundreds pour into every night. In Rembrandtplein, an Irish street
musician came and put on an acoustic concert that nearly moved people to tears,
and we watched every minute. The only downfall of this was using the restroom
because in Amsterdam you pay 50 Eurocent every time, which just goes along with
the theme that the city doesn’t really make much sense. .50 Euros to use the
world’s most plentiful resource – duh. One of these bathroom experiences I went
into a “coffee shop.” As it turns out “coffee shop” in Amsterdam roughly
translates to “Everyone is buying weed and getting high in here.” Solid group
of scholars hanging out in that joint (play on words kinda intended)!
The second night we went after it on the “Ultimate Party Pub Crawl.” By the third bar some fellow Americans and I were responding to Australian cheers with a riveting version of “America the Beautiful,” we shredded dance floors galore at the 4th, 5th and 6th, and the end of the night consisted of heckling and booing people climbing the I Amsterdam letters from across the pond because I wanted a good picture without tourists doing stupid poses in it. This strategy cashed in because the tourists left, but the picture part was pretty unsuccessful.
The second night we went after it on the “Ultimate Party Pub Crawl.” By the third bar some fellow Americans and I were responding to Australian cheers with a riveting version of “America the Beautiful,” we shredded dance floors galore at the 4th, 5th and 6th, and the end of the night consisted of heckling and booing people climbing the I Amsterdam letters from across the pond because I wanted a good picture without tourists doing stupid poses in it. This strategy cashed in because the tourists left, but the picture part was pretty unsuccessful.
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| nailed it! great lighting. |
Overall, the weekend was successful, and the power ranking
is as follows:
Hostel – 6
Hostel – 6
Our room was full of Australians (maybe English kids?) that
came back at 7 a.m. both nights causing a total ruckus, but made up for it with
stories of jumping in the canals at 6 a.m. It seriously must be mandatory for
every Australian ever to be outrageous and hilarious. Really wanted to shower
after sleeping coverless in a pond of sweat in an A/C-deprived hellhole, but
after I saw spiders crawl out of the shower drain I had a change of heart. No
showers over an Amsterdam weekend – healthy!
Food – 8
Everything was good, but the only meal that made me lose my
mind and want to stay in Amsterdam forever was Wok to Walk at 3 a.m. I found
love in a hopeless place.
Sites – 10
Apparently Netherlands used to be completely underwater
until it was drained {hence the name Netherlands [like Netherworld (thanks,
Goose!)]}, so it makes perfect sense that there would be a bit of water left in
the city. But Goose and I had no idea that the entire city was Venice-like with
all its canals cutting it up, so this was a nice surprise. The Dutch style is
awesome, colorful, weird, and fun, which describes me pretty accurately too
(emphasis on weird), so I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Best Site – Anne
Frank’s House – 8
Pretty cool, but not spectacular. Being in the annex, it was
pretty easy to conclude that being Jewish really would have sucked at that
time. She was essentially trapped in a 4-room house with 8 people and not
allowed to go outside or talk during the day for about three years. For me this
was outrageous because she definitely missed out on things like imitating Eric
Crouch in her front yard, block parties, and the Ding Ding Man. I guess the
fact that she and all Jews of the time were missing every basic right a human
is entitled to, including but not limited to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, is important as well. The house itself wasn’t the cool part, then,
but reading her words and putting her story into a setting (for just 9 Euro!)
was.
Nightlife – 10
The entire city is a sin, but it’s a sin not to give the
nightlife a 10.
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| I would have remembered any of their names but they were from Texas. Sorry. |
New Power Rankings:
1) Rome - 46
1) Prague - 46
2) Madrid - 44
3) Barca - 43.5
4) Amsterdam - 42
5) Vienna - 41.5
5) Venice - 41.5
6) Nice - 41
7) Frankfurt - 40
8) Genoa - 39.5
9) Florence - 39.25
10) Berlin - 39
11) Marseille - 38
12) Narbonne - 36
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| Ring Challenge Update: my left forefinger will never be shaped the same again, but it's still on. |
- andrew
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