Amsterdam

We arrived in one of the many Amsterdam bus stations cold, hungry and tired at 6am. Due to a miscommunication with one of the students we were supposed to met there we had to want and thus we were forced to battle for one of the few seats in the station. We had no way of contacting him and we had his hotel name on my friend's facebook, but we had no internet access.

Just when I though times were at their darkness and I was at my angriest, I thought I heard someone call my name. I had taken out my contacts that night before and could only identify the person could be calling my name as a woman. Then, I proceeded to convince myself that nobody in Amsterdam at 6am in a bus station knows me, though I sincerely doubted there were any other Brankos hanging out in the bus station.

As the woman approach I proceeded to recognize her as one of the other students in the program. Two other students and her had just arrived from Prague, and through the grace of god one of them had their Blackberry with internet on it. We quickly accessed Facebook and figured out the name of the hotel. I then doled out bear hugs to the girls. Soon we were on our way in a cab to hotel, where we had the front desk call and wake up our friend. A rough start for the Amsterdam portion of our trip.
Luckily this small hiccup was the only problem we had in Amsterdam, except for the weather. The last day we were there we took the New Europe free tours, which was amazing, the weather not so much. In one afternoon we had cloud cover, rain, sun, hail, sun and more rain with various times of extreme winds, all of these conditions in that order. The tour was definitely worth the terrible weather and almost everything I learned about the city was from the tour.

Our first day was mainly spent wandering the streets and trying to get acquainted with the city. One of the first things I noticed about Amsterdam was all of the bikes. They were everywhere and it took some getting used to. The first day I got bumped walking more then once and the whole time I was there I felt like I was always in the way. Another thing that is prevalent throughout Amsterdam was canals, apparently it has more canals then Venice.

The tour guide also informed us that they are filled with bikes. A popular pastime amongst the drunken youth, and I am sure immature tourists as well, is to throw bikes into the canal to see who can make the biggest splash. He also told us that every so often the city fishes them out, repairs them and sells them again. Bike theft is also rampant. I guess that is why used bikes are so popular and all the bikes look ancient.

Our first night curiosity got the better of the 3 guys in the group and we proceeded to drag the girl in the group with us to the Red Light District. She went in we open mind and treated it as an experience, I was impressed with her attitude. It proceeded to be more uncomfortable, at least for me, than I could have imaged. I felt like I was thirteen again and stumbled across a Playboy that also was able to make noises by knocking on windows and shaking shutters to attract my attention.

Overall I think most of the people walking in the Red Light District are mostly tourists, gawking, but it didn't keep me from feeling unclean afterwards. The fact that my female friend brought up my mother a few times while we were there didn't help.

One humorous incident happened as we entered the district, I saw a girl dressed in her lingerie in her window cleaning it. She was not cleaning it in a seductive way to attract customers, more of a "this window has finger prints on it and its bothering me" kind of way.

The majority of the second was spent at the Van Gogh Museum, which I absolutely loved. My only gripe about it and the rest of the museums was the cost of entrance, 13 euros, and there were no student discounts. But it was definitely worth it. I went with two of the three students I was with and I definitely wore their patience a bit thin there. When I go to a museum I feel like I need to read every placard for every exhibit and it takes me a lot longer than most people to go through exhibits. This was amplified by my desire to view paintings at various angles and close up to see the artist techniques. I know very little about painting but for some reason I am really into seeing the techniques they use.

It was great to see in person all the works I had been exposed to through books and in school. Though a few of his more famous works were being restored and I had to settle for a sign announcing this with tiny prints of the paintings.

Also in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank House. To be honest I had forgotten it was in Amsterdam and after learning it was I had to go see it. The house itself is stripped of all the furniture. After she was discovered the Nazis took everything out and when Otto Frank, her father, was consulted about it being turned into a museum he requested that the furniture not be placed back in the rooms. Much like the Holocaust Museum in Berlin, it was a difficult place to visit.

Our third and final day was mostly occupied by the free tour. The Spanish tour met right by the English one and I briefly toyed with idea of taking it to practice my Spanish. I eventually decided that I should take the English one and actually learn about the city.

I had made a remark to my female friend, asking if she was glad she didn't have to go through the Red Light District again. She responded that she was. The tour proceeded to start by going to the district, and let me tell you, during the day it is much worse. The girls are clearly illuminated and the ones working during the day are definitely not easy on the eyes. Also the guide proceeded to explain the business model of the girls. In addition to this he explained the way the business is 'run', pricing, protocol etc. I will refrain from elaborating.

Also he said that you shouldn't try to take pictures. According him if they catch, best case scenario: they break your camera or throw it in the canal, worst case: they throw a glass of urine they have handy for these cases and slap you.

The tour guide also proceed to explain squatting in Amsterdam. Apparently if you find an building that has been empty for 12 months with an open door, you can register it with the police as your residence. The only requirements are that you have lock on the door, a table, bed and chair. To be honest I still do understand it.

The last night I finally made my way to a coffee shop. To be honest it wasn't anything special to see, maybe its just because I am not that into that type of thing. It just felt like a really relaxed bar with a lot of smoke, though a different type, even compared to Spanish standards.

One of the people I was with bought me a beer. It ended up having a very unusual and somewhat bad taste. After about 15 minutes of trying to figure out was without another customer informed me that it was non-alcohol beer.

They next morning we took a train to Brussels.