Amsterdam...
We arrived on 14th July and after smoking our first joint of weed we blacked out until we left on the 18th. The End.
Just Kidding. Contrary to popular belief, no weed or hallucinogenic was inhaled, swallowed or administered.
Amsterdam was the jolt we needed for us to realize that we were now, officially, on our own and on our way into a world that we had seen from behind very rose-tinted glasses. Europe is an interesting place, firstly the arrival gates are shared with the departure gates, so there is just a flurry of people coming and going. We were collecting our baggage when I recognized a familiar face, one I last saw in the nightlife of Cape Town. I identify Anthony Jacobs, a friend from Cape Town who I studied with at UCT, and shortly after saying hello he introduces myself and Alice to an Aussie guy Stephen Dash, who coincidentally is from Sydney and knows my cousins. This world is too small, we came traveling so we wouldn’t know anyone, but nevertheless the company was welcome. After exchanging details after a very interesting train ride to the central station, we head off in our separate directions with the intentions of meeting up once more.
We arrive at our Hotel, drop our bags, unpack, and all of a sudden we remember that we are starving, what we failed to remember is that this is Europe and it is frighteningly expensive, especially to a South African. We made our way to Rembrandt Square which was a short walk from our hotel, and were fortunate to experience a full blown Saturday experience in Amsterdam, with all the bars full, and I mean all the bars (weed included). The Ireland X-Factor winner was playing in the square, and he was accompanied by a fat welsh-man in red spandex who ,I can only assume, was on his bachelors party otherwise there is no excuse in the world good enough to make up for the way he was behaving.
So after some laughs and a horrific first bill of 30 euros for two bowls of soup and a Heineken, we slink back to our hotel all of a sudden very aware and somewhat afraid of how expensive this traveling experience could be. Sunday morning we wake up to a beautiful European summers day, oh wait, thats what it was supposed to be, instead we were greeted by rain and a very gloomy looking forecast. We decide it would be best to visit the local flower market (can’t believe I am publicly stating I went to a flower market).
The rain continued and the necessity to get some hydro-phobic attire was increasing by the second, I opted for a hand yellow rain coat that I still have with us, and Alice unfortunately opted for what seemed to be a black umbrella. Only after making the purchase and getting onto the streets did she realize she had made the incredible purchase of a unique to Amsterdam Umbrella.
After a long day of trying to get our bearings around Amsterdam, some car and bicycle dodging, we retired to a local Italian restaurant where I had one of the best lasagne’s (outside of home), I have ever had as well as some freshly brewed Heineken Draught, and Alice asked for a large Coke so she also got a draught sized Coca-Cola.
Day 3 in Amsterdam, and we figured we needed to find out the inner details of this city, so we called up none other than our friend from the airport, Mr Anthony Jacobs. He assured us that he had already been to the Red Light District a few times and by now he knew his way around... not sure if thats a good or bad thing?
We met up at Rembrandt Square and slowly made our way to the Red Light District, and along the way we found a store that provoked Alice into her first purchase of the trip, as well as encouraged Ant to take some ‘free’ samples of the sweets. The shop was aptly named Party Pills and Alice did not want to leave.
After roaming the Red Light District and seeing some very unsavory characters both in-front of and behind the glass doors, we once again said our farewells with the intentions of meeting up again tomorrow to have one final look around the district. Day 4 and we figured we needed some culture in our lives as all we had been doing was shopping on Alice’s behalf and drinking on mine. We decided on a tour around the historic canals of Amsterdam, and considering the boats were protected from the rain we figured this our best and most likely means of seeing the complete city, not to mention the fact that the Heineken Factory was right next to the departure terminal of the canal boat.
The canal tour was very interesting and along the way we found a building that had become home to 4000 bicycles that are now ownerless. Fortunately for us the day started off slowly and the canal tour was leisurely, because that night we met up with Anthony, Stephen and Janneke, a friend of Stephens. After a very substantial amount of drinking, and some chinese food, we ended up at a local pub in Amsterdam where we settled down and made the best of fresh Heineken.
So on the 17th July, our Amsterdam trip was coming to an end, on the day before leaving we woke up with a slightly alcohol related hangover, but we were determined to soak up the city one last time. We figured another unique way to accomplish this would be to see the city firmly planted on the seat of a bicycle. Please bear in mind that I am not a renowned cyclist and Alice at times is a little clumsy, so I had my reservations. The main reason behind cycling through the city was to end up at Anne Frank’s House, and this was about a 10km round trip. The first km was basically us trying to find our balance and shaking off the effects of the alcohol from the night before. Oddly enough this was my favourite part of Amsterdam, cruising around the streets with very little knowledge of where we were actually going. We finally made it to Anne Frank’s House and we were greeted my a line of about 500m, so we took some pictures, sneaked a peak inside, remounted our bikes and headed back to the hotel and shopping district to get a few bites to eat before the mammoth 6 hour train ride to Berlin the following morning. I also managed to sneak a lasagna in from the Italian Restaurant I mentioned earlier.
18th July, we awoke to another gloomy day, and quickly showered and got ready for our long train ride. I made my way downstairs to check-out while Alice shop off to a local supermarket to get some goods for the train ride. You would think that after spending 4 nights in Amsterdam we wouldve picked up on the language, yet what I failed to realize was that because we booked on a German website, all the information was in dutch. This resulted in us being stuck on the platform at 10:55 waiting for our train that was supposed to arrive at 10:50 for departure at 10:58. Alice mentioned something and then all of a sudden, all the world felt like it was crashing down. We were on the wrong platform. The adrenalin started to kick in, and we flew down the first flight of stairs, ran under at least 4 different platforms before arriving on platform 8 where our train was readying for departure. One problem. Alice was still lugging our luggage up the stairs, and the train was closing its doors. The conductors whistle blew and after frantically trying to gather his attention I made one last attempt to get Alice and i on the train. I jumped down the stairs, wrestled the bag from Ally, threw it up the stairs and into the train, shortly followed by an our of breath Alice. We had made our first train by the skin of our teeth. This exact sequence nearly unfolded again at our first train swap, and after pushing some scandinavians through the doors of a train I think they didnt want, we were on our way once again.
Onwards to Berlin. I will try post the next post fairly soon as I am getting behind track on these things.
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