Amsterdam

After a great surf trip in Portugal I found myself in Amsterdam for a major change in weather and scenery. I was trying to decide between Amsterdam, Nice, or Morocco. I chose Amsterdam mostly because of proximity to Paris (which is where I would be a few days later). Amsterdam was certainly everything I thought it would be.


My Holland experience began even before I arrived in Amsterdam. I met two lovely Dutch women (Katie and Inga) on the plane and we talked for a good while about Barcelona, Dutch slang, work and how much they liked Amsterdam. If the people in Holland are as cool as these two I knew I was in for a good time. Hope to hear from you ladies soon! I've stayed in two of Europe's "famous hostels" thus far and I'd be staying in my third in Amsterdam.


All these hostels have a very healthy 'party' atmosphere and they're great hostels to meet cool people as I've done in the past month. This one though would be tough to top. It's pretty well documented that pot is very 'tolerated' in Amsterdam but when I walked into the reception area at my hostel and the 'smoking room' (basically all windows for the world to see) is right next door I knew this place was different. The hostel itself was very cool, clean and well run.


For me though it felt too much like college. I had only booked for two nights so I switched to another hostel across the street for my last two nights. This one was perfect. The weather in Amsterdam was very fall-like. Cool and crisp, leaves falling, and some rain here and there. I walked the entire centre a few times in awe of all the restaurants, bars, cafes and coffee shops (not the same thing) and shops. The canals were also very cool but not very active because of the weather.


If I had to describe Amsterdam to someone who has never been I would say it has the feel of San Francisco with a mix of Georgetown architecture.


Things I did were a three hour walking tour of the city which was excellent, went to the Van Gogh museum, the Torture museum (very interesting), ate at FEBO (faster than fast food), and helped three guys who had eaten mushrooms cross a busy intersection. They all hugged me afterwards... Things I did not do were go to the Ann Frank house, rent a bike, take a canal cruise. Next up...Paris!