Amsterdam Is An Amazing Place!
Amsterdam...where do I start!? We it's a long way from the bus hire business where I work in Sydney!! It is definitely a place like no other. We took the train into the city and carted our luggage by hand to our hotel because the taxis at the station where going to charge us $20+ for a measly 1km ride down the road (what a rip off!). As we passed by one of the numerous coffee shops we were greeted by wafts of marijuana and permagrin customers milling about, and just a few doors before our hotel I spotted my first prozzie sitting in a window. It was really strange to see her sitting there decked out in the skimpiest lingere and at only 2 in the afternoon, guess there's no time like the present?! Our hotel wasn't your typical hotel but an old house that was built sometime in the 1600s and converted to a b&b. We had a nice little room that resembled something out of a Dr.Suess book, it leant forward so much you were always walking crosswise..weird! But we soon found out not uncommon for the crooked buildings in Amsterdam.
After checking in we headed out for a sightsee. As we wound our way along narrow cobblestone streets we firstly came upon The Dam, it's a massive square located in the middle of Amsterdam, and where all the people were! There were thousands of people roving about and from all different countries. We followed the crowd and soon came upon the infamous red light district. Down almost every alley there were lines of small doorways adorned with red curtains and thousands of curious eyes flittering from one girl(?) to the next. The rooms were tiny and had just enough space for a small bed and a sink, most girls sat on chairs making eyes at potential customers except for me, no I got 'the royal salute,' guess they don't like they're picture being taken - oops! Besides the numerous prostitutes there are also a slew of 'happy herbal, magic mushroom, hash brownie, coffee/marijuana and sex shops.' Let's just say it's a shock to the system at first to see everything out in the open like that but after awhile you start to blend.
Besides the obvious there are a multitude of wonderful things to see and explore there as well, like the Anne Frank House, unfortunately we weren't able to go inside because of the massive cue but it was interesting to see all the same. The Van Gogh museum is also a sight to see, it holds the largest collection of his paintings in the world. There is also some great shopping to be had there and an assortment of different cuisines to suit everyone's tastes.
Overall, we loved Amsterdam, the freedom of everything was awesome - would we do it again? In a heartbeat!!