Courtney here. I decided to take a weekend break to Amsterdam a couple of
weeks ago.
I booked through the same
tour group as when I went to Belgium.
It
was an even sketchier start to my trip then last time however!
Since I was the only being picked up at the location I
picked closest to my house, they called me the night before and informed me
that I wouldn’t be picked up by the coach, but rather a taxi! So I take two buses at five in the morning
and wait on the corner for a random taxi to pick me up! Finally the taxi arrives and says,
“Courtney?” and I just get in!
The taxi and I drive in silence for an hour to Dover where I
meet up with the tour group and we hop on the ferry to Calais, France. From there it’s about a four-hour drive to
Amsterdam.
We arrive in Amsterdam and we check into the hostel. Since I’m a lone female, I got paired up with
this girl from Brazil. She was traveling
with her two cousins as well but they were in a different room.
We freshened up a bit and met in the lobby for our Red Light
District walking tour. It was kind of
awkward meeting for the tour because you know the others are just as curious as
you are for the tour, but still weird nonetheless.
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| RLD Tour. This is the last picture I could take before it wasn't allowed. |
The biggest shock I had was first of all there was three
boys probably aged 10, 12, and 14 from Brazil, and I’m not sure who they were
with or why they were in a city full of drugs and prostitution anyway but
whatever. So I’m like well they won’t be
on this tour of course, but sure enough their guardian and the three boys show up
eager for the tour!
I was with my roommate and her two male cousins, one of
which had just turned 18 so we were all going to pitch in money and buy him a
half hour. It was funny because he was
kind of shy and embarrassed. I think
some things were lost in translation as well because they understood English
pretty good, but not everything.
We start walking to the area and are informed that you are
not allowed to take pictures and the pimps are very strict about this. It’s for many reasons, but our guide said
it’s for protection from families. A lot
of the girls’ families don’t know they work there.
We get to the first window and see three women in window
displays. Some are in bra and skimpy
underwear, others had other outfits on.
I can’t communicate the strangeness of the vibe but it was very strange.
You don’t want to look because that’s weird, but you do
because you are curious. I didn’t want
to look with pity, but I kind of felt that.
The narrow streets are just rows of windows on both sides and
in the windows the women have small or sometimes large booths that they sit in.
Some of the women had various themed outfits and/or
rooms. Some looked like they were just
hanging out with their friends in front of a window. Some were on cell phones or acting like
people weren’t watching them. Some tried
to lure you in by making gestures I can’t write about.
It was weird that I was on a tour with like 30 people
watching them like they were animals on display. It was weird that I was walking next to a ten
year old. Just weird, weird, weird.
There are red lights all over the place, but look out for a
blue light. Do I need to explain what
that means? The girls looked normal and
most of them were good-looking I guess, but I tried to avoid eye contact.
Our tour guide said that the going rate is 50 Euro for, and
I will quote him, “s*** and f***.” But
it needs to be within a half hour I believe.
After the tour me Brazilian friends and I wanted to go find
some dinner. We found this really nice Chinese
restaurant on the canal. We had a good
laugh over the tour in very basic English.
It was then time for bed as we had a full day planned for
tomorrow. We got up early in time for
breakfast and then met up with our group.
We were driving out to this heritage center to see authentic Dutch
culture.
It was a little village set up with various activities. The first stop was a clog-making factory
where we saw the guy make clogs and learned how. After that we went to a cheese factory and
saw how they made cheese. We got some
samples and I bought some baby Gouda with honey mustard, which is how they eat
it.
Then we had some free time to walk around and do some
souvenir shopping.
We saw quite a few
windmills while in Holland as well.
We then drove back to Amsterdam and we had free time to do
whatever. I wanted to see the Anne Frank
House so I made my way there first. I
waited in the queue for about 45 minutes and then went into the house.
It was set up with various picture boards with information and
artifacts. Anne Frank’s father’s wish
was the house be left unfurnished as that’s how they left the house then the
Germans took out all of their furniture when they were outed.
It was very a somber atmosphere as we made our way around
the different rooms and learned what was in there. We started on the lower floors, which were
used as a business.
We then made our way up the staircase that was hidden behind
a bookcase. We saw the Frank family
rooms as well as the other family that was hiding there. We heard on a video from one of the women who
worked downstairs and knew about hiding the Frank family. She would sneak them food and other supplies
to live there.
It was so sad to picture what that must have been like in
that era. They had to cover their
windows so that no one would know they were up there. What a sad situation to be a prisoner in
their home. I thought the tour was very
well put together and informative.
I then wanted to tour the old Heineken Brewery, which is now
turned into the Heineken Experience. I
walked there through all the canals and found it.
I buy my ticket and start the experience! We first make out way to this large screen
that’s made to look like a bar, but it’s projected onto the screen and then
“bartender” starts giving us an introduction.
You go at your own pace and make your way through all the
displays and various pictures telling the story. We got to the part where they used to brew
the beer, and then made our way into a horse barn telling the importance of horses
back in they day.
Next, we go up an escalator to wait for the 4-D ride. We get in the ride and you stand and hold
onto the railing and watch a movie about the beer making process. We got splashed with water at one point, had
heat lamps on us and the floor moved so you had to hold on! I thought it was very entertaining and
clever.
After that we walked into this bar and the guide poured us
all a beer and talked about the sight, smell, and taste of the beer. He made us have a social and taught us how to
drink it properly.
Next, we had the chance to personalize our own bottle of
Heineken so it’d be ready by the time we were about to leave.
I made one because it was only 5 Euro and it
came with a travel case!
The next room, you had a chance to send a picture or video
e-mail to your friends.
You could make
like a music video or just a picture for free!
Every room got cooler then the next and I was so impressed!
It would have been cooler if I had been with
friends because it was like a party in there but still!
We then had a chance to sit in these funky chairs where you
lean back and get to put your feet up in your own individual chair and watch
old Heineken commercials. It was great
after a long day to sit there for a bit!
It was then time to cash in my two free Heineken’s at the
end of the tour.
There was a huge bar to
enjoy your beer at.
Then you ended at a
gift shop.
I was so excited about the
experience that I bought a bunch of souvenirs and vowed to be a Heineken
drinker from now on!
People said it the tour was one big Heineken advertisement,
but it worked on me! I highly recommend
the Heineken Experience! I had such a
great time there! It could have been
because I left a little buzzed, but still.
By then it was probably 8:00, so I went back to the hotel to
see if my roommate wanted to go out with me and she was already in bed! I wasn’t tired and it was Saturday night so I
went to a Argentinian Steakhouse and had an awesome meal with a Heineken J.
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| Coffee Shop, "The Grasshopper." |
I strolled around the city for a while. I thought about going into a coffee shop, but
then I felt dumb so I didn’t. You could
smell drugs throughout the whole city though as some are legal there. There are sex shops everywhere too along with
a sex museum that I didn’t go to if you are wondering.
The next day as we made our way back home, we stopped in
Bruges, Belgium.
It’s an old medieval
city with lots of history.
I saw a vile
of Christ’s blood at one church.
I
wandered around the city for a while, had lunch and then it was time to
go.
We took the coach to France, got on
the ferry and then back to London.
Overall, I had a really great time in Amsterdam. It’s very nice with all the canals
everywhere. Aside from the prostitution
and drugs, it’s an enjoyable city with lots to do. The highlights were the Anne Frank house and
the Heineken Experience.
I’ve wanted to do Wales since I got here and I finally had
the opportunity to go with Kelsey’s friend Michelle who came to visit. We met with our tour group in London and got
on our tour bus with a group of about 15 and started driving to Wales.
We made our first stop in Chester, England, which is an old
medieval in city. We walked around the
city for a bit and took pictures of the 2nd most photographed clock
in England, Eastgate Clock. The city had
really great black and white architecture as well. We had a jacket (baked potato) for lunch in
an old Roman bath and got back on the road.
We then arrived in Wales, and stopped at coastal city named Conwy. It’s a walled in city and our tour guide had us walk around the perimeter on top of the wall. We had really good views of the city.
There was a pub nearby so we went there for a couple of
pints. We met up with some other people
on our tour as well as our tour guide.
We had a very diverse group of Irish, Australians, Americans,
Brazilians, and Argentinians. A couple
of us went down to the High Street to a couple of other pubs and then we called
it a night.
From there we made our way to Caernarfon Castle. We had a great time wandering around the
castle grounds and in and out of different pathways and up and down lots of narrow
windy staircases. We joked that it was a
huge adult sized playground.
Overall, I had a fantastic time in Wales and I wish I’d had
more time to explore!
