First Day In Sin City

Yesterday night Paul and I sat at the reception desk after they closed the common rooms at 11 pm (another stupid policy of the hostel) because Wi-Fi doesn’t work in our room and there was nowhere else to sit when the common rooms closed.  Although the hostel makes it clear that reception isn’t 24 hours, people coming in and out kept asking us questions because they thought we worked there, which was amusing and led to a few random conversations.  Two of those people, Rosamond and Matt from Texas, ended up going out for beers with us when Paul finished work, and we ended up making Matt our travel buddy when we found out he was heading to Amsterdam today like us.  You know what they say – the more the merrier!

We headed out at 11 this morning with a plan to catch the 12 o’clock train to Brussels to transfer to Amsterdam, and our earliness came in handy when Matt went to get his Eurail pass validated and the guy accidentally stamped the wrong date, screwing up the validity period of his pass!  He apologized, but couldn’t do anything to fix it so we had to rush to Brussels to find the Eurail office to get Matt a replacement pass.  Thankfully there was a train that got us to Brussels half an hour earlier so we were able to get to the office (and we lined up at the wrong office at first!) and get Matt’s rail pass replaced while still catching the proper connecting train to Amsterdam!  If you’re getting a rail pass validated for the first time, make sure you get the person at the ticket office to put the correct date on it!

When we arrived in Amsterdam, we made a plan to meet up again at 7 and Paul and I headed to our B&B (the BBIJ) in old south Amsterdam, while Matt headed to his hostel in the city center.  We needed tram tickets to get to the B&B, so we went across the street to the tram office because we had been told to get a “strippenkart,” which is cheaper than buying tickets on the tram.  The downside was we had to line up for over 20 minutes and we had to rapidly figure out how many strippenkarts we needed when we finally got to the front of the line – there are 15 “strips” per card (for €7.30) and we needed 3 strips per person each way so we had to estimate how many journeys we would make or come and line up again to buy more!  It would have been really helpful if they posted info somewhere so you can figure it out while you’re lining up because it’s really stressful to do math on the spot like that when there’s a huge queue waiting behind you!

Luckily, the B&B was easy to find and the owner, Kamiel, had left the keys in a lock box and given us the code because he wasn’t going to be home at the time we arrived (I wish more B&B owners would do this!).  We got into our room (which was quite nice except the bed was a bit smaller than expected), quickly took a shower (we both avoided showering at the hostel after my scorching hot/freezing cold attempt), and then rushed out to meet Matt back in the city center.  While staying in the center would’ve been more convenient, we both didn’t want to be at a hostel where the smell of weed is always present (most hostels here are smoking friendly) and the hotels in the center are way overpriced.  I’m happy with where we are because it’s a short tram ride away, they allow you to use the kitchen facilities, and there’s a strip of shops, restaurants, and markets nearby so we have everything we need

We finally got to relax when we sat down for dinner by the canals after finding Matt among the crowds of people at the Dam Square.  Although the service was extremely slow (our food took forever to come and the only thing that was good was the croquettes we ordered to share), it was nice and relaxing to sit by the canals and watch people pass by in boats and we decided we should look into renting a boat and cruising around while we’re here.  

After dinner, we spent the rest of our evening roaming around city center as the girls in the infamous red light district began opening up their windows.  Seeing this was truly an indescribable experience because everyone hears about Amsterdam’s red light district, but you can’t believe what you hear until you actually walk around in it!  Most of the girls here are hot (some could be TV in North America), and charge around €50 for sex (I heard a guy ask how much when we stopped for a beer near one girl’s window), which I think is ridiculously cheap, especially considering the fact that they pay €100-150 to rent the room and window!  There’s gotta be a better way to make some cash, but I guess this must be a viable option for some of these women, which I think is really sad.  Interestingly enough, as of December 2008, the mayor of Amsterdam has committed to closing half of the windows in an effort to curb human trafficking (about ¾ of the prostitutes are from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia) and gang activity.  I commend his efforts, but like drugs and illegal gambling, when you make something like this more difficult to get, I don’t think you deter the criminals who control it, you just make it a bit more challenging for them. 

 I’m glad I got to see the red light district as it is (some of the windows are already gone but the mayor’s plan hasn’t gone into full force yet), and it was an eye-opening experience.  After seeing what sin-city has to offer, I’m hugely impressed that one of my cousins, who moved here when he was 16 or so to play soccer, managed to stay a good clean kid!  I’ve managed to go my entire life without getting into anything bad, but I don’t know how you do that here when there’s cannabis and drugs all over the place and sex is so easy to come by!  Amsterdam is definitely one of a kind…