Day 46 - Dutch Lovin'

July 16 – Hello Amsterdam

After spending the night as a bum, the plane was sort of a relief for me. Lol. For most of the time I was asleep. The Dutch are the best. I swear. Even in the plane, their service (KLM) was so good. I was asleep the whole time but they still left me my snack on the seats beside me. I had 3 seats to myself! :P And I must say this was the best airplane snack I’ve ever had in any airplane. Ever.

We landed around 10am. I proceeded to buy a ticket to the city center to Centraal Station for about 4 euros. It was so weird and new once I stepped out of the station. It was just so totally different. First thing I noticed, there were sooooooooo many bikes. Everywhere. It was crazy. So I tried to just wing my way to my hostel. Lol. I had previously looked it up on the maps. I started walking towards the general direction of my hostel and Jenna’s hotel when I realized this really wasn’t gonna work too well. So I bought a 3 euro map. I was walking towards Jenna’s hotel when I realized I left my papers in the tourist store. So I walked back to get it. On finding my way back again, I see Jenna cross the street I was in! Lol. How convenient. So, I yell out her name and we got a bit excited to see each other-randomly in a street in Amsterdam.

So anyway, I checked in to my hotel and took a nap in the lobby while they were preparing my bed. I took another mini-nap when I got to my bed. This was a really good hostel – nice clean beds and supercomfy fluffy down comforters.

I met up with Jenna in her hotel which is right across my hostel around 2:30pm and met her cousin Jason with whom she’s backpacking with. We walked around for a bit. Jason wanted to go into a coffee shop so we did. He bought a space brownie (why are they called space brownies/cakes? Maybe coz they send you to space? Lol anywayyy) Jenna and I had 1 pint beers which we took to the streets so we won’t kill more time. We pretty much just walked around and took pictures and enjoyed the surroundings. We went to the Anne Frank Huis which was very interesting and depressing.

After that, I had my first box of Wok to Walk which was super delicious! ( A super relief from the bland Spanish cuisine *peace*) I ate my box in my hostel, took a nap, then met back with them around 10pm. We just walked around the infamous Red Light District which was very interesting.

See this is why the Dutch are so cool. Lol. I mean we all know that the oldest profession in the world (as my high school senior English teacher used to refer to it and jovially adds – and it’s not farming!) is alive and well. The Dutch acknowledge this fact and work with this fact. Unlike so many of us who are so prudish. You know? Lol. They even have a union for these lady workers. :P It’s a 24/7 business. The women rent out windows per shift which would cost them about 100 euros and it’s fully equipped. :| Not that anyone was wondering, but their going rates are about 50 euros for the basic services. They display their scantily clad selves by the windows under red lights. Some are busy seducing guys, some are just sitting, and some on their phones (on what I jokingly said –they may be calling their friends to see how much business they’ve had that night :P)

In case you were wondering on how masochist this setup is, they did try to have manwhores go into the business. BUT it was so sensationalized by the media that no housewife had the courage to peruse the newly introduced service the guys were offering. :P So that didn’t really turn out well. :P

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for my awesome first day in Amsterdam. :P