Sorry that I haven’t been blogging much lately, the workload is quite ridiculous at the moment and we have exams in two weeks! Despite this, I managed to go to the Netherlands for the long weekend and had the most incredible time.
I left Paris by train on Friday evening with my friend Phoebe, and three hours and a bottle of wine later we had arrived in Amsterdam! It was already quite late so we just found our hostel (which was brand new) and headed out for dinner at Leidesplein. The first thing you notice about Amsterdam is the bikes! There are 750,000 people living in Amsterdam and there are 1,000,000 bikes, they even have right of way on the roads over cars and pedestrians! Very cool.
After dinner we went to bed in preparation for a massive day of sightseeing. We woke up at 9:30 and caught the tram to Dam Square, the centre of Amsterdam for a free, three-hour walking tour. Our guide was a bit overenthusiastic, but we learnt so much! I’m not even going to try describe it all, but here are some of my favourite parts (starting at Dam Square).
The canals are beautiful, and the city has always been an economic hub, home to the oldest stock exchange in the world, and the headquarters of the Dutch East India Trading Company (which is now the sociology building of the Universiteit de Amsterdam).
(Dutch East India Co.)
We wandered through the infamous Red Light District, complete with ‘window displays’ and found the ‘lucky boob’. We also learnt that the church right next door used to allow passing sailors to ‘pay in advance’ for their sins, and literally in the confessionals had a list of prices that would have to be paid according to what sin had been committed.
You can't actually take photos of the 'window displays' as they tend to throw cups of fluid at you, which isn't water. And that's if you're lucky. They may step out of the window, grab your camera and smash it on the ground.
We then saw the statue of Multatuli, a.k.a Eduard Dekker, the man who exposed the exploitation committed by the Dutch East India Trading Co. and who is known as ‘the Father of Fair Trade’.
After the tour we went to meet my friend Sarah who is on exchange in Leiden, 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam, and headed to the Van Gogh museum. It was stunning, with an incredible collection of work, including the original poster of ‘La Tournée du Chat Noir’. My favourite pieces were a palm tree by Monet and a crab by Van Gogh.
After that we headed over to the Anne Frank house, which is on a canal in central Amsterdam. This is actually the house in which the family hid, and it is now one of the best-presented museums I have ever been to. You walk in the entrance to the building, which was once a jam factory, and follow a path through the house, through the movable bookcase and up into the attic and there are little quotes from her diary throughout. Unfortunately photos are forbidden. It was a truly amazing experience.
We were then ready to experience some true nightlife, and wandered through the Red Light District (very, very strange) to an Argentinean steakhouse where we dug into a massive steak (so cheap compared to Paris and real red meat!). It was then time to start the party, and we visited a few bars before my friend Jordan came to meet us. He is studying in Amsterdam and took us to a club inside an old church. It was crazy to see everyone dancing to hip hop music beneath an organ!
After that Jordan decided to give me a lift home Dutch-style, which basically means sitting on the back of a push-bike and holding on for dear life. They call it ‘dinkying’ and it was a lot of fun, but I ended up in a lot of pain every time we rode over the tram tracks…
Sunday morning we had a bit of a sleep-in before wandering around Amsterdam for the final time and checking out some vintage shops where I managed to find some cool shoes and sunglasses. We also saw some of the famous Dutch cheese and tulips!
Phoebe and I then decided we needed to try ‘stroopwafel’, a traditional Dutch snack, but somehow ended up with ‘normal’ waffles, which were delicious and sickly at the same time. We then caught a bike taxi back to the hostel to pack our bags for Leiden, and we grinned like idiots the whole time. So much fun!
After a half-hour train trip through the tulip fields, we arrived in beautiful Leiden, a tiny student town. It was already quite late so we decided to go to a ‘coffee shop’. They basically sell relaxants of all forms. A very Dutch experience.
We then wandered through town to a famous Dutch pancake restaurant for dinner, which was absolutely delicious!
By this point everyone was so exhausted that we decided to head back to Sarah’s for a relatively early night in order to be ready for a day on the canals. We had a nice sleep in and then went to pick up a rowboat from the square where Rembrandt was born! I also found an emo tulip.
It was a lovely and sunny day and we managed to coordinate enough to navigate our way under the bridges (even if we did smash into the walls every now and then).
After stopping for a few drinks and some real stroopwafel we headed back to pack our bags and head to the station, via McDonald’s for a stroopwafel McFlurry. Genius.
We cut it a bit fine getting back to Amsterdam but managed to jump back on the Thalys train and were back in Paris 3 hours later! An absolutely BRILLIANT weekend.
