Amsterdam Adventures: only 40 Euro???

If there is one word to sum up Amsterdam it would be “cool”. The locals dress very casually, which was perfect for us in our worn-in clothes. The weather was quite cool, so it makes sense that scarves, layers, and baggy clothing was the uniform of the masses.

It was a great experience, and we definitely took it all in. We waited to check into our hostel by doing a bit of retail therapy for the colder weather. When we were able to check in to the hostel we were shocked by the state of disarray. Luckily the hostel was yet to be cleaned, because this was quite impressive. There were bottles beyond bottles, next to sheets in shambles. We would like to give a very thankful shout out to the cleaning staff at the hostel for doing such a great job of rectifying the late night events of travelers the night before.

We ventured through the streets of Amsterdam to find a canal boat cruise, and then leisurely enjoyed a Heineken before boarding the cruise. The cruise was enjoyable but a little too slow paced for our liking. The highly packed houses were beautiful, the houseboats wonderfully weathered, and the many bridges were charming. Everywhere you looked there were bicycles. Locked up in jumbles and heaps along every street possible. There is an old joke in Amsterdam that if you shout “that’s my bike!” at a group of cyclists driving past, roughly 5 of them will hop off and run away leaving “their” bike behind.

After the boat tour we continued to explore the city, walked through the red light district (not nearly as glamorous feeling as later in the night). We grabbed some dinner from the main street, bypassing the omnipresent dutch fries and mayo, and grabbed falafels yet again. We then toured the Sex Museum before heading back to the hostel for 7-8pm happy hour drinks. Two-for-one Heinekens? Yes please! Another round, OK! The rest of the night was QUITE the adventure featuring two new American friends, another view of the workingwomen of Amsterdam, and a trip to the infamous Sailor bar (Kev you would have loved it!). It’s probably a good thing we were only in Amsterdam for one night as we don’t quite know how we could top that experience.

This morning (Heather surprisingly cleaner than expected and not as hungover as Janelle) we toured the house of Anne Frank after waiting for 1.5 hours in line.  Well Janelle waited for the first half of the time while Heather searched for the near-to-impossible to find bathrooms in the city. Good thing she carried change with her because I think half of our budget has gone to liquid purchases and bathroom fares. Our patience was at our finest, and the time we spent was entirely worth it. What a remarkable piece of our history.  The rooms were larger than Heather imagined, but we could not imagine not being able to ever leave.  It was a deeply touching experience.

The line-up for Anne Frank huis

Missing my car, bb!

After Anne Frank we rented bikes and toured around the city. We went to Albert Cuyp market and wandered around before sitting down for lunch. Two large open-faced sandwiches nourished us and gave us the energy to hop back on our bikes (no helmets in Amsterdam), and ride around Vondelpark. This was much less chaotic and nerve-wracking than the cobblestone, pedestrian covered streets along the river. We managed to return the bikes in one piece without any accidents to report!

yummmmmmm!

We said farewell to Amsterdam with postcards, pictures, 2 American Air Marshall pins from Philly, a glass from the sailor bar and a tiny wooden shoe key chain (Tina – a substitute for ones for Janelle’s feet, as they would be too heavy to carry) as memories of our adventure. We then headed to the train station an hour prior to our scheduled departure as cutting it so close last time was a little too stressful for our liking. We took a 12 hour overnight train with sleeper cars and essentially slept for most of the journey. We met some friendly kiwis in our couchette and chatted for as long as we could keep our eyes open (about 2 hours until we passed out at 7pm and were awakened by the steward at 5am when we were to arrive in Berlin – I guess we were tired!). It was a fun experience, minus the loud snores of our couchette-mates that kept Heather up for half of the night. She still can’t believe how it never woke Janelle up.  

Our early arrival in Berlin (5:45am) meant that while we could drop our luggage off at the hostel but could not hang out there until after 8:00am. We searched for some coffee and food (settled for Dunkin' Donuts..we know we know) and had a bit of time to regroup and plan our stay here.

We are now strapping on our running shoes and hitting the bike lanes for some self-guided tours of the city! Love and miss everyone already, but we still aren’t ready to come home!

Love from Berlin,

Janelle and Heather.