Well our the first experience of Amsterdam was a little crazy, we had decided to spend the first day looking around. We stupidity thought that we would just drive off the ferry, into the city centre, park up and have a wander around. Ha, we were fools, we were so very stupid to think that it would be that easy. For those who aren’t aware, Amsterdam is a big city, with tons of bikes, motorcycles, trams, people and other cars, the road markings are difficult to understand by the locals, let alone two foreigners fresh of the boat. It seemed like a never-ending stream of beeps, warning signs and people just appearing out of nowhere, Lee got understandably stressed to the eyeballs with the uncertainty of not knowing if we were breaking traffic violations and we couldn’t for the life of us find anywhere to park. Deflated and defeated with our tails between our legs, we finally gave in and drove out of town to our host family.
Our second experience was a lot better, we took the wise decision to take advantage of the park and ride system the city offers, we parked up in this small shopping centre and we sorted out our transport tickets and the P&R (park and ride) machine in the carpark. Luckily it gave an option for English and we picked a ticket that was five euros and would give us an hour from first scanned to get into Amsterdam, then the same on the return journey. It was a lot easier than our previous experience, hehe.
So we had the choice of tram or bus, but we’ve never been on a tram before so, tram it was! To be honest, it was exactly like sitting on a bus but I wanted to try it, and now I can say, ‘I’ve been on a tram in Amsterdam’.
So Amsterdam itself is stunning, the buildings the culture is ripe and there for anyone who enjoys the bohemian lifestyle. If you love art, there is so much to see, if the drug scene is your thing then that is also there, even for the standard sight seers like us, it took as most of the day and around nine miles just to see every free thing we could fine.
We took so many pictures, and we were tempered by so much food it was unreal, I could of quiet eaten the enormous offers of waffles, chips and fast food. Hmmm my mouth is watering at the thought of it all.
We looked at so many sights, we visited the flower market, with what seemed like endless little hubs filled with flower bulbs. We took a look around the museums and the palace, it was so odd as we were taking pictures of the place and the noise of the planes were so loud as they came in so close to our heads.
We, of course, took a look around the red light district, it’s not something I agree with, but it is apart of the city and something you need to experience first hand if you’re in Amsterdam.
Funnily enough, as we were walking around that quadrant, we came across many Mahayana shops selling all sorts of ways you can think off to consume it.
We also visited the fifteen aligned bridges over the channels, which was, to be honest, wasn’t exactly ore inspiring. It was what it was but nothing more than a mass of bridges.
Central station was a mas hive of activity, hoards of people flowing in and out, as we walked through we even came across a little shopping mall in the station too. We walked through and just outside on the left and the right you can get a ferry that is free, it’s an easy and convenient way to cross the water.
Ok so you need to be a little prepared because there are no free public toilets in the city, well I say that there is a very open urinal with only a small piece of metal hide your modesty.
It was such an exciting place to visit; we aimed to see as much as much as we could for as little money as possible. It took all day, but we did it.