But this is not due to drugs of any kind. Though I must admit, the space cakes were a tempting treat; I never made it to a coffee shop. I did, however, make it to many of the city’s other attractions, and have had an amazing time the past week. I stayed with two amazing couch surfing hosts, Tineke, who works in the Hague doing city planning of some sort, and Milou who is going to school for acting. Both very different, both amazing people. My primary reason for going to Amsterdam this early in my trip, (I had planned on visiting in the summer) was because John Mayer decided to add a concert here before he headed to London. Most people know I really like John Mayer, and it has been somewhat of a family tradition to go to his concerts every summer with my sister and dad. I have missed a couple of them in the past few years because of Russia and such, so I decided to go to his concert in Amsterdam! Joining me there was my friend Ditte, (she hosted me in Copenhagen.)
First of all, the concert was so much fun! It was at the Heineken Music Hall, and there were little guys walking around with Heineken cooler backpacks to serve you beer. Hey, it’s the little things that make you happy, and not having to wait in line for a drink makes me happy! (Random side note: Everyone in Europe uses the English word to “queue” or “queuing” or even “waiting in the queue” instead of waiting in line; sounds sooo weird to me, and lately I’ve had this urge just to yell, “it’s waiting in line!!!” However, I’ve restrained myself.) Anyway, after the concert Ditte and I went out for a bit in around our flat, and went to bed.
The next morning we had big plans, first on the list was to find this sign that my dad told me about. Apparently there is this sign close to central station that says “7500 miles to Wall Drug, South Dakota” and, when he was first traveling about Europe while studying in Copenhagen he took a picture under the sign with his Danish friend Life. I thought that it would be fun to recreate, but try as Ditte and I might, we could not find that sign! Even more frustrating was that we saw a picture of it on the internet so we know it exists! But after about an hour looking for it, we decided to head to the next thing on our list, the Heineken Experience! It was a lot of fun, way more interactive than the Carlsberg Museum in Copenhagen, but still you only get Heineken or Heineken Extra Cold at the end of the tour – Ditte and I both agreed that the selection of Carlsberg beers were a lot better. For those of you that have never tried the golden naked Christmas ale by Carlsberg, you are missing out!
After the tour we headed in the direction of a bagel shop that we had seen while on the tram to the museum. I have been craving a bagel since Emilija reminded me about my lack of them in Lithuania, and let me tell you, a poppy seed bagel with scallion cream cheese has never tasted so good. Post bagel, I was daydreaming about Ess-A-Bagel in NYC for a good two hours. Good food, it seems, became a large part of why I had so much fun in Amsterdam. The day before, I had made Tineke this cream of carrot and ginger soup recipe that I had found online, with amazing results. Ditte and I also experienced a pretty amazing English breakfast at a small coffee place near the Anne Frank House. I have never eaten that much for breakfast in my life – but I think Amsterdam’s food, which is similar to home triggered my stomach to eat four fold what I have been. But who cares, it was amazing, and I can’t wait to go back!
Besides eating – I was surprised at how many things I wanted to do or see in Amsterdam. For some reason I had this idea in my head that it didn’t have that many interesting sights, but was I wrong! I’ll have to go back to finish the list of things I wanted to, but some of the places I did go were, Anne Frank House, Van gough Museum, Hermitage (which has an amazing exhibit about the Romanovs!), Dam Square, Castle, National Theatre and a number of parks. Unfortunately for the first few days I didn’t have a bike, and they were a little expensive to rent, but that was soon fixed – in quite a fun way I might add!
During one of my nights out with my host Milou, we were trying to figure out how we should get home. The party that we had gone to was on the opposite side of the city, he trams were no longer running and the night bus was a half hour late. We were debating about one of us riding on the handlebars, but considering that we both had had some drinks, we did not want to attempt it. I certainly did not want to end up more injured than I already was, (basically I have been falling apart, wrist, foot, head, but I will trudge on!) but it was going to be about a hour and a half walk home. We decided to walk the bus route so that in case it came we could flag it down. Now previously in the evening Milou’s boyfriend had gotten his bike stolen and was saying how often it happens in Amsterdam. I felt bad for him, but he said that he had already gotten another bike.
After walking for about a half hour, a man came down the street on a bike and said something to us in Dutch - me thinking that it’s 4am and a weird man is talking to us pretended not to hear him and continued walking. Milou, however, stops walking her bike, starts to talk to him and starts to get out her wallet to give him change, (or so I thought). I couldn’t even imagine why Milou would be giving a strange man change in the middle of the night, I mean everyone knows that people use that line to get more money… at least my trusty dusty man in Penn Station does almost every time I’m there. All of a sudden, he get’s off the bike, hands it to Milou, walks away, and she turns to me and says, “great! Now we have a bike!”. I cannot even explain how confused I was so a second, and then I just burst out laughing; I mean how could I not with all the sinister thoughts going through my head! I got on my new bike, (purchased for a mere 7euros) followed Milou through the streets, and we were home in a half hour. It was awesome. I had a bike for the rest of my time in Amsterdam, and a great story to go with it. Milou and I agreed that it should obviously stay with her, but we began to turn it into an art project, (paint and such), I signed the handlebars, and we decided it will be her couch surfer bike. I, of course, will have dibs on it this summer when I return… that is if it still there by then. I hope so!
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