The city that brings a smile to your face when you hear it’s name

It is true is it not? Every time you tell someone you are going to Amsterdam, it draws out a wry grin and a nod of the head that tells you, “Mate, you lucky bastard, you are going to love it.” And what is amusing is that at times, this reaction comes from people who’ve never been there but probably know more of the city than some locals themselves.

Chapter 1: The typical

Once again, we signed onto ‘Mitfahrzentrale’ from Dusseldorf and 2 hours later, for a mere €15 per person we found ourselves in the gorgeous city of Amsterdam.

Within half hour, everything that is legendary about the city materialised right before our eyes, starting with the zillions of bicycles – why they even have underground parking stations beaneath a few of the metro stations dedicated to parking only pushbikes! The Centraal station takes it one level further with a dedicated vessel in the harbour doubling up as a parking haven for the bikes. Here’s one city that definitely is playing it’s part in make sure we live in a cleaner environment. That said, the hostility that is often associated with cyclists is definitely seen in plenty here – after all, in the city of Amsterdam, they have the first preference on the road, before cars and pedestrians! You’ll see ’em cycles everywhere, on the street, parked upon canals, underground stations, they are quite like the plague in the city.

Very reminiscent of the canals at Venice except this city has more bicycles than those all in the Tour De France put together

No post on Amsterdam is ever complete without a mention of their famous ‘Coffeeshops’ or the ‘Red Light district’and we found ourselves right in the midst of both before you could say ‘Iamsterdam’. Being one of ’em curious tourists, I did tap onto the window of a stunning east european looking woman; the Dutch girls have a signboard that sets them apart from the rest. The sign says ‘Rare Dutch in here’. Ah the irony! I politely enquired as to what services she offered and at what rate they came at. In the same polite tone that I had just exercised, I was told to find myself something better to do on a sunny saturday afternoon. So the ‘Bulldog’ it was then.

A fascinating aspect of the city is how multicultural it is, we found people of all races, nationalities and languages seemingly living together in harmony and having been to cities prior (Milan, Munich) where the multicultural aspect is not as visible, this was definitely a pleasant change.

Chapter 2: Childhood dream realised

As a kid, I’ve always associated Holland with windmills and to see one those vintage structures in Zaans-Schasn was an exhilirating experience! We had chosen to head to this pretty little village that was a 20 minute train ride from the city, as the weather in the city had been fairly non welcoming – dark and rainy.

Zaans-Schasn is a little town made up of little shops that sell the finest quality of cheese I’ve ever tasted (haven’t been to France yet, so hold your horses there) and Holland’s traditional wooden shoes. Found out that the reason for farmers wearing wooden shoes was because the soil is fairly slushy throughout the year and these shoes are made to last. Definitely recommend a visit to this lovely little town.

Grown up on this one image of Holland – the windmills!

The skyline on a dark rainy day

Chapter 3: Couchsurfing

We stayed with our host Bram in one of the southern suburbs of Amsterdam Zooidost (Amsterdam South). The bloke managed to cook one of the best tomato puree pies I’ve ever had. And this is coming from someone who is very very averse to tomatoes! I made sure that Dee took notes on the recipe – the champion cook that she is and the champion errr..consumer that I am, I expect to have another dosage of this very soon! Bram also invited us to a concert of an upcoming local artist – Rachel Louise and whilst the genre of music might not have suited our taste (commercial pop), definitely a good experience to meet his mates and other local folks at the bar.

We also managed to catchup with our dutch mates Vera and Jay whom we had hosted in Sydney late last year and another one of our traveler mates Damla whom we had met in Torres Del Paine, Chile. Nothing better than catching up with old mates halfway across the world and making new – Judy!

With our dutch mates and fellow CSers whom we had hosted back in Sydney. From left: Jay, Judy, Vera, Pai and I

With Bram – our CS host

Centraal Station

The Facts