Amazing Amsterdam

Amsteram=awesomeness. And that is the truth.

The gang (Me, Rachael, John, Dimitry, Francillia, and Chen) left ASTRON at 5:00pm, got into Amsterdam at around 8:00pm. Waited an hour trying to figure out how to get into our apartment and then decided to walk around and find dinner. We ended up getting Chinese take out from down the street. Our aparment that I found (airbnb.com rocks) was fairly residential and a ways outside of the city center. So after grabbing dinner we caught the train to Dam square, the central square in Amsterdam. It was a Friday night, so the streets were busy, despite the hour. Here's a picture of the guys after finishing their Chinese.

From left to right: Dimitry, John, Chen

We then decided to get up and walk around a bit. You can't help but 'accidentally' wander into the red light district from Dam square, it's literally maybe two blocks away. The streets there were even more crowded and lined with scantily clad women framed in black-light-lit windows and sex shops. It seemed normal even. This could have been any street in Amsterdam, selling any product- here is just happens to be sex. Anyway, we finished our tour and headed back home to play some King's Cup.

The next morning we parted ways, and the girls, (Me, Rachael, & Francillia) headed to the Jordaan to do some shopping. The Jordaan is the more 'village'-like neighborhood of Amsterdam, with tons of little boutiques, open air markets, canals full of houseboats and the like. It's the region just to the left of the U-shaped center of the city in the map below.

Anyway, we stopped and got some coffee at a cafe. Here's Francillia and myself :)
We started in the Noordmarkt, which is a organic farmer's market every Saturday. There were several cheese stalls, and tons of flower stalls, mixed in with fish venders and bakeries. Towards the end there were also stalls for 2nd hand goods and handmade jewelry and such. I picked up some good souvenirs there.

We continued walking up and down the street, stopping in to boutiques and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Typical canal

Typical street in the Jordaan. This one has some antiques for sale and a kitty :)

Then we made our way to the more commercial area in central Amsterdam (not my preferred flavor of shopping) where Rachael and I enjoyed an ice cream. Have I mentioned how GOOD the soft serve is here? Oh, I have? Well, that 'cause it's GOOD.

The main street was busy, packed with people. But here's a cute little church at the end of a small alleyway just off the main street.
Finally, us girl met up with the boys and decided to get some dinner. We found an Indonesian place that was just great! We got six different plates and shared them all. Sooooo gooooood.


After dinner we went to Vondel Park, a huge area with ponds and lawns and an amphitheater. We went to see a Cabaret, but the show we ended up seeing was of some random Dutch chick who sang funny songs (or at least I think they were funny. She sang in Dutch and quit often the crowd would laugh) I have a video I'll try and post later.

It's was dark by the time we started heading back to the apartment. And not only is Amsterdam beautiful during the day, but also at night when the canals light up with business lights.


We got home and I taught the gang the wonderful drinking game of Asshole. Much hilarity ensued.

Sunday morning we woke up fairly late, but eventually made it to the Van Gogh museum. We had to wait 45min to get in, and it cost too much (14euro) but it was really neat. I hadn't realized that Gogh just up and decided to be an artist one day and started taking lessons. It was also really cool that a lot of his contemporaries also had art displayed along with Gogh's.

Here's a picture of me outside in front of the museum.
And here's a picture of the Rijksmuseum (pronounced rye-ks-museum), which is just down the street from the Van Gogh museum. We didn't actually go in, but it was a pretty building, so I took a photo.
Only Rachel, John and myself went to the museum, so we three got some Greek food for a late lunch and then met up with the rest of the gang. Please note the glass of soda at the left of the following picture. It's called Cassis, or black current soda. It's sooo good. I'm really going to miss it.
Everyone was pretty tired so we got some Thai take out (which turned out to be AMAZING) and went home. We'd found some black currant liquor so we opened that up and played a bit of Asshole. I feel asleep early (lame, I know).

Monday morning we got up early, hit a local bakery for breakfast and made our train to take us back to ASTRON.

I give Amsterdam an A+, probably my favorite city of the ones I've seen this summer.

UPDATE:
So HERE are the rest of my Amsterdam photos
and HERE are my Berlin photos
Enjoy!