Where to even begin?
I went to amsterdam when I was 14 years old...
HAHAHA check out my braces.. hilar.
But anyways - back then, we only spent one day in Amsterdam, and the only things we saw were the Anne Frank house, Van Gogh Museum, and Sex Museum (who decided to take a bunch of 14 year olds to the sex museum? ...)
This time around, I FELL IN LOVE with everything about the city.
Step 1 to falling in love with Amsterdam - renting bikes.
If you've ever been to amsterdam, you will know that neither cars nor people own the roads. Bikes are king. Renting bikes was an amazing way to easily get around the city, feel like a local, and just have some plain old fun. Is it lame that I'm trying to get a bike in London now?
Step 2 to falling in love with amsterdam - THE CANALS.
Amsterdam is almost like a more hip, young, fun, and populated Venice. I went to Venice two years ago and found it outdated and full of old people, with nothing much to do other than a 90 euro gondola tour. Amsteram, on the other hand, has beautiful canals amidst one of the most chill, fun, and bustling cities in Europe. SO amazing.
We did a canal tour which wasn't particularly informative or entertaining, but was definitely a nice ride.
Last but finally not least... clearly my favorite part of amstydam. THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT.
We stayed at The Bulldog, which is not only a hostel, but is famous for being the first coffee shop, as their sign below clearly states.
But not only was our hostel the first coffee shop...
If you walk down the canal from the hostel about - hm, 5 feet maybe? - there's a teeny little alleyway that nobody would ever even notice, nestled right in between two shops. But wait - venture down that alley way and you are on ELITE STREET. Basically the most heavily populated area of red light windows which supposedly has the "elite" girls. I wish I had pictures, but clearly thats not allowed.
AMAZING.
Okay and let me preface this by saying - mom and dad, I promise you have nothing to worry about! But here are the deets on being a red light window girl (aka prostitute) in amsterdam.
The girls have to rent their own windows, and they work in 8 hour shifts. The rent for each windows is about 100 - 150 euros. For the eight hour shift. Thats 150 euros for ALL 8 hours.
Each girl receives an average of 30-60 customers per eight hour shift. The average customer pays 50 euros for their "services".
Lets do the math here - girl pays 150 euros. girl makes that back within 3 customers. say girl gets 40 more customers that night, girl makes 40 x 50 = 2000 EUROS in profit! And pimps are highly illegal, so these girls aren't paying this money out to anyone. Obviously they pay taxes on it just like everyone else.
But still. Fucking LUCRATIVE.
Other funny things -
The condomierie - famous for their custom sized condoms.
World's warmest condom.
The other awesome thing we did was the Heineken Experience.
The original Heineken brewery has been turned into a ridiculous high tech museum / marketing scheme. Its a really cool experience, and is only 15 euros (with 3 free beers thrown in!).
They even have one of those silly motion rides where they "brew YOU" into a heineken beer. Basically taking you through the whole process while jerking you around and spraying water / bubbles at you. Fun times.
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