Day 1, Thursday night:
We stepped off the train and started walking into the city. During our first steps the most foul smell filled our nostrils. Can you imagine what it was? Think about it.. what is one of the things Amsterdam is known for? BINGO! You're right.. it was pot. It smelt like fart. It was disgusting. Well we pushed through the flatulence and found our way to our cute little B&B. It was located on Plankertage Straat, which was the location of an apartment building. It occured to me that we were staying in someones apartment. LOL right?? Who knew. We thought it was this cute little B&B with a nice little elderly couple making breakfast.. false. It was not. Our hosts name was like Elmina or something. I was never quite sure, that's just what I called her! And she was not very warm. She showed us to our room..
Quaint right?? We're so blessed. She told us to pay her the money we owed her and laid down the house rules. It was crazy! It was honestly her apartment and we were just in the other bedroom! AJ's face as he took it all in.... hilarious. Bless his heart.
So we decided the least amount of time we spent there the better.. and we went to explore the city! To spare you all the dirty details (literally. The city is filth.), AJ nailed it on the head when he said "if NY and Paris were to have a baby, it'd be named Amsterdam." It's full of culture and the buildings are beautiful and unique! Their all squished into 6 meter lots and very tall! It's amazing! The canals are cool too! People have house boats on them and people take water taxis, it's sort of like Venice. BUT in the midst of all that splendor is pure filth. There are people EVERYWHERE!! It's like Vegas at night. And EVERYONE is smoking. Whether it's pot, cigarette, pipe, cigar, everyone's smoking something. So as you try and navigate throught this very complicated city, you're walking through dense B.O. smelling crowds with smoke being blown into your face. If thats not enough, everyone is just lounging around drinking. AJ and I found it totally incredible that young boys had beers in their hands. We also found it amazing that people would start drinking at like 11 in the morning. The life people live...
Friday, Day 2:
We woke up to a very perky (not) Elmina who offered us breakfast (appropriate for a bed & BREAKFAST). So she brought in some orange juice that I swear had been spiked. It didn't taste normal, so I gave mine to AJ:) And then she brought 2 pieces of bread with butter, cheese and ham on it. Is that a typical dutch breakfast or what? Haha. It was... delicious?
Friday was our day trip to Keukenhoff, which are the tulip fields of Amsterdam. We were soo excited!! The main reason we went to Amsterdam was to see the tulips. We knew we had probably missed the season, but we thought we'd try anyways. So we got out there and it's just the cutest little park! But lo and behold, we had indeed missed all the tulips. There were a few patches here and there (like this one here, which smelled like butter), but other than that it was just miles and miles of dead, crispy tulips. For those who want to go at some point in their life, go between March-Mid April. They will be amazing then! Because truly, there were MILES of fields of flowers and it would've been breathtaking! Going back to really see the tulips is the only thing that would ever take me back to Amsterdam... hhahah.After Keukenhoff, we decided to rent bikes and ride out to the beach. So we rode about 10ish miles out to the North Sea. It was nothing spectacular, but it was still fun! There were people lounging on the beach and flying kites, it was just like any other beach on this planet, minus the palm trees and warmth. The ride out there was beautiful though! We saw lots of the Dutch countryside and for anyone who ever finds themselves there... really make sure you rent a bike and just explore the country!
Saturday, Day 3:
The rest of our trip consisted of us just wandering the city! The main vehicle in Amsterdam is a bike. Right when you get out of the train station there is a "bike parking lot" where 2500 bikes are parked. Truly unlike anything you've ever seen. We went on a canal tour, during which they said that there are currently 9500 bikes in the city center and they're working on a parking garage for all the bikes. LOL, awesome. Parents who use bikes have these little wooden boxes on the front of their bikes for their kids and a seat on the back. Sometimes they will even put a seat between their legs and before the handlebars where the kids can sit. It's really cute!
So I'm sure most of you have heard of the "Red Light District".... yeah I did NOT want to go there. For fear, that AJ would be corrupted. Well truly, by ACCIDENT, we found ourselves there, and oh... my... lands... it's everything you imagine. Except worse. The porch lights that you have on your home, they have outside their apartments except they have red bulbs in them. It's awful!!! And they line the street.. I held AJ's hand and made him close his eyes as I lead us away from that filthy place. NEVER make an effort to go there.
Sunday, Day 4:
By Saturday, we were so ready to go home! Sunday we woke up and went and got a bowl of cereal and sat on a bridge over a canal and ate breakfast. It was delightful. We then went to church a little ways out of the city. It was truly delightful! We got a little translator headset and listened to sacrament. The ward... probably had... 60ish people? It was crazy!! Coming from Utah where the wards are 300 strong.. it was so strange to see all these people of different backgrounds, try to fill a very small chapel. While at church we met some tourists from Fresno, CA and of course Centerville, UT. The lady from Centerville knew one of my uncles, of course. Lol the church makes the world so much smaller! It's amazing!
We were on our way back to the airport (4 hours early... that's how ready we were go to home..) and Amsterdam just happened to win the Netherlands soccer cup. I've never in my life, seen so many people in the streets. They were out in the streets and filling the bars, cheering and singing and spilling beer all over each other. It was pure chaos. We were waiting for our train to the main station, but apparently the crowd was so thick all over the city that all public transportation was cut off. We took a video and lots of pictures, so look on my facebook, because it's unreal! People were launching fireworks everywhere and police were lining the streets. We had to just walk to the station since no train was coming. The walk was very wet. Beer had been spilled all over the streets and you were honestly walking through a layer of plastic cups, broken bottles and beer cans. It was by far worse than Vegas. And it was like 4 in the afternoon. Millions of people were walking around drunk off their butts at 4 IN THE AFTERNOON!! What the heck were they going to do with the rest of their night?? It was really fun and interesting to watch all these people.. but it made me sooooo grateful that I don't have to ever worry about being in their position!
SOOOOO.... our trip came to an end. What an interesting weekend we had, far from anything we expected. It was great, eye opening, humbling, educating... hahaha and everything else you've infered from this! You'll have to ask AJ what he thought about Amsterdam. He spent the whole weekend thinking of jokes about Amsterdam. His favorite one is "Hello, Amsterdam? Yeah, Europe called. It wants its trash back. Euro trash, that is." Hahaha, give him credit for the post title as well. That was his work.
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