Amsterdam; somewhat of a fantasy land for some but deep down Amsterdam is probably one the most beautiful cities I have visited (erm, I keep saying that). There's not many places in the world that have such relaxed attitudes to the sex industry, drug trade and fast food dispensing machines, it's a pity Amsterdam's reputation isn't built around how beautiful the city really is.
After a 40 minute flight from London it became evident on arrival that although we were in a Dutch speaking country we would not need to learn a single word of their language. In other non-English speaking countries you would struggle to not learn a hand full of useful words or phrases but this is not the case in Amsterdam.
We arrived at our appropriately named hostel ('The Flying Pig') and met up with our friend Yannick, a young Swiss prodigy whom we had, had acquaintences with in Sth America.
Perusing the streets we took in all Amsterdam had to offer. The main city streets are are divided by canals and watreways that span right across the city. Even through winter the watreways are lined with boats, gondola's and houseboats (very similar to how Amsterdam is show in the new Oceans Twelve).
Through the lack of wide streets (due to the canals) cars aren't used all that much and it seems that the majority of the population get by on bicycles. All ridden with elegance and style these bicycles could prove to be just as dangerous as cars for the the unsuspecting and paranoid pedestrians.
One night we made our way to watch a band that Linda had recommended. The Russian duo were like the 'Get Smart' White Stripes. A girl/boy combo that played music that any special agent program would be glad to have as their opening music. Their black-out stage lights and accompanying video clips made for ineteresting viewing.
We visited the Ann Frank house which was a museum converted from the house where the Frank family hid from the Germans in wartime. The journal that Ann kept throughout the time was later found, published and turned into the best-selling book.
We also took time out to visit a museum that, through a thorough late afternoon mission turned out to be the musueum that wasn't...
We continued our new found obsession with European food and many visits to the local supermarket were very much in order. Stroopwaffles (caramel filled sweet biscuit-waffles) were all the rage in the food department and Steve crowned Chocomel to be the best chocolate milk in the world.
The fast-food take-away craze Febo recieved mixed results from the judges. Febo, a small take-away chain where the hot food is placed in vending machines and to purchase your burger you simply slot two Euro coins in the machine and ... Voila... One burger (no extra fries). I'm not entirely sure if this concept is a way forwards or backwards but we can all (unfortunately) testify to their taste.
A trip to Amsterdam wouldn't be complete without a trip to to the red-light district. Not for the faint hearted, the area is a small section of downtown where the streets are lined with sex shops, coffeeshops, sex shows and the infamous windows, where scantily-clad prostitutes display their wares to entice walker-bys. Coming from a country where prostitution is on the whole, frowned upon and only happening behind closed doors, its hard to believe it is so blatantly and literally on display in these neck of the woods. It was also obvious that most revellers in the red light district were indeed tourists and not locals and I do wonder what the locals think of the of the kind of business this places generates.
The long weekend was soon over and we flew back Monday morning. Some of us had to go straight back to work and others went back home and crawled into bed to recover
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