Keukenhof Tulips

April 8, 2010

After sleeping for a few hours, showering finally and having a quick cereal bar breakfast we met Carol at a metro station. From there we took the metro, got on a train which we didn't pay for and then on a bus where the bus driver called us dumb a few times for not purchasing a ticket before hand. Eventually we arrived at Keukenhof. The day was pretty gloomy with a couple sprinkles of rain at first so all the flowers were closed up; but about an hour in the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful day the rest of the time there. The flowers were gorgeous and Carol and her friend Nicole (plus her boyfriend) were hilarious company to be with. Carol is studying theatre so she is very outgoing and animated. Nicole is an artist/actor and also promotes at the comedy club.

We pretty much just spent the day wandering around a huge park of tulips and other gorgeous flowers. The place is 70 acres in total and one of the most colorful places I've ever seen. While we were there we also climbed up a traditional windmill which was pretty cool. We stayed until around 2pm and then our stomachs took over and told us it was time for food. Everything inside the area was way over priced and didn't look all that good. Hilary and I being the cheapos we are didn't get any food except for sharing a small order of puffertjes which are miniature dutch pancakes that were really good. They sort of tasted like mini round pieces of french toast. Highly recommended, I'm hoping to have more before we leave.

Carol and company wanted to go to a small town close by to get food but Hilary and I decided to head back to Amsterdam to see the city during the day, especially since it is so beautiful today. We are currently on the bus back to the train to take us into the city. We are getting better and better at transportation systems and finding our way around so hopefully our luck will remain and we'll be able to get back to Amsterdam in a semi-timely fashion.

We got back to Amsterdam around 3:30 and headed out to find the I AMsterdam sign. It was sunny out so we wanted to get some tourist pictures in. On the way there we stopped to get some food at a bakery and then to Febo. We found some sort of fried meat thing and put in our 1.40 in change and pulled it out of it's little vending machine shelf. Having no idea how it would taste we decided to split one. Really glad that we did - it wasn't the worst thing I've ever tasted but I probably wouldn't get one again on purpose.

When we made it to the sign I was surprised at how many people there were at the letters taking pictures. I figured there would be some sort of line or something for people taking pictures but it was a complete free-for-all. I had always seen pictures of people alone with the sign and now I'm in awe of how they got those. Hilary and I literally waited around for an hour at least and didn't end up getting any good pictures in. We people watched though and that ended up being a lot of fun. The most interesting was a group of 6 guys who thought they were in a boy band doing a photo shoot that was there the entire time. It was pretty entertaining watching all of their various poses.

Once we got bored with watching people take photos with the sign we headed back to Hans' place for dinner, stopping by the grocery store on the way. We're really trying to cut down on our food costs. Dinner was a success and we headed out again to the Red Light District. Our first stop was the Sex Museum. This is literally a museum full of sex themed items from a ton of different cultures and time periods. There were multiple videos throughout and manicans that came to life and didn't things like pretend to ejaculate on you (at least I'm hoping that was water...) and have sex with each other. The last room was the S&M room. Beyond interesting to say the least. Most of the pictures made me cringe with pain. I get S&M to a point, but the intensive piercing and pulling and other ways of inflicting pain doesn't really register with me. To each their own I guess...

It was now on to the heart of the Red Light District. Not knowing what to expect, it didn't disappoint. There were people and lights everywhere. I could smell and taste weed everywhere I went and there were people on alcohol and drugs all over. I knew there would be women in the windows but it is a really interesting sight to see just rows and rows of girls standing in their underwear trying to get men to come in and have sex with them for around 40 euros (I found out the price from our random military friend on the train I'll be talking about later).

There were girls of all shapes and colors: young, old, skinny, fat, short, tall, glasses, tattoos, girls dressed up as nurses, etc... Most of them were at the window dancing to music that was inside their room. Some of them would be smoking or talking/texting on their phone or talking to each other. Every once in a while the girls would even tap on the windows as men walked by that they thought would be interested. For the most part these women were really attractive and as Hilary put it "Some of them look really nice. I feel like if they had clothes on I could have a conversation with them!" I don't know what I was expecting but they were surprisingly normal looking.

The red light district is in the middle of a bunch of really pretty canals and streets; a pretty contradictory background to a place known for it's sex and drugs. We had a really good time walking around and taking it all in. After we had our fill of the District we headed back to Hans'. It was another early morning to go to Alkmaar and see a traditional cheese market. Hilary is really into cheese so she was super excited about this day trip and I was excited to get out of the main city and explore a smaller town. Amsterdam is nice but there isn't much to do during the night except a bunch of museums neither Hilary nor I were interested in paying to go see.