When in Amsterdam...

April 9, 2010

We got up and to the train station in time to catch a 9:15 train to Alkmaar - we are getting way better at being on time to things. The train ride there was pretty short and we were at the market around 10. The day was gorgeous which was really lucky of us since it was supposed to rain all day and we'd had 2 previously really nice days outside. The weather in Holland usually isn't this good so apparently we brought the sunshine with us, yay!

When we got to the market it was lined with people. Alkmaar is a big tourist destination because it is apparently one of four places that still have original cheese markets from the 1500s. There were people dressed up in original dutch outfits, wooden shoes included. At the center of the market there were rows and rows of cheese that was being weighed, loaded into carts, and then taken away to be shipped off around the world. You'll have to look at my pictures on facebook to get an idea of how everything worked. There is no way I could accurately describe it here. It was a lot of fun to watch though. During the market there were people selling cheese for 10 euros in cute little bags. We had no idea what type of cheese was in the bag or how much but Hilary and I decided cheese from an original market was worth 10 euros. We split the bag and found out that they actually gave us a lot of really good cheese. our plan is to just buy baguettes from here on out and we can eat our baguettes and cheese for at least one meal a day for a couple weeks. I'm excited for the tasty cheapness!

After the cheese market we walked along a bunch of vendors lining the streets. Other than the bags we bought, the cheese market doesn't sell the cheese. The whole thing is put on as a show for tourists. The vendors sell lots of cheese though, lots of delicious cheese. Hilary and I went from booth to booth trying all of the cheese. It was a very filling lunch, haha. I honestly have never tasted so many cheese in my life. I was surprised in everything that I tried there were only 2 that I didn't like. They of course were the last two I tried though which left a bad taste in my mouth.

Once we got our cheese fill we headed out to just wander the the town. We're getting really good at just wandering places, getting lost and then trying to figure out how to get back. It's a lot of fun to get lost in a random town. I enjoy getting outside the center and seeing the parts of the town that locals hang out in. We found a cafe eventually and got some bitterballens and beer, a local favorite. Essentially bitterballens are just meat and some potatoe-like substance rolled into a ball and friend. Yum. We had Amstel with it since that is the local beer that is everywhere. Tip: bad beer is still bad in it's original country.

It was around 2pm by this time so we decided to head back to Amsterdam and see the Red Light District during the day. First we stopped by the I AMsterdam sign again to see if we could get better pictures. This trip was much more successful. It took a long time but we got the shots we wanted finally. We also ran into a woman we had seen at the Sex Museum the day before. She had asked us to take a picture of her on a big statue of a fake penis and then she returned the favor for us. It was great running into her again and taking pictures of each other once again. We were there to help each other out. Turns out she is from the air force and stationed in Germany. Very cool.

Next stop was the District. We walked around for awhile and it essentially looked the same during the day just without all the lights and drunk/high people. There were still women in some of the windows. I'm not sure if they have a system of where and when they put the girls, but these girls would be equivalent to new hires at the bottom of the totem pole I'm guessing. Maybe the newbies have to do early hours? Or maybe it is cheaper to rent out those booths in the daytime? Who knows, but I don't feel like they get as much business when the sun is out and people's minds aren't completely clouded.

Alright, here comes the part where I probably shouldn't be writing about these things on a blog that my family is reading. But we're in Amsterdam and everything is legal here. We are young and should be able to take advantage of the things this country allows, legally. So we did. Nothing dangerous or stupid. Although we went into an energy shop cause Hilary wanted to try some pills and the lady there was pushing us really hard on taking mushrooms. Now I've seen people on mushrooms and I don't know if I just caught them on a bad trip or what, but I've never had to urge to do them after seeing the things they did. We passed on the mushrooms and the pills they offered were slightly expensive and as much as it would be fun to experiment I'm not about to shell out the money for something I don't know the side effects of. All I was trying to do was have a brownie while there. When in Amsterdam...

We found a coffee shop here. Just for your knowledge: the energy shops sell mushrooms and pills, the coffee shops sell week, and the cafe's sell actual coffee. You have to be aware of the sign outside and make sure you are walking in to the right establishment. I saw a couple people walk into a coffee shop that wanted cafe's and they were a little surprised, ha. Anyways, we found a shop that had reasonable prices and got our brownies. They were for later in the night so we put them away and went off to find food.

At the pub we stopped at for food there was an Englishman sitting next to us probably in his late 40s. He struck up a convo with us and ended up talking to mainly Hilary for about an hour. I wasn't too interested in him and Hilary was sitting directly next to him so she got stuck with having to humor him. I don't think he was homeless or anything but there was definitely something off about him. He wasn't dangerous or anything like that. I think he was just more lonely and got excited that two girls who spoke english were talking to him. I couldn't even tell you what he talked about most of the conversation as he either didn't make sense or I tuned him out. But he ended in trying to get us to go smoke with him saying, "Smoking isn't fun alone. I know a place across the street we can get a room upstairs. We'll just hang out and from there I'm not saying anything else would happen..." Uhh, ha, pass, thanks creepy dude. We got up and left pretty quickly after that.

The beauty of the Red Light District is you can walk up and down the same streets and not realize they are the same because there are so many people and things that change. Hilary and I did this for a while much like we did the night before. It's amazing how much time you can waste just laughing at and enjoying the people around you. Eventually we stumbled upon an I AMsterdam sign. We had no idea there were two of them. This definitely wasn't the same one we had taken pictures at during the day. No one had every told us there were two signs. We hung out at the sign for awhile and ate our brownies. Poor Hilary did not enjoy the taste of it at all and looked like she was going to get sick. But she sucked it up and ate the whole thing. As we were hanging out at the I AMsterdam sign eating brownies we also got the pleasure of seeing at least 10 men relieve themselves. There were these urinals right in front of the sign that resembled outhouses but instead didnt have walls but just four areas to pee, one on each side (it was a square) and then walls that protected either side of the person. But their entire backside was revealed to everyone so you literally could just sit there and watch people pee. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this invention but I will say boys have do have it way easier in this area and that is a prime example of why.

Our next stop will probably not surprise most of my close friends but I was surprised Hilary did this with me. As I said before we had a very "why not, we're in Amsterdam" mentality here so we decided to get tickets to a live sex show. Yep. People on stage having sex. Us in the audience. Sweet. I was expected to walk in to this place and see a bunch of gross old men standing around tables smoking and drinking staring at the naked girls on stage. Not at all what it was. Turned out to be sort of a mini-theater. It actually reminded me of what a small high school auditorium would look like if you went to see one of their plays.

We sat down in a rown next to a couple and a couple minutes later the music started and out came a couple. It gets pretty graphic from here so if you want to know details shoot me an email or I'll tell you about it when I get back. It was an enlightening experience though, that's for sure. I'm just glad I didn't have to sit next to a guy who decided he wanted to get off from the show. Numerous times the bouncer guy had to come and shine lights on guys and tell them to put it away. It was awkward knowing that most of the guys around you were attempting to masturbate in the same room as you. That was weirder than the actual live sex going on in front of me to be honest. There were a lot of girls that came to the show though so we weren't out of place at all at least. During the show the brownies kicked in and Hilary said she was feeling pretty good. I could feel it a little but I think I have a natural tolerance or something cause it never hit me that hard

The show was on a rotating schedule so different people would come out and do different acts. There were individual shows and couple shows. The individual shows were pretty comical and included audience participation where they did some pretty disgusting things. I can't imagine doing the stuff random people out of the audience had to do onstage - good lord. The couples were pretty much just straight sex. It was really choreographed though and most of the people seemed almost bored. It's weird how Amsterdam almost seems to take the fun out of sex. Between the shows and the prostitutes the whole town is on sex overdrive that most of them probably don't even enjoy it anymore. I really wish I knew someone in the industry I could ask to see if they still enjoy sex outside of performing. I also think it's amazing that the guys could stay hard when they are performing for about 10-15 minutes every hour over the entire night. They've got to be on some pill or something...

Anyways, enough of the sex talk. :) After the show we headed back to Hans' place to attempt to get some sleep before our train in the morning to Switzerland.