I Amsterdam

The trip from the past weekend was a class trip to Amsterdam. The week proceeding was relatively uneventful. We are settling in nicely in Lille after our first month here. A few of the students have joined a French studio class. I decided not to because the class takes place on Thursdays and I have already committed to traveling on several Thursdays for the remainder of my stay in France.

It was hard to find a decent hostel in the center of Amsterdam as they were all booked full. I managed to find a small family owned hotel (it was a hostel but they didn’t want to admit it) for a decent price. The best part is that it was just a five minute walk from the train station. We left for Amsterdam Friday morning and arrived Friday evening. On the way, we stopped in Antwerp to change trains and got to see a marvelous train station. The Antwerp Central Station was marvelously decorated and rebuilt with a respectful modern touch. After arriving in Amsterdam we walked around the city a bit, exploring the canals and what not before going our separate ways to find our hostels. Interestingly, it turns out that Amsterdam’s Red Light District is right by the train station. They clearly don’t waste any time before throwing hookers and weed at you. I was surprised to find how tourist oriented the “Red Light District” was. There were many touristy novelty shops with hats and t-shirts and children were not an uncommon site. As one might expect, the smell of pot was prevalent in the air.

After checking into our hotel we ventured off to find something to eat. After a bit of indecisive debating, we settled on a rather expensive restaurant. The food was very good, and was probably the closest I would get to authentic Dutch cuisine. I had pork medallions with a mushroom sauce that was delicious. After dinner we retired early that evening to prepare for a long next day. Saturday the class gathered outside of the train station and spent the day exploring the more obscure corners of Amsterdam. We visited an office building built on an old crane platform, a public recreation center, houses built on water, and a rather depressing student housing complex made out of storage containers…behind a prison. After the tour was finished I had dinner at a place called Burger Bar that was supposed to have the best burgers in Europe. After dinner I went to a mellow pub and had a beer that was brewed in the Red Light District. 

Sunday was my last day in Amsterdam, so I did some exploring on my own before my train left. I traveled to the zoo and botanical gardens in Amsterdam but I didn’t visit either of them because the price was too high. I traveled around until I found an English language book store where I bought a book on traveling to Ireland, so I begin planning now. I then got lost for about an hour because I thought I was traveling north but it was actually west. I made my way north to the Amsterdam public library and went to the top floor to get a good view of the city. After that I headed back to the station and waited for my train back to Lille.

Amsterdam was an interesting city, but I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I feel that the city’s character is being lost to the tourism industry. People really only travel to Amsterdam to buy legal pot and prostitutes anymore.