Amsterdam, day 1 (Thursday)

We arrived in Amsterdam, got our suitcases quite fast and went to get a train. It’s so weird that I had to buy a ticket since normally I have a chipcard that let’s me travel for free. Anyways, we managed to get into the train just before it left and I must say that I really missed those Dutch trains! No, not really actually. Anyway it was quite a sunny day and as soon as we arrived in Amsterdam Centraal we went to the tourist information. We got a map and a Amsterdam Card which lets you use the public transport for free and gives you free access to many sightseeing things. We initially thought 24 hours would be enough, but we changed our mind and asked for the 48 hours card.. The look on the face of the woman who was helping us told me that she was not happy at all that we changed our mind.. Imagine! She had to put a booklet back and get a new one! This never happened to me in Finland, it just took me about an hour in Amsterdam, the Dutch certainly are not as nice as the Fins!

Anyway, we took the tram to our Hostel, I thought it would be about 4 stops but in the end it was only one, so we had to go back. We arrived and had to pay cash, so we headed to Albert Heijn, bought some food and got money and got back. Our room was very very small but it was okay and the bed was nice too.

We quickly looked into our guide and found out that almost all museums close at 6, which is really stupid, and it already was 5! But we found a boat trip that we could still take and decided to go on there 🙂 It was quite beautiful, I have never seen Amsterdam like this (or I just didn’t notice).

Afterwards we got back to the hostel, showered and I wanted to get some Dutch food (Frikandel speciaal) to show Jo, and ofcourse because I like it.. I thought it would be easy to find a “normal Dutch” snackbar where you can sit, but we only found Take-Away stuff or Kebab places.. We walked for more than an hour and saw the whole city but didn’t find what I was looking for. Eventually we just went into a kebab thing and had a “frietje kapsalon” (fries, kebab, with grilled cheese on top, then garlic sauce and salad). It was delicious.

On our “way back” we saw this awesome small Irish Pub where a band was playing so we got in and drank something and enjoyed the music. We were both so tired we almost fell asleep. We wanted to see “De Wallen” (the place where all the hookers are) and walked there, and just when we arrived it started raining and hailing and we got soaked and got home as fast as possible. The hookers were not interesting after all, they just stood there bored, texting or staring.