Amsterdam - the trip
I finally took time to get out of coutry even if for a moment.
We decided that my new passport should be celebrated and that it would be best done by utilising said passport. So Mary, me and our friend Sergey took a 3 day trip to Amsterdam. Here's my short report about it.
We left our house at around 10.15. It was a sunny day so we had high hopes.
From us it's almost 1-30 to the airport on bus where we met Sergey. We had a drink and the usual tour in duty free and moved on to the plane.
In another 1-30 we already landed in Amsterdam. And man, the weather was totally not cool. Notably colder and with a heavy rain. We took a wrong train from the airport like morons, wich led us in the opposite direction from Amsterdam central and resulted in us arriving to destination an hour later then we planned. In our defence I want to day that platform service guys didn't give us correct advice plus most of train information isn't doubled in english even on the airport station. But it was a minor thing anyway. Trains themselves are comfy and fast.
..sample of weather
..part of train
There's not much to do in the train except for enjoying the scenery. Despite the rain it was immedately obvious that the country is beautiful. There were 3 things to note - carefully preserved or built in traditional style houses, canals everywhere and OVERWHELMING amount of bykes. Pretty much you will see 1, 2 or all 3 things in most shots I made in Amsterdam. And I'm sorry in advance for some blurry images - I got tired of removing raindrops from the lens.
..our destination - Amsterdam central train station (in the background)
We checked into our apartment after arrival. After that we were free to roam the city.
It was rather late - around 19 - so museums were out of the question. So we decided to just walk around the city center since all the nigh lights were on and every city looks different in the night. Again despite heavy rain we spent quite a long time on foot walking the streets of the red light districts and surrounding areas. Amsterdam definitely looks more lively in the evening. Tourists everywhere, pubs, restaraunts and coffee shops fully booked, "the ladies" looking apprasingly at you from their red lighted windows. However it's doesn't feel too loud or too overcrouded for some reason. And the city is very beautiful with those lights. Even more so if you take into account the canals because is something can make light look better - it's water.
When we sufficiently exhousted ourselves - we took a break in the Bulldog coffee shop. It's a chain of establishments residing in former police station buildings (ironic). I got a really nice looking grinder there + other relevant things.
Eventually though the munchies hit us and we finished evening in a very nice argentinian steakhouse (I've seen loads of them around the city but they are not a chain - all separate establishments).
Day 2 didn't grace us with better weather. Still we decided to go museuming like all good tourists do and we started with Van Gough museum. Passing on our way Ruik museum and the famous "I amsterdam" installation. The line to museum was no less memorable then museum itself.
Inside it's very pleasant though. Museum has the biggest collection of Van Gough paintings and letters and exposition follows his life presenting his works alongside the works of his close friends and followers. It's a very good place to visit if you like art but I advise to book your ticket on-line - these have special admittance line so you won't have to wait for so long.
This museum hustle took literally no less then half of our day. So we moved out for another walk, finally gave up because of insane rain and took a break in a very nice all you can eat japanese place. Very nice quality, very good price. Overall I shoud note that food here is really good regardless of how high you are at the moment. Also it is surprisingly cheap. I have only Ireland and France to compare with but in Amsterdam food is literally twice cheaper. Also the choice is great. You will find every cuisine you want and there are lots of take aways and fast food places too. I've seen like the best possible hot dog in Amsterdam - with several kinds of sausage, ham, chicken and a lot of cheese. Definitely tailored for munchies!
And so it went on - walking - break in the shop - walking - coffee shop - walking - museum. Weather really hindered our movement making it a lot less pleasant. But overall we still felt good!
On the subject of Feeling Good I want to separately mention drugs and ladies. Both are plentiful.
You won't find heavy stuff (unless you decide to look for shady street merchants), but you can freely but and consume hash, weed, mushrooms. Prices are very fair, stuff is of high quality and coffee shops have nice atmosphere in general (especially if you find the right place).
Sex busyness is also very fair trade. Red lit windows are easy to see from afar. You just have to come up and knock. If the lady likes you - she opens the door for you to talk the prices. If you're happy - you come in and the curtains go down. You have a lot to chose from and ladies are really good looking (and for every taste too).
We finished day 2 in the Sex museum. Not a particularly memorable place, but they have some interesting things there. It's not completely finished yet, so maybe it'll become better in time.
Day 3 finally graced us with sun. It's wasn't entirely kind though. Instead of rain we had gusts of unpleasantly cold wind from time to time. But overall it was a lot better.
I finally had time for a pipe. We checked out and headed to botanic gardens and the zoo. Both completely reasonable choices concidering that you have to see a lot of things under open sky so we just had to use the weather.
In the outcome I should say that it's not the best time of the year for botanic gardens. They have a really nice indoor part of the exposition but everything on the outside just doesn't look so good and it spoils overall impression. Though it might be a very nice place to visit in summer.
The zoo was a lot better. It's rather big and most animals actually were ouside where you can see them. Also they have incectarium, aquarium, terrarium and whole lot of other small ...ums. So if you like animals you will definitely find a corner of this place that you'll love. I think aquarium is my favourite. It is so colorful and quieting. I never thought I can like fish so much.
As a side note - yes - there is Cheburashka in many photos. He's from Mary's work and he was the 4th companion in our trip. Not very lively but always smiling and never a word of complain from him!
As always more pictures are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132542523956153153?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132489226042645105?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132416963014568385?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132488243310314737?banner=pwa - Sexmuseum = NSFW
Enjoy!
We decided that my new passport should be celebrated and that it would be best done by utilising said passport. So Mary, me and our friend Sergey took a 3 day trip to Amsterdam. Here's my short report about it.
We left our house at around 10.15. It was a sunny day so we had high hopes.
From us it's almost 1-30 to the airport on bus where we met Sergey. We had a drink and the usual tour in duty free and moved on to the plane.
In another 1-30 we already landed in Amsterdam. And man, the weather was totally not cool. Notably colder and with a heavy rain. We took a wrong train from the airport like morons, wich led us in the opposite direction from Amsterdam central and resulted in us arriving to destination an hour later then we planned. In our defence I want to day that platform service guys didn't give us correct advice plus most of train information isn't doubled in english even on the airport station. But it was a minor thing anyway. Trains themselves are comfy and fast.
..sample of weather
..part of train
There's not much to do in the train except for enjoying the scenery. Despite the rain it was immedately obvious that the country is beautiful. There were 3 things to note - carefully preserved or built in traditional style houses, canals everywhere and OVERWHELMING amount of bykes. Pretty much you will see 1, 2 or all 3 things in most shots I made in Amsterdam. And I'm sorry in advance for some blurry images - I got tired of removing raindrops from the lens.
..our destination - Amsterdam central train station (in the background)
We checked into our apartment after arrival. After that we were free to roam the city.
It was rather late - around 19 - so museums were out of the question. So we decided to just walk around the city center since all the nigh lights were on and every city looks different in the night. Again despite heavy rain we spent quite a long time on foot walking the streets of the red light districts and surrounding areas. Amsterdam definitely looks more lively in the evening. Tourists everywhere, pubs, restaraunts and coffee shops fully booked, "the ladies" looking apprasingly at you from their red lighted windows. However it's doesn't feel too loud or too overcrouded for some reason. And the city is very beautiful with those lights. Even more so if you take into account the canals because is something can make light look better - it's water.
When we sufficiently exhousted ourselves - we took a break in the Bulldog coffee shop. It's a chain of establishments residing in former police station buildings (ironic). I got a really nice looking grinder there + other relevant things.
Eventually though the munchies hit us and we finished evening in a very nice argentinian steakhouse (I've seen loads of them around the city but they are not a chain - all separate establishments).
Day 2 didn't grace us with better weather. Still we decided to go museuming like all good tourists do and we started with Van Gough museum. Passing on our way Ruik museum and the famous "I amsterdam" installation. The line to museum was no less memorable then museum itself.
Inside it's very pleasant though. Museum has the biggest collection of Van Gough paintings and letters and exposition follows his life presenting his works alongside the works of his close friends and followers. It's a very good place to visit if you like art but I advise to book your ticket on-line - these have special admittance line so you won't have to wait for so long.
This museum hustle took literally no less then half of our day. So we moved out for another walk, finally gave up because of insane rain and took a break in a very nice all you can eat japanese place. Very nice quality, very good price. Overall I shoud note that food here is really good regardless of how high you are at the moment. Also it is surprisingly cheap. I have only Ireland and France to compare with but in Amsterdam food is literally twice cheaper. Also the choice is great. You will find every cuisine you want and there are lots of take aways and fast food places too. I've seen like the best possible hot dog in Amsterdam - with several kinds of sausage, ham, chicken and a lot of cheese. Definitely tailored for munchies!
And so it went on - walking - break in the shop - walking - coffee shop - walking - museum. Weather really hindered our movement making it a lot less pleasant. But overall we still felt good!
On the subject of Feeling Good I want to separately mention drugs and ladies. Both are plentiful.
You won't find heavy stuff (unless you decide to look for shady street merchants), but you can freely but and consume hash, weed, mushrooms. Prices are very fair, stuff is of high quality and coffee shops have nice atmosphere in general (especially if you find the right place).
Sex busyness is also very fair trade. Red lit windows are easy to see from afar. You just have to come up and knock. If the lady likes you - she opens the door for you to talk the prices. If you're happy - you come in and the curtains go down. You have a lot to chose from and ladies are really good looking (and for every taste too).
We finished day 2 in the Sex museum. Not a particularly memorable place, but they have some interesting things there. It's not completely finished yet, so maybe it'll become better in time.
Day 3 finally graced us with sun. It's wasn't entirely kind though. Instead of rain we had gusts of unpleasantly cold wind from time to time. But overall it was a lot better.
I finally had time for a pipe. We checked out and headed to botanic gardens and the zoo. Both completely reasonable choices concidering that you have to see a lot of things under open sky so we just had to use the weather.
In the outcome I should say that it's not the best time of the year for botanic gardens. They have a really nice indoor part of the exposition but everything on the outside just doesn't look so good and it spoils overall impression. Though it might be a very nice place to visit in summer.
The zoo was a lot better. It's rather big and most animals actually were ouside where you can see them. Also they have incectarium, aquarium, terrarium and whole lot of other small ...ums. So if you like animals you will definitely find a corner of this place that you'll love. I think aquarium is my favourite. It is so colorful and quieting. I never thought I can like fish so much.
As a side note - yes - there is Cheburashka in many photos. He's from Mary's work and he was the 4th companion in our trip. Not very lively but always smiling and never a word of complain from him!
As always more pictures are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132542523956153153?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132489226042645105?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132416963014568385?banner=pwa
https://plus.google.com/photos/110544285038158744942/albums/6132488243310314737?banner=pwa - Sexmuseum = NSFW
Enjoy!