Amsterdam

I still remembered clearly how I curled up into a ball and freezing after a long bus ride from Brussels to Amsterdam. Voila! We have finally arrived at the land of sex and drugs (not that we’re into any of them). Because we only booked the hotel a few days ago, the location of it was far away from the city. Somehow or rather, instead of taking public transport to our hotel, my friend and I decided to go hero and rent a bicycle. Mother of god did we make the worst decision of our life… If I recalled correctly, the distance from the city to our hotel equated to an actual distance (different from map distance) of 20km or so. So basically we cycled a total of 40km back and forth everyday. Initially when navigating to our hotel, we somehow ended up cycling on the expressway that invited many vulgarities and middle fingers from passing cars. THEREFORE, NEVER CYCLE ON UNDESIGNATED BIKE WAY.

Joke’s on us

 Regardless of our foolish mistake, renting a bicycle to explore Amsterdam is actually a pretty awesome idea (if you do not stay far away). Not that it’s a bad thing, staying away from the city actually makes you feel like a local. There was this Chinese-owned Dutch restaurant nearby which my friend and I ate there everyday for dinner. It felt homely being able to finally converse with someone in mandarin.

Besides being famous for its legalization of drugs and prostitution, Amsterdam boasts a variety of museums worth taking a look. The first museum we visited was the Rijksmuseum that we took pretty long in navigating there. Come to think of it, we were pretty good considering navigating without a GPS but a map only. The Rijksmuseum consists of mainly paintings of people from the 19^th century onwards.

The second museum that we visited was the red light district museum (don’t judge). A small shop house along the streets in Amsterdam, the red light district museum consists of pictures and objects depicting the stories and culture of prostitutes and how they entered into this business. Majority of them are being scammed to work here on the false pretense of a decent job being offered to them initially. As the pictures contain nudity, I will not pose pictures related to the Red Light District Museum. Should you feel the urge to know more, feel free to browse my Facebook photo albums or Google it.

For those who want to venture into more stimulating products such as marijuana or space cake, from what I’ve learned from the locals is that many shops claim that the space cakes that they sell are authentic. One way to find out is to look at the back of the product and search for the statement “Contains THC”.