Thursday, August 03, 2006
amsterDAM!
Righto finally a post with photo's! Found a nice net cafe which although charges a little more actually have computers that at least have the specs to run XP properly.
Anyway as you all know our merry band of five flew off to Amsterdam Friday after work.
In tow were myself, Mike, Greg, Amelia and Margaret...oh yeah our guide Olga or something..her name doesn't really matter...
Now I know when I first mentioned this trip I mainly focused on the commonly held stereotypes that people mostly think of when someone mentions Amsterdam, after visiting however I've come to realise if anything those stereotypes are completely underated
CANALS, COFFEE SHOPS, BICYCLES AND HOOKERS as far as the eye can see!!!..
and the nose can smell...
Ok that might be a slight exageration, but only slight mind you
Anyway here's a canal
And here's a "coffee shop"
And here's a bicycle
And here's a hooker
...well actually its me with shorts on..it was very very frowned upon to take photos of the "window girls", but for a mental image its very much like my red light photo I posted earlier, except there are like a couple of hundred windows and the ladies could in a lot of instances be fashion models
Well we arrived pretty close to midnight on the Friday night after a reasonably uneventful and ridiculusly short flight. The girls all decided to hit the sack (no offense mike), while me and Greg wandered into town for a bit of a look, after a couple of beers we walked randomly around town taking in the sights..after about three hours of still failing to "accidentally"stumble into the red light district we got hungry, and had a nice traditional Dutch meal of...well..McDonalds.
The next morning refreshed after about 3 hours sleep we endeavoured to head to the Rijksmuseum to see some of Rembrandt's work...10 minutes into that idea tiredness took over and I slept for a couple more hours. Instead woke up a little later and thanks to some of my friends at www.thesilverfern.com I was already armed with a map to a pub in Amsterdam that would be playing the rugby. After an unusual but not at all bad Dutch breakfast of bread, meat, cheese and yoghurt, we took off to "Coco's outback Pub" stopping only to give directions to other kiwis wandering around lost in their all black tops..and of course stopping to take afew thousand canal photo's.
Next to the pub was a 3D sculpture of Rembrandts' most famous work "The Nightwatch",
After the game we decided to hit the Van Gough museum, which I suppose would normally be fairly interesting but unfortunately I was so tired from the night before I pretty much sleep walked through it, and the three of us guys after leaving the museum found a nice paddling pool to sleep by.
After our mid afternoon kip we headed for a canal cruise, which was pretty interesting,
though I think this was all really just biding time for our night exploits visiting the Red Light District.
We headed back to the hostel to change, have afew beers...and 4 shots of 160 proof absinth each that our friendly American room mate left us.
Where Greg and I despite our best efforts the previous night could not get anywhere close to stumbling into The District, Amelia however not only knew exactly which direction it was but also the exact tram to take..and those tram timetables are in dutch...so that girls really got a gift.
Now its a real shame that I didn't take my camera out to the Red Light District, and not just because it'd be funny to you guys hearing about me getting beaten up by a gang of prostitutes who don't like having their photo's taken, but rather some of the stuff you see out there really can't be adequately explained with words.
First of all there is a misconception that the Red Light District is just a really seedy area, with prostitutes dancing in the windows enticing seedy men who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
In reality however, the Red Light District is just a really big party type atmosphere, with very attractive prostitutes dancing in windows enticing both men and ladies who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
So yeah similar except, for a couple of distinct points
*Not really that seedy
*Plenty of woman around also"partaking" in Amsterdamian entertainment
After doing a couple of "laps" of the main red light area, taking in the sights, we decided to take in a show, at a place called "Moulon Rouge", it cost us 25 euro each, though I did manage to get three large beers and a diet coke inside for only 4 euros total as the bar lady screwed up my change. Anyway the show was pretty explicit though explicit in a public place while quite drunk is actually more comedic than erotic..especially when the stripper asked for a volunteer from the audience....
But that will have to wait till my next post as I am bloody hungry and its late
Anyway as you all know our merry band of five flew off to Amsterdam Friday after work.
In tow were myself, Mike, Greg, Amelia and Margaret...oh yeah our guide Olga or something..her name doesn't really matter...
Now I know when I first mentioned this trip I mainly focused on the commonly held stereotypes that people mostly think of when someone mentions Amsterdam, after visiting however I've come to realise if anything those stereotypes are completely underated
CANALS, COFFEE SHOPS, BICYCLES AND HOOKERS as far as the eye can see!!!..
and the nose can smell...
Ok that might be a slight exageration, but only slight mind you
Anyway here's a canal
And here's a "coffee shop"
And here's a bicycle
And here's a hooker
...well actually its me with shorts on..it was very very frowned upon to take photos of the "window girls", but for a mental image its very much like my red light photo I posted earlier, except there are like a couple of hundred windows and the ladies could in a lot of instances be fashion models
Well we arrived pretty close to midnight on the Friday night after a reasonably uneventful and ridiculusly short flight. The girls all decided to hit the sack (no offense mike), while me and Greg wandered into town for a bit of a look, after a couple of beers we walked randomly around town taking in the sights..after about three hours of still failing to "accidentally"stumble into the red light district we got hungry, and had a nice traditional Dutch meal of...well..McDonalds.
The next morning refreshed after about 3 hours sleep we endeavoured to head to the Rijksmuseum to see some of Rembrandt's work...10 minutes into that idea tiredness took over and I slept for a couple more hours. Instead woke up a little later and thanks to some of my friends at www.thesilverfern.com I was already armed with a map to a pub in Amsterdam that would be playing the rugby. After an unusual but not at all bad Dutch breakfast of bread, meat, cheese and yoghurt, we took off to "Coco's outback Pub" stopping only to give directions to other kiwis wandering around lost in their all black tops..and of course stopping to take afew thousand canal photo's.
Next to the pub was a 3D sculpture of Rembrandts' most famous work "The Nightwatch",
After the game we decided to hit the Van Gough museum, which I suppose would normally be fairly interesting but unfortunately I was so tired from the night before I pretty much sleep walked through it, and the three of us guys after leaving the museum found a nice paddling pool to sleep by.
After our mid afternoon kip we headed for a canal cruise, which was pretty interesting,
though I think this was all really just biding time for our night exploits visiting the Red Light District.
We headed back to the hostel to change, have afew beers...and 4 shots of 160 proof absinth each that our friendly American room mate left us.
Where Greg and I despite our best efforts the previous night could not get anywhere close to stumbling into The District, Amelia however not only knew exactly which direction it was but also the exact tram to take..and those tram timetables are in dutch...so that girls really got a gift.
Now its a real shame that I didn't take my camera out to the Red Light District, and not just because it'd be funny to you guys hearing about me getting beaten up by a gang of prostitutes who don't like having their photo's taken, but rather some of the stuff you see out there really can't be adequately explained with words.
First of all there is a misconception that the Red Light District is just a really seedy area, with prostitutes dancing in the windows enticing seedy men who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
In reality however, the Red Light District is just a really big party type atmosphere, with very attractive prostitutes dancing in windows enticing both men and ladies who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
So yeah similar except, for a couple of distinct points
*Not really that seedy
*Plenty of woman around also"partaking" in Amsterdamian entertainment
After doing a couple of "laps" of the main red light area, taking in the sights, we decided to take in a show, at a place called "Moulon Rouge", it cost us 25 euro each, though I did manage to get three large beers and a diet coke inside for only 4 euros total as the bar lady screwed up my change. Anyway the show was pretty explicit though explicit in a public place while quite drunk is actually more comedic than erotic..especially when the stripper asked for a volunteer from the audience....
But that will have to wait till my next post as I am bloody hungry and its late
