Amsterdam Day 2 - 23rd March 2008

Woke up-930 a.m rushed to the laundry room to get my jeans cleaned. As I was in a rush to get it dried, I reluctantly dump it into the dryer after washing it.

My $180/- LEVIS jeans shrank after it. I was so unhappy but I'd no other alternative. Fortunately with all the walking in the past 3 days, I lost some fats and was able to fit into it.

First stop for the day-Van Gogh Museum! I doubt many of you know him. Seriously, I don't know him prior to the trip. He's Dutch but he spent most of his time away in France & Belgium, in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris and its outskirts. He's a talented artist but he was never recognised when he was alive. He paints and send them to his younger brother who's an Art Dealer. I can't remember the no. of art pieces he did throughout his life but I know it was so much that people were overwhelmed and felt wasted he was never discovered. His sister-in-law was the one who published all his works. Impressive considering the fact that he didn't receive any proper art training.

Another cool museum-Rijh Museum(But I didn't go in.Yet another long queue.)

The museum area-Museum Straat.

There was a freaking long queue when we arrived as though people were queuing to meet some pop star like in Singapore. Anyway, it started snowing again and yeah, videos+photos this time!

Taken when we were queuing outside Van Gogh Museum

One of my fav. art pieces by Van Gogh.

Shopping was next on our itinerary since we didn't shop at all in Copenhagen. Didn't buy much stuff though. After which, we headed to Jordaan. It's a very scenic area in Amsterdam where there were rows of houses from the 16th and 17th century. Peaceful and quiet. I'd say 2nd day was a rather boring one because we've been to the key places and Museums were closed since it was a Sunday.

See the building behind me-It's like the Ngee Ann City in Singapore.

Jordaan Area.Scenic Views, isn't it?The thing we missed is the Tulip Gardens. I think it's closed. :( We were pretty unlucky because the Heineken brewery was closed for RENOVATION as well!! That's like the HIT of AMSTERDAM.

I'd say Amsterdam is really a nice place to be in, to stay etc. The buildings are beautiful and the people are friendly but as a tourist, you don't have to spend much time there because there isn't anything much there to see unless you want to check out the red light district every now and then for "NEW HOT RELEASES" ?

Also, everyone cycles in Amsterdam. You see tons of bicycles. I won't say it's a good city to cycle because the roads are so uneven but it's so small that you want to save on transport.

This is one of main shopping area. Watch the kids playing soccer on the streets! Did van Persie use to do that when he was young too?

Snack vending machine. You see them everywhere in Amsterdam. You can buy burgers, finger food, etc.. I bought a burger here. It was YUMMY! haha.. Another great thing is that you can buy beer and drink it on the streets legally! Kim & I each had Heineken in our hands on the first night as we walked along the streets, where you see the snow angels... Heineken is super cheap. It costs $1.50 per can!

Apparently in most European countries, it's illegal to drink beer on the streets. TO name a few-Stockholm.Copenhagen.Berlin.Munich.Oslo. But of course, people still do it. They just hide their beers away when they see the police. There was once when one of my friends had his beer confiscated on the metro in Stockholm. It was hilarious!

Farewell Amsterdam, Welcome to Munchen!

Amsterdam Day 1-22nd March 2008

Arrival at Amsterdam-1230 hours 2 Amstel Bus Station

Well, like I said earlier on, a series of bad events happened to us on the trip... When we reached the bus station and wanted to book our bus tickets to Munich, to our GREATEST horror EVER, we were informed that the bus to Munich starts operating only on 31st March!

Shit.Stuck.Screwed.

We had already book our train ticket from Munich to Salzburg yet we are now told we can't go to Munich as yet. In the end, we decided to settle into our accomodation first then plan the next step. Off we went to Kim's senior's friend (NUS Arts student on exchange in Amsterdam) hostel since he was away in Paris and his room was empty so we decided to seek accomodation from him.

There, we met one of his neighbour, a French guy from South of France. Here, I need to tell everyone about this.. All the Frenchs have the same characteristic. They like to blow air through their lips when they think. I don't know how to pen it in words exactly but if you want to know, I will demonstrate to you when I am back. It's just hilarious but it makes them look cute too. :) He was very helpful, offering his laptop for us to research on every possible way to get to Munich, searching airlines for us etc..

Interesting feature-France is the only country that has a different keyboard layout with the rest! What I mean is that we always have the letters QWER.. on the first row of letters but they don't! Theirs is AWR.. Blah blah.. I can't remember. So when we were using the computer, we always type the wrong words and had to type like some Computer Idiot. haha.. Now I understand why my french neighbour insisted on shipping a new laptop from Paris when his laptop crashed during the initial days of the SEP. But he's equally proficient in using American-style keyboards too because I have seen him using another guy's laptop occasionally.

We checked out several options from flight to trains etc and in the end, we still stick to our bus and decided to bus to Berlin first and check out cheaper options of travel within Germany. You will be put off if I tell you the price of a train ticket from Amsterdam to Munich. It's 114 EUR pp.! Insane....

After we settled the bus ticket, it was already 4 p.m. I have to say Amsterdam is really a beautiful country. I like their buildings and architecture. It's very OLD SCHOOL and I like those antique stuff. But the city is rather over-populated (WITH TOURISTS!) and it indeed is very westernized.

Central Train Station-Amsterdam

On the trains-Singapore 's trains are much nicer I'd say.

Our first stop was the SEX MUSEUM since it was already evening and most tourist destinations are closing. Hey people, Amsterdam is really the pioneer of Prostitution seriously! We saw tons of display on their culture and how the red light district operated back in the 18th century till now.. Amazing! It was rather boring and after that, we went to the CANAL BOAT TOUR again. haha.. Amsterdam is surrounded by canals so you definitely can't miss it but after having a GO at it, I seriously don't recommend people to go for it. haha..

There are a lot more photos. Get it from me personally. I don't want to post too much. There was no proper guide on the boat and instead, it's just audio commentary. It was aired in 3 different languages, Dutch.English.Spanish as there were a lot of Spanish tourists on boat. The boat was crowded so everyone had limited space to move about lest take photos! A friend of ours from Stockholm told us how his friends and him kept laughing when they went on the canal boat tour because the commentary was in Dutch.German.English and his friends and him from Switzerland understood all 3 languages. So it was like everything was repeated thrice for them! hahaha...

We passed by a few prominent attractions though.

- Science & Technology Museum

- Dutch East India Company Museum

- Skinny Bridge (kheng, does that ring a bell to you? The postcard?)

- Most Narrow bridge

- Anne Frank's house

If you stay in Amsterdam for long, you'll grow fat! haha.. there are a million snack bars and stores along the streets and Kim & I totally kept buying those food. We didn't eat a proper dinner. Those snacks look damn delicious...... The first was FRENCH FRIES or rather Pommes Frites they call it. hahaha.. Sounds like French~~ Then there was the Caramel waffle biscuit! It's damn yummy but sorry people I didn't buy it because it expires before June.

Huge Fries! We told the counter person we wanted something Dutch. She told us she will give us the Dutch Special sauce but actually it was just Mayoniese (I can't spell I realise.)

By nightfall, it started SNOWING and the snow there is different from Stockholm! It's those wet snow which you can make snowman! It was beautiful. You guys will totally love the photos.... The weather is really inconsistent in Amsterdam. It snows and stops and this cycle repeats at least 4 times in 3 hours. haha..

National landmark-Dam Square!

This is one of photos I love best during our 12 days trip.
If I don't remember wrongly, that's the national theatre.Dancing in the Snow!
The legendary Snow Angel.

I was the creator of the snow angel. And...

Kim became the model for the picture because she didn't want to create one herself.

Our last stop for the day was the Red Light District of Amsterdam. We followed the policemen into the streets because we weren't sure how the situation would be like there but to our surprise, it was rather organised and there were tons of tourists, with male dominating though.

If you have a low threshold, don't step in there. You will most probably end up in one of those girls' room honestly. haha. Some of them were in groups inside a house while others are alone. They were all dressed in only their lingerie with those luminous lights-red.green.yellow.orange. lighted in their rooms. They will openly SEDUCE you to enter and get their service. I never see one that didn't look sexy honestly. I mean all of them have DEMON-LIKE FIGURE yet ANGELIC LOOKS.

They should be qualified to become SUPER MODELS but I don't understand how they ended up in those "display windows" which people call it. According to sources, it's 50 EUR for a 20-minute service. haha.. Kim was damn funny. When she heard it, she was like--What? So much money for only 20-minutes? I was like- Kim, how long do you want it to be honestly? hahaha...

I have to say I saw a million guys entering and once they enter, the curtains shall be drawn. There was this guy that was damn hilarious. He had to pass this alley with all those girls in the windows and he was running at the speed of lightning I swear. After he was at the end of the alley, he told his friend he can't resist their temptation if he were to walk slowly through the street. *HILARIOUS*

If you are interested in watching but not being in action personally, you have 2 choices. There was the proper show where you pay 30 EUR and get entry with free flow of drinks or you go for the peep show which costs you 2 EUR per minute. hahaha... The bouncers were soliciting Kim & I all the time telling us not to worry because there are a lot of girls inside watching the show.. Come on, I have better things to do and 30 EUR to watch people perform SEX is definitely not worth it to me! Hahaha... But ended up, we went for the peep show. hahaha.. If you want details, ask me personally and not openly on my blog. I believe there are kids around who read my blog.

But Sorry, NO PHOTOS.

After we head back, we prepared to shower and do some laundry and that's when disaster stroke once again! I bathed first followed by Kim and there was a hot water level for the heater. I think I took too long so ended up when it was kim's turn, the hot water wasn't enough and only cold water flow out from the tap! haha..I swear I didn't mean it because I didn't know about it. The reason why I took so long is that Amsterdam, like London, has a stupid tap feature. There were two taps for hot and cold water so you had to mix the right temperature yourself and it's damn irritating. Often the temperature gets to the extreme. Anyway Kim was like stuck and she couldn't bathe because the water was FREEZINGLY cold! So in the end, I used the traditional method and started boiling hot water for her.

Bad things usually come in threes. I went to the laundry room, put in my jeans and clothes but the washing machine wouldn't start. Instead, it locked my clothes and I couldn't open the door at all!! I turned around and saw a notice- "Laundry Room Opening hours- 10a.m - 9p.m" WTF? That notice only means that I wouldn't be able to take out my clothes until 10a.m the next morning. HELLO! I only had one pair of jeans and it's wet. That means I will have to walk around town in shorts tomorrow? SCREWED BIG TIME....

Can't be bothered. Went back to sleep. I was so TIRED. Leave everything to tomorrow.....