What Happens In Amsterdam, Stays In Amsterdam, Because You Don’t Remember!

I, as usual, slept the entire train ride to Amsterdam. Departing the train I easily found my hostel and, well, did what one does when they first arrive in Amsterdam, get a beer. In a cozy pub named “Durty Nelly’s” I had a couple beers and headed out to see what Amsterdam was all about. I went directly to the nearest bike rental place, found a bike, and just started riding along the many canals. I made my way to the Amsterdam Historical Museum, thinking this would be a good idea to begin my travels in Amsterdam with a little history lesson seeing as how all I had ever known about Amsterdam is that drugs are legal, prostitution is legal, and pretty much anything goes. I had a good a plan for my time here… see all the history, museums, and sights by day, and party hard at night. From the historical museum, which was very informative and slightly boring I made my way to The Anne Frank House.

I will never be the same person again. I had not anticipated in the slightest how emotional of an experience this was going to be. The tour of the house takes around one hour to complete.


Starting on the ground floor and working your way up to the fourth floor, all the while reading quotes from her diary, seeing artifacts from the house, and watching videos from the people who lived with her, her father, and one of her friends. There are also pictures from the concentration camps. At the very end of the tour there is a video of her father talking about his daughter and how it was always her dream to be a published writer, but how it took him so long to even open her diary let alone allow it to be printed. I was a mess. Choking back the tears I left the house, got on my bike, and continued along the canals.



All I could think about while riding was a quote that was written on one of the walls in the house that really affected me. The young girl wrote that sometimes she would look out the window through a tiny crack in the blinds and see children riding bikes, playing, and just being free. She continued that she dreamed of the day that she could be one of those children. All I could think was how sad it was that she never got the chance, and here I was doing something that every day in my life I have taken for granted. To say I am a changed person is an understatement, and just writing about it now, the tears are returning to my eyes. I returned the bike and headed back to my hostel to relax a bit. Laying on my bed I reflected on the experience I just had. It was a very heavy experience, but an absolutely wonderful one. After a short nap I headed out to grab something to eat and have a couple beers before calling it an early night so I would be ready for a full day of museums and history. That didn’t happen. Sitting at the bar in Durty Nelly’s I noticed a group of about six girls sitting nearby having a great time. The group of six turned out to be fifteen girls and three guys. I joined them only to find out they were taking advantage of the free shots from ten to eleven that began their pub crawl. Needless to say, my early night turned into me joining the pub crawl. It was awesome. Fifteen Euros for unlimited shots from ten to eleven, and two drinks at each of the three pubs and two clubs we would stop at. The group we had was fantastic and everyone had a great time. Even the guy leading the pub crawl had a great time.


I headed back to me hostel around three and failing to find the light in my bathroom to find the toilet proceeded to pee my pants. All I could do was laugh, for I was in Amsterdam and somehow convinced myself this was totally normal and acceptable. Somehow, I think I may have been right. Next morning I did the laundry I had intended on doing in Edinburgh, and waited in a nearby coffee house for it to finish. After taking care of the laundry I headed out for the Rembrandt House.


This museum, in the house that Rembrandt actually lived in was superb. The included audio takes you on a tour of the house decorated almost exactly how he had it and adorned with hundreds of his original pieces. From there I stopped at another coffee house and made my way to Foam which is a photography museum.

Here the mostly photographic art was accompanied by video art and musical art. From there I headed to yet another coffee house and headed for my last museum stop of the day, Van Gogh.







I spent almost three hours in the Van Gogh museum which houses about 85 or 90 percent of his work, starting chronologically from his very first paintings. It was amazing to see the progression of his art over the ten years that he produced thousands of pieces. After the trio of museums I took a stroll through the red light district which was, well, the red light district. Ironically the red light district is situated concentrically around the oldest church in Amsterdam, which is quite beautiful I might add. Back at the hostel, I took a much needed nap, ate, and decided that since I had not had my early night the night before I would make tonight my early night. Once again, that didn’t happen. I again headed to good ol’ Durty Nelly’s for a pint before bed and the guy who leads the pub crawl, Steve from Philly, asked me if I was back for round two. I told him I was going to make it an early night. He said if I did it that night he would only charge me ten Euros and make sure to take care of me. I thanked him for the offer but told him I should take it easy. Next thing you know he came over to inform me that once again he had a around 14 girls going this night, and once again I slapped on my bracelet and joined the pub crawl. Talking with Steve for awhile he told me that the pub crawl from the night before was by far one of the best he has ever lead, and that it would be hard to top. I told him I would do my best.



Again, a great time was had by all and by the time we reached the last club our group had somehow grown from 17 to 24. The last club we went to closed around 4:30 which meant I didn’t make it to sleep till five, but I did manage to make it to bed without incident which was nice. Next morning I was up somehow at ten and made my way to the train station to hop on a train to Belgium. Next stop Bruges.