Once we stepped off at Amsterdam Centraal, the two of us found the trams and caught the #5 to
Leidseplein. It let us off in the middle of a square, and we had a 10-minute walk ahead of us to our hostel. We made it there by 10:30 a.m., and even though our check-in time wasn't for another 30 minutes, our room was ready, so we paid our money and made our way to the room.
We were on the second floor (but ended up having to take more flights of stairs than that, as registration is up some stairs into the building, a flight of stairs down into the basement, and then up two more flights to the second floor. Since we had been wearing the same outfits for nearly a day, we changed and freshened up, then stashed away our stuff and hit the city by 11 a.m. or so.
We began by wandering a bit and quickly found
Boom Chicago, where we signed up for an underground boat ride with the
St. Nicolaas Boat Club to take place later that afternoon. Then we continued on, winding our way toward the downtown central area, stopping to look in various stores selling kitsch, clothing, and other items. The streets were also decked out in orange, as the Netherlands was set to play its first match in the
World Cup that afternoon.
We stopped for our first official meal at a cute little cafe we found,
Cafe Het Paleis, where we shared a salad, grilled vegetable panini and homemade tomato soup. It was incredibly delicious and made us both feel a bit better (read: not so exhausted). After that, we continued our walk, checking out stores that had been suggested by our tour book and by Rich.
After a sufficient amount of time spent wandering around and finding ourselves completely exhausted, we decided to walk the streets of
Jordaan, but unfortunately it was pretty dead, as most people had closed shop for the game. In fact, all we heard was soccer mania, with people gathered at bars screaming and blowing their orange horns.
Elia stopped soon after to get gelato and as that was happening, Mischa called me, which was an awesome surprise. Life got in the way, as it so often does, and so we were unable to meet up while I was in the area, but he called to check in and make sure I was having an enjoyable trip and offer his own suggestions of things I should either check out or avoid.
Pretty soon, it was nearing time for our ticket reservation for the
Anne Frank House so we headed in. The exhibit was awesome, with actual pages from her diary on display, and more information about her whole story that wasn't included in the book or in the common history. We got to go inside the attic and climb the stairs and see the rooms where they all hid, which made everything so real. Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed in the Anne Frank House, so I guess that just means you'll all have to go see it for yourselves sometime.
After the tour was over, we scrapped our original plan of getting dinner at a speciality vegetarian restaurant later in the evening and went out for Indian, which was delicious, and the service was amazing. Soon after, we headed back over for our boat tour of the city. This boat club is a non-profit group of people who love boats and love the canals and such. They all volunteer to do these tours, the routes of which are decided by the 10-12 people on board who tell the tour guide the parts of town they want to see. So we ended up going on a 75-minute boat to the East side of the city which we hadn't yet explored. We also went under the lowest canal in Amsterdam which required us all to duck, and that was pretty tight.
The city streets of Amsterdam are absolutely gorgeous, and it's a city I could easily fall in love with. Of course, the chaotic amalgamation of bikes and cars and trams and people and all that stuff is a bit fast-paced, but I could get used to it pretty easy, I think. I don't know if I could live there forever, but I definitely wouldn't be opposed to spending a year or two of my life in the city.
