Austrians in Amsterdam

 

Sorry for my late post but I have been in Amsterdam over New Year and that’s the topic I want to talk about today. Amsterdam, a city where different cultures, different walks of life and lots of different countries meet. I was a little bit skeptical and afraid before the journey because I heard some rumors that Amsterdam shouldn’t be the safest city in Europe. Armed with my secret purse and the uncomfortable feeling that someone will pinch my stuff we started our first city tour. Our first destination was the Amsterdam dungeon and it scared the hell out of me. In the view of the fact that live actors chased me, a liver landed in my  face and I almost got a heart attack because of all the sneaky little tricks I am glad that I survived that place of horror. Afterwards we explored the Anne Frank museum. As I study history, the house was one of my highlights of the journey. Inside you could visit all the original scenes and could have a look at Anne Frank’s diary, you maybe have heard about. Knackered from the museums and our quick walk through the city we went back to our hotel which was located 11 km outside Amsterdam. The next day we visited a museum called Body worlds. Undoubtedly I have never seen something nastier than that. The museum exhibit dead bodies without a skin, so you can see all the muscles and internal organs. On the one had it was really fascinating and interesting to see what is happening inside of your body but on the other hand you were looking at corpses. This exhibition is definitely not made for everybody. Later we had a delicious Dutch lunch called “Krokets”. You can compare it to our croquettes but the Dutch ones have a stuffing inside. Once we have totally overeaten ourselves we took the Metro to the biggest soccer stadium called “Bijlmer Arena”. It is the home of the most famous Dutch soccer team Ajax Amsterdam. On the ground that I am a big soccer fan, I really enjoyed the tour and the fascination stories I heard about Ajax and its history. Later on we went to the famous Red light district. The boys of our group were wide-eyed. You won’t believe me but there were shop windows with prostitutes everywhere. That was the first time that I felt unsecure.  This is probably an area you should avoid late at night. As we exited the district we saw the first drug dealer. That’s nothing special for Amsterdam but still kind of strange. Speaking of drugs, there are Coffeeshops as far as the eye can reach and as a result the whole city smells like them. First it is kind of pungent but with the time you get used to it. For me that was one of the down sides of Amsterdam.  One of the positive sides of the city is its architecture. Even if most of the houses are crooked they look really cute and are painted with hundreds of colours. Additionally all the bridges and rivers give the city a romantic and historic touch. Talking about historical the royal palace is probably one of the oldest buildings in Amsterdam and at its courtyard we spent New Year’s Eve. I have never seen such a big crowd of people before, as well as different cultures at one places. For instance, there were people from Italy, South Korea, France, Japan and England standing next to me. That was a great moment for all of us. At midnight the Dutch started a firework but not a small one. It lasted for one whole hour. Isn’t that unbelievable? After the firework we wanted to go back to the hotel with a Taxi. Unfortunately 1456 other people had the same idea and we had to wait for 2 ½ hours to finally get one. By that time we resembled ice blocks. As soon as we arrived at the hotel we fell asleep. The next day my friends and I yet again had to leave this beautiful ancient city.  This journey had definitely been one of the best holidays in my life and I can’t wait to visit this fascinating city again and explore different parts and places of Amsterdam.