Last night was awful. Though the day was really warm, the night cooled off very quickly. Outside of the city where we were was even colder. We weren’t really prepared to camp, we just saw the weather was supposed to be warm and that we were going to sleep in a hut-like thing and figured we would be fine. Man, were we wrong. Here is what are beds were like:
No blankets...also there was no heater in the hut. The insulation wasn’t very good either because it was pretty much the same temperature as the outside...which probably got down to 40 or 50 degrees. I ended up sleeping (or at least trying to) with two t-shirts, a long-sleeved jean shirt, a polo and my fleece curled up in a ball. We didn’t bring coats because it was supposed to be warm! I know this is all our fault but man, it was pretty rough.
We all woke up still shivering and exhausted since we barely slept. We then all took warm showers which interestingly enough you had to buy special coins to use! Ya, I know what luck...otherwise I would have stayed in there for hours.
Finding another hostel
We got up early not just because we couldn’t really sleep but also because we needed to find a hostel for the next night since every place we checked beforehand for Saturday night was either full or full for reservations (but had a little space left for walk-ins). We were planning on asking the if the Bostel had open spaces but changed our minds based on how the previous night went! Once we were downtown again, we went straight to Bob’s Youth Hostel since we called them a few days before to put in a reservation there but they were full except for some places for walk-ins. We were able to get five spots. They were in three different rooms but didn’t matter to us all...we were just glad to find a warm bed! I then took another shower...a long, hot one! It was great because afterward I was so warm that I started wearing only two shirts and a fleece!
Marijuana Museum
Gabriel and I went to the Marijuana Museum (the others didn’t want to go). I don’t really know much about drugs so it was pretty interesting. They had a display about smuggling that was pretty cool. It showed some of the things that people have done to smuggle drugs (and probably still do). Here are some pictures of their methods!
There was also stuff about medical marijuana and drug policy (mainly comparing the Netherlands with the U.S.) which I found the most interesting.
I don’t know if these stats are legit but they are disturbing!
One thing that was really confusing was this:
I’m not really sure how you tax something that is illegal...
They also had marijuana growing in the back. After long and hard consideration I decided to not put the picture of me standing in front of the glass outside the room (you couldn’t go in but could take pictures). I thought about putting a disclaimer on the picture that said, “THIS PHOTO IS FROM THE MARIJUANA MUSEUM IN AMSTERDAM” but decided that not much good can come from a picture of me standing in front of a room full of weed being on the internet.
Walking around/Taking pictures
We all met up back at the hostel and then walked through the red light district. I don’t have pictures of what this is like (out of respect for the prostitutes they ask you to not take pictures) but it is quite a different experience. The girls work behind a door with a glass window facing the street wearing only a bra and panties. They are sometimes dancing and winking at guys who walk by. When a man is interested, he simply walks up to the door and the girl opens it. They talk for a little bit. The guy steps in. The girl closes the curtains and ya... Seeing this is just kind of crazy. Prostitution is so taboo in the U.S. so it was interesting to see it happening right in front of you! It was also interesting to be with four Brazilians because prostitution is much more accepted (and some cases encouraged) in Brazil though it is still illegal.
Next, Victor and Gabriel went to the Heineken Museum. I wasn’t really interested...part of the cost was for the two drinks you got with admission and I wasn’t feeling so great. Drinking was the last thing that I wanted to do. Also, I already saw the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
Samir, Maurício and I walked around and took pictures. We all really like taking pictures so this was fun for us. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city.
We went over to check out the Nemo Science Museum but it was closed. Luckily, we found out it was FREE tomorrow (instead of 15 Euros or so) so we will probably go then.
Red Light District tour
We were all pretty tired so we went back to the hostel to take a nap. I’m not sure what happened but somehow my alarm on my phone got turned off and I woke up at 8pm. That wouldn’t be a big deal except for the fact that I had a tour of the red light district booked for 8pm! I jumped out of bed and ran there. Luckily, I was able to find the tour group down the street and didn’t really miss anything.
The tour was really interesting. It was expensive (21 Euros) so no one else wanted to go on it. I went because I was interested in learning about how all of this worked. Here were some of the things that I learned:
- No safety rules (concerning condoms, kissing, etc...). This is all up to the prostitute.
- Prostitutes can rent one of the windows for around 150 Euros for an 8-12 hour shift
- Along with this rental fee comes security services from the landlord. The prostitutes have a panic button that sets off an alarm on the street in front of the window.
- The going rate is about 50 Euros for 15 minutes
Part of the tour was visiting a Red Light district visitor center run by a former prostitute who answered our questions and such.
After the tour we all met up back at the hostel. Gabriel, Victor and Maurício went out but Samir and I were tired so we both went to bed.
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