Adv. 9 A weekend to Amsterdam

The XXX rated city

Mon 13 Feb
Simone and I went on a trip to Amsterdam with ESN and a group of about 60 other international students in the weekend, we caught a train and 20 minutes later arrived just outside of Amsterdam

first we had a tour of the AJAX Stadium, ( pronounced: ahh-yaks) Ajax is Hollands most famous and most successful soccer team. The stadium is huge, the tour guide was very passionate about his soccer team and this stadium is the best in the country etc etc etc, we saw the team practicing and it was very amusing for me to watch fans assault the players afterwards for autographs and photos. Some people are fanatics

Then we made it to Amsterdam... when you get out of the train station your vision is assaulted by tourist shops selling the 'happy weed' in various concoctions and then you hit the red light district where there are ladies sitting in windows, just waiting... and smoking... in the middle of the day... not pretty ladies either....

anyway, the rest of Amsterdam is beautiful, the houses are so cute and colourful and box like and some are so mis shapen. they are all along the canals, and there are so many canals,with cute boats and cute bridges, the streets are little and cobbled. The buildings all lean forward slightly , which is a little worrying, but im assured they are quite safe.

we had a guided tour of the Joordaan, an older part of the city, and the buildings lean forward so that goods that come on the boats can become hoisted up to the top floors without hitting the side of the house. quite ingenious really.

then we had dinner at an Italian restaurant. so good!!!
we walked aound at night a bit

then Simone and I headed to our hostel for the night.
in the morning we went to the Rijks museum, and to the Van Gogh museum
then we missioned to try and find the church we wanted to go to. it seems to be the only decent one in the whole of Utrecht and Amsterdam, now that is a lot of people who arent invovled in a hurch!!!
well, if we were coming straight from Utrecht we would have to bike to train station, 15min, then train to a junction, 20min, then catch a tram, 20 min, then walk 5 min, what a mission to get to church!!
it was a brilliant service though, when it was finished we were disgusted to see that it was snowing out. never mind, you get that sometimes...