Amsterdam
Day One (May 12)
After a very early but short flight and much longer bus ride, Joe and I arrived in Amsterdam. We dropped our stuff off at our hostel in the museum district and went to grab lunch at a pub in the Leidesplein area.
We attempted to find St. Nikolaas Boat Tours, which were supposedly free, but it was not where it said it would be. Since it was possible we just got the address wrong, we went back to the hostel in Museumsplein to double-check the address.
This time we marked it on the map. When we returned to Leidesplein, the boat tour place was not where it said it would be. We came to the conclusion that it doesn't exist. Frustrated that we wasted hours trying to find it, we decided to walk back towards Centraal Station and visit the Sexmuseum.
The Sexmuseum was an entertaining little museum. In addition to paintings, photographs and sculptures, there were the interactive elements of mannequins coming out of the walls.
After we went through the Sexmuseum, we walked around much of Amsterdam's area near Centraal Station. Which was basically a bunch of Coffeeshops, canals and bikes.
We decided to conclude our day of walking around by visiting the Red Light District.
The Red Light District was an interesting place to visit. We walked along all of the streets and saw the sex shops and infamous girls (or as they should be called 40-year-old women) in the windows. After walking through the district, we stopped at a few bars.
On the way out of the district, Joe was yelled at by one of the women in the windows for having his video camera with him (and attempting to accidentally get a shot). Later, Google told us that it could have been worse--one of the pimps could have thrown the camera into the canal.
Day Two (May 13)
We had considered going to the Keukenhof flower garden an hour or two out of Amsterdam on our second day, but were advised by the tourism centre that it was not good at this point in the year. Instead, we went to Bloemenmarket (flower market) on our way to the Anne Frank House.
There was a long line at the Anne Frank house, so we decided not to go inside. Instead, we ventured to the Pancake Bakery, a traditional Dutch pancake restaurant. Dutch pancakes are odd. Pancakes are treated like a pizza or tortilla and filled with cheeses, veggies, and meat. It tasted fine, but a little unusual.
After pancakes, we returned to the Centraal Station area where we walked around for a bit before heading to the Dam area, where Joe did his interviews for his Joe Goes... piece.
The Dam area was filled with a number of street performers. After we finished shooting Joe's stuff, we decided to walk around the Red Light District again, without any incidents of the night before since we dropped off Joe's camera. We had a few beers before going back to the hostel.
The next day, we just got coffee before catching the bus to the airport for our flight to Dublin.
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