Amsterdamned

in my last post i mentioned that i took a trip to the UK to see meg.. and that was great.

well, on the way back to the united states i had a layover in amsterdam. i also had a layover there on the way to england but that one was only about 90 minutes. so that's fine. but this one was 13 1/2 freakin hours! what kind of layover is that?!? way too long if you ask me..

anyways.. i got off the plane and knew i was going to be there a long time so i decided to try and make the best of the situation and go explore the city. i followed a big crowd of noisy dutch people out of the terminals, got my passport stamped, and headed to the trains. i went to a ticket machine and bought a first class, two-way something to centraal station.. i didnt really know what i was doing but i figured that sounded good enough. so i ran down to the platform and hopped on the train to centraal.

i think it was when the doors closed and i walked into the car to sit down that i finally felt totally alone and realized that i was on my own. there were three other people in the car too but that didnt really help at all in making me feel less lost. i mean, they were all foreign.. everything was foreign. i knew i wasnt lost, but still.. i was in a weird train with weird people going to a weird place.. i think one thing that also made it worse [and furthered my thoughts of being marooned in this strange place if i made one mistake] was that it was nighttime. i couldnt see anything outside of that car. i was a bit nervous but at the same time i was really psyched to explore downtown. thinking about all the crazy stuff i'd heard about amsterdam and knowing that i was going to get lost in the city in the middle of the night all alone gave me a real rush.

after a long 15 minutes the doors opened and i was wondering through crowds again. it was late on a tuesday but there were tons of people out. there was a main road that went straight ahead to some hotels and other big buildings but i decided to take a smaller road that was off on the left.. turns out it went to the red light district.

here are some pics. finally!

above: there were tons of bicycles stacked up along the sides of some of the streets. it looked like most of these were just set up against one another without even being locked. i could be wrong about that though..

as usual, i didnt really know where i was or where i was headed.. i just kept walking down streets that looked interesting. [and well-lit ;]

there was a small shop in the alley pictured below where i stopped and got myself a nice, big, warm belgian waffle covered in melted chocolate.. mmm.

above: eventually i wound up in the Red Light District.. the big windows with that pinkish glow next to the street are where the.. uh.. friendly ladies awaited their customers..

each had their own window & room but it looked like the majority of them connected. (usually there were about 3 or so in a row). most of them were just watching people go by and looked kinda bored..

a lot of them were doing their nails or hair or just talking to their window neighbors but some of them were more aggressive. as i walked by a few of them they would tap on the glass and wave for me to come there.. some even opened up their windows [they opened inward like doors] and tried to get me to come in.

..haha..oh..hi..um...no. [the next three pics are also from the red light district as well]

it was pretty strange to see people doing drugs in the street.. im not quite sure what's legal and what's not. either way, it's still strange to me. there were also some doors to shops and cafes that said 'Stop. Hard Drugs' to let people know what to expect when they went inside..i suppose.

the red light district seemed to be made up mostly of xxx shops/theaters/gift shops and cafes along about three streets running parallel with each other. little alleyways connected the parallel streets.
above: there were lots of these shops all up and down the stretch.
below: not kid's toys!

after a while i took a side street outta there and came to a place called Dam Square.







right: dam monument


below: the big dam building

oh thank God. there's Centraal station [above]. turns out its only about half a mile from dam square and probably
less from the red light district.

i found the departing trains and went to get on one that said Schiphol. at first the lady didnt want to let me on, which was sort of frightening, but i showed her my shiny ticket and she saw the shininess of it and it was good.

there were a lot more people on the train this time around and i could tell that some of them were going to the airport too.. so that made me feel good.. it was a cool city but i was pretty glad to get back on the train and get outta there. i dont think ive ever been so happy to be back in an airport...

so.. turns out i didnt get lost forever in amsterdam. yay. what an experience.
Schiphol was my home for the next 7 hours and then i flew back to atlanta. :]