Transport
We arrived to Schipol airport and it was early and freezing yet sunny morning. We were advised to take a bus and that was exacly, what we did. Busses are not as cheap as they are in Lithuania and we still had to walk a few kilometres to reach our hotel. You can also reach the city by taking a train that goes directly to the central station and is very convenient but again prices are higher. Amsterdam (at least the centre of it) does not have an underground, but there are trams and, obviously, bicycles. If we had been staying for more than three days, I would have thought about renting one for myself. Bikes are everywhere. Like everywhere. However, we heard that locals do not usually invest a lot of money into them because thefts and vandalism are quite common. As we only stayed there for three days, our way of transport was our feet. As always I hadn't thought about taking more comfortable shoes and ended up with blisters. But it was worth it.
Museums
In three days we visited three museums. I would usually get tired from them but everything is a little different in this city. First of all, the queues are not long. In fact, we did not have to stand in them at all and it was the weekend and the begining of the festive season. Having some experience in museums in Venice, Paris, Florence or London , I was preparing mentally to stand in line for a couple of hours. We even bought tickets online! (As you will later find out, this was quite useful) but there were maximum three people waiting before us. On the first day, we decided to see the main ,,Rijksmuseum" which is kind of like their national museum. It is situated in a beutiful red castle(?) with two towers so I doubt you will have problems finding it. It contains mainly the works of dutch artists but, sadly, we did not have time to see everything. The first (or is it called zero?) floor has Medieval art, the second Renaissance and so on. If you are interested in popular paintings, there is a Gallery of Honour that contains pieces of Rembrandt and Vermeer, including The Night Watch (I am sure you have heard of it, haven't you?). Next day was dedicated to the one and only van Gogh. Just a couple of hundred metres away from the Rijksmuseum, you can find a huge museum of Vincent van Gogh. As it works until 10pm on Fridays, we did not have to rush. Everything about it was okay, we found many famous paintings and learnt more about the artist, however, the ticket officer refused to believe I was under eighteen and really wanted to take those 17 euros from me. I showed my ID and got away with a free entrance but my friend didn't. Talking about buying tickets online again, this could have (probably) been a great opinion because dutch are great people and they don't question your age if you already have a ticket, meanwhile, e.g. italians do - I had to search for my passport in Florence (even though I already had ticket). Do I look old or something? So when we went to Rijksmuseum, my friend saved 17 euros and comparing to prices in Lithuania, this is a quite big amount of money for a museum. This is pretty funny cause at this point people don't believe that you are eighteen when you are in a bar but they also don't believe that you are under eighteen. Yeah, life is hard, so always carry, your ID, or just lie so you could save money. Anyway, on the third day we went to the Moco museum and this one was probably my favourite. I guess I am a fan of modern art? Okay, the main reason was probably the whole location and interior or the museum - it is situated in a medium size house (just enough for a one noble family!) and it does not really look or feel like a museum, well you just have to see it yourselves. There were exhibitions of two artists going on. First one was Banksy, who is like the most famous street artist with unknown identity and very popular (and expensive!) works, that tickle various social issues. The other one is Roy Lichtenstein (Yep, just like that small country somewhere in Europe). Now I am sure that his style is very familiar to you, unless you live under a rock in a remote cave of course. Lichtenstein was one of the most famous american pop artists with paintings that do look like comics. Anyway, I really enjoyed it because the museum kind of had that home atmosphere. The fact that we visited it in the morning while we still were not tired also made it nicer. Where is the Anne Frank museum/house you'll ask. Well, it was quite far from where we lived, we did not have enough time and I read that the queues are really long so we left out that one.
Food
And now we've reached my favourite part. Food and how it is served are things that really help you to define the culture. And I can say that I was not disappointed at all. As a matter of fact, we did not really try traditional dutch food (except for sweets) because there aren't many places you can find it and I am not really into cheese, deep fried food, fish and stuff like that so I did some research again and found some places that seemed to meet my desires. When we arrived early in the morning, it was a few hours until the check-in time so we decided to have a breakfast, well a brunch. We went to the first place that looked cozy and suitable for breakfast and that was Stach (starch minus the r). Let me tell you a little bit more about this. As we later found out, Stach is a a brand that has a few shops and cafes around the city. They have some healthy snacks, tons of granola/protein bars, fancy beverages, coffee to take away, salads, chia seed pudings and similar things you can grab on the go and, finally, a lot of freshly baked duch pastries. A lot means that there are literary mountains of them. It is kind of like Narvesen in Lithunia but a lot better. We really loved that you can taste most of the things before buying it. We used to go there after lunch or dinner and eat huge chunks of pies and cookies they give you to try for free. And even things like this makes you feel good. Unlike in Lithuania, they offer you to try everything everything and you do not feel obliged to buy anything. There is this respect for a customer. However this policy can really pay off - e.g. we've been eating samples of the amazing gingerbread cake with marzipan they sell for three days but we actually bought three pieces of it on the last evening. Another example would be me ordering an omlet with avocado (by the way, avocados are really popular there, there even is a restaurant that serves avocado everything but we did not have time to visit that one) so I was expecting to get a few little pieces but they served a half of a huge avocado on the side. Sure, prices are higher that in Lithuania but the quality is not disappointing. But anyway, that morning we went to Stach cafe, where they have various egg dishes, wide selection of teas and hot drinks (our favourite was definetly the turmeric latte), burgers, salads, sandwiches and everything is more of less healty. As we had late breakfast, we wanted something light for the lunch. Luckily there was a lovely salad bar called SLA just a few hundred metres from our place. Honestly, I could live in Amsterdam just for the places like this. The interior is extremely cozy and filled with lots of plants.They mainly specialise in salads which are amazing and surprisingly filling (we shared a plate of salad with falafels, sweet potatoes and greens and were very full) but my favourite thing has to be Maroccan lentil soup. I am generally a fan of this dish and in SLA it is perfect. So perfect that we even came back for it the next day. Prices are quite normal considering the quality and amount of food you get. In terms of quality, it is something that stunned me everywhere we went. We actually even ate in chain restaurants like Wagamama or Vapiano but the food there was really good! (I am a picky eater so I know what I am talking about). Okay, next is a burger place , called Lombardo's. I found this one on yelp and it is considered to be one of the best burger restaurants/bars in Amsterdam. As I am no expert at this territory, everything was amazing for me (even though I took one of the cheapest burger on the menu). But overall, they have a wide selection of excellent quality meat, including local beef, wagyu beef, lamb, pork and fish. Minuses? They do not have any french fries and a washroom. Finally, I just have to mention the Markt. This place was just near the place we stayed and God how happy I was to find it. It looked quite interesting from the outside so we went in to have glimpse. It turned out to be a healthy and local food supermarket. Honestly, it was just as interesting as a museum. They have probably anything from tons of fresh fruits, vegetables and spices to freshly baked sweets. You can also find salads and juices, dairy products and dairy subsitutes (coconut yogurth was really good!), insane amount of diferent kinds of cheese and wine, teas and others drinks, organic chocolate, snacks and so on. Yep, definetly worth visiting (plus it is a perfect place to buy souvenirs (a.k.a. cheese and stroopwafels)) Talking about stroopwafels, I have never been a fan of them until I bought a huge, chewy, freshly baked one with lots of warm caramel inside. If you buy not freshly baked ones, just put them over a cup of hot tea to soften the caramel. You won't regret. P.S. beware of sugar overload!
The atmosphere and people
Funny thing is that before visiting Amsterdam, I had always thought the best place to live was Lithuania. I mean, I enjoyed other countries but I always wanted to go back home. In Amsterdam everything was a little different. I was just really amazed by the architecture, the culture and basically everything. But people are great there. Despite the gloomy and windy weather, they all look a lot happier. I loved that everyone rides a bike and lives a quite active lifestyle. Even older people get around the city by bike or on foot. I felt that their mentality is completely different from ours probably because they have never been in the soviet union. Sure, a lot of people smoke weed and you can often smell it in the streets but somehow it is still better than alcoholism that is a major problem in Lithuania. From my experince, everyone I met was so polite and nice (besides that ticket officer) and I haven't seen a single obese person. Dutch girls look so careless yet stylish and chick. Men are all handsome and stylish as well. However, the ones that we met did not really want to be photographed so, sadly, nobody will see their incredible style. When we went to SLA, their clients were not only skinny instagram models. Ordinary women, bussinesmen and even a couple over 60 ate there. When we went to museums, the main audience weren't asians with selfie sticks. No, the main audience were actually dutch themselves. You can say a lot about the country from its elder people so that is why I am talking so much about them. Older people don't just sit at home and complain about how everything hurts (maybe some of them do, I am just describing what I saw). No, they go to restaurants, eat healhy food, ride a bike, visit museums and can actually speak english. It is quite difficult to describe this feeling but wherever we went, I felt attention, politeness and style but at the same time there is relaxation and zero annoyance . It is like everyone live their own lives but respect others. Some more things that I noticed were LGBT flags. A lot of them. Also, amsterdamers clearly do not like curtains. Even those who live on the first floor and have their kitchen windows to the busy street do not have any curtains. It was very interesting to observe random stangers living their lifes: cooking dinner, reading or watching me spying on them. The old buildings are pretty interesting too - they are very narrow and flats are cramped. It would not be possible to bring a big piece of furniture up the stairs so that is why there is a hook on top of every building. I am not sure whether they still use those though.
Places to visit
The most important question is probably where the hell is the mention of the Red Light district? Do not worry, we went there too. It was about 7 pm so the whole action was not really in full action. But we sure felt the atmosphere and saw enough. Honestly, not the best place I have ever been to but those red lights do look pretty and it is still quite an interesting experience. Anyway, would not recommend going alone if you are under eighteen because there are some creeps. And if you want to take pictures, do it secretly because you don't want to get shouted at or get in trouble. Amsterdam also has few flea markets, some of them are considered to the bigest in Europe. We went to the Waterloopein one. I guess I was expecting a bit more so I was not that impressed. Sadly, half of the sellers are immigrants that sell a lot of touristic stuff made in China. We did not buy anything there but I guess it just was not our lucky day because I am sure you can find some nice things there. Afterwards, we went to a few vintage shops that are quite popular there and fashionistas wear either minimalistic clothes, either vintage. We also had an opportunity to become instagram models when a saller in one of the vintage stores asked us to pose for a photo and later posted it on their official instagram page. Vintage shops are amazing, they do not sell clothes from 2005 h&m or primark collections like in Lithuania. Vintage chlotes are valuable, special and actually vintage. e.g. if you want to buy jeans there, you can choose from 10 different pairs of levi's. Need shoes? You can find Martins, adidas, converse or palladium. What else? Fur coats, stylish hats, ellegant dresses and so on. No post-soviet tracksuits and other crap that is popular in Lithuania right now. Remember I mentioned that vintage is valuable? Well, prices certainly reflect that. Dresses can cost 25-30 euros, shoes start from 20, coats can reach 100 (Prices are lower in flea markets). But I believe that it it is better to have a few stylish, unique, high-quality vintage pieces than tons of clothes from
multinational fast fashion companies.
P.S. Sorry for any possible grammar mistakes, I don't really have time to be thorough
multinational fast fashion companies.
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą