Guys, Amsterdam was a bit of a bust
Now let me first preface this by saying, I should've planned better. I had no clue what I was getting into, and it wasn't until I found myself surrounded by "Coffee Shops" that my ignorance was starting to show. The Venice of the North, as some would claim, is indeed known for its bridges, canals, and quaint narrow houses, but frankly, that is not why it's one of the most visited cities in the world.
Sure, it's home to the famous Van Gogh museum and the Ann Frank house. And sure, Amsterdam is a beautiful city! The canals are quite cool and the architecture is unique, but how does it justify the continual success it has at being one of the most visited cities in the world? I would be willing to bet it's due to the fact that it's the land of “anything goes.”
It's the home to the hundreds of local "coffee shops", which to my surprise, are not actually coffee shops... they're weed dispensaries! If you walk into one, don't expect to be served your usual cup of Joe! It may look like your familiar coffeehouse, but it sure won't smell like it! Try and order something? Don't be surprised to find a bill well over your typical €2.50 for a cup of coffee, what they're selling is much more expensive!
So I'm sure you're wondering then, what do you call a real coffee shop, like a place that actually serves you coffee? Well, you just call it by its name. So look for cafés with names other than "coffee shop" like "Starbucks", "Pret", or "Nero". Confused? Just walk into a café and take a big ol' whiff, their looks may be deceiving by their smell certainly isn't.
Is that all though? Is Amsterdam really proclaimed as the land of “anything goes” because they allow Marijuana to be dispensed? Well actually no, there's more! If the wacky weed isn't wacky enough, just find yourself some Magic Mushrooms! Yeah, that's right, literally just walk into a paraphernalia store (which isn't hard to find as there's about one on every block) and they'll be more than happy to sell you some shrooms. Crazy right?
A few weeks ago when everyone was discussing the "must visit" places of Europe, I didn't think much of their overwhelming agreement in Amsterdam. I just went along with it, figuring their reasons were probably good, I didn't see what could go wrong. I didn't think of why our program director questioned the motives behind the majority in favor of going there. I didn't think of why he tried suggesting other places that may be cheaper or more fun. Looking back now, I totally understand and wish I would've looked at least a little more into this one.
One thing to note, Amsterdam is not cheap. To save money we got an Airb&b in the nearby land of Zaandam which is a cool little residential town, and much cheaper than being in the actual city. To get to the action though, it was a 20-minute walk to the Zaandam Centraal Station and a 30-minute train ride in. Between the six of us for two nights, the two bed, one pullout couch, Airb&b, amounted to about €65 per person. In the future though, a hostel will probably be the better option while traveling. It'd give me more freedom to call it a night when I see fit, rather than being dependent on the one person who holds the house key. Since all I’m really looking for is a cheap place to sleep, a hostel will most likely serve me best.
Coming into the weekend, we had an itinerary of things to do and if I would've stuck with it, I probably would've had a much different experience. The schedule we had basically went out the window on Friday night though and not much else was done or visited for the rest of the trip. My favorite part of the whole experience was probably Saturday morning when I woke up early and just checked out the city's notable areas. Besides that, not much was really done during our time in Amsterdam and I have a lot to learn from this.
It also didn't help that it took over seven hours for us to travel there, or that we had to wake up at 3 am on Friday to catch our flight. So as one could guess, Friday was exhausting and hard to enjoy, leaving us with just Saturday to make the most of. This "weekend trip" was frankly more of a day trip, because once Sunday rolled around, by 8 am we had to roll out.
On top of it all, the people I went with clearly have different lifestyles than myself, and I'm not too certain that helped the situation. We just had different intentions for the trip and that's something I need to take more into account while planning the next trip.
While this post has been a hot take on the city of Amsterdam, I see no point in making it seem better than it was. However, my thoughts on Amsterdam are maybe just a little bias as I think my trip's experience poured out into my thoughts on the town as a whole.
I'll just close by saying this trip was the perfect storm of mistakes, stemming from my poor planning and judgment. Even though this trip fell short of my expectations, I'm fortunate to be here, and still very happy to avoid the snow!