Long weekend at hostel in Amsterdam.
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The story is very detailed since I might use the information myself if I would like to return.
I went up four and a half our before the plane departed and left my home one and a half hour later. I reached the airport in time to check in two hours before departure. No problems as usual.
I arrived at Shiphol airport outside Amsterdam which is huge. It was however easy to follow the signs and directions to baggage claim. You had to walk for a very long time, maybe 10 minutes.
I saw an older man with a very young woman from Thailand and wondered what they had in common. Was she in Amsterdam for sex? She was wearing a very tiny, white knitted skirt which didn't hide her white string underwear.
On a big electric display you could read which conveyer belt your baggage should turn up on. Two flights had come from Gothenburg so I had to check my flight number so I got the right conveyer belt. My rucksack arrived just when I found it.
You went out through "Nothing to declare" some meters away and you were out. There was no passport check if I remember correct.
I found a sign to the train-station and didn't have to go very long inside the building to find it. I bought two tickets for both ways, 3.60 euros each. The man who sold them told me that I could find the train number 2 to Amsterdam downstairs. I went down and caught it just in time.
Nobody checked the ticket and I didn't stamp it.
The central station in Amsterdam was the third station. Almost everyone left the train but some people remained so it wasn't the last station.
I followed a sign indicating that the centre was to the left and found the trams just outside the station building. I had to cross the road to get to the house where they sold tickets for the tram. I bought a one-way ticket for 1.60 euro which they stamped directly and it was then valid for one hour.
A little bit to the right outside the railway building I found the tram stop for line number 1, 2 and 5 which I had been told by the hostel to use. I went to the 6th stop which was Prinsengracht and found the hostel called "International Budget Hostel" not far away.
I checked in and paid three times 30 euros for the three nights and an extra 10 euros in deposit for the key. I was the first who arrived in my room and selected the bed closest to the window.
I went out for a walk and found very nice shopping streets called "Kalvestreet" and "Niuwendijk" which I followed until I was back at the station again. I loved the shops and if I want to go shopping another time then I think I would choose Amsterdam. I suppose London maybe has more to offer but I liked all the small shops on both sides of the walking streets which had no traffic. The shops had everything so it is not correct to call them small. They are however smaller than the department stores in London on Oxford Street. The smaller shops are much nicer compared to running up and down the huge department stores in London.
I then had to visit the "Red Light District" which I had heard so much about. I bought a ticket for the "Theatre Casa Rosso". It cost 30 euro. I was told that I first could see a show on the other side of the channel which started 4 p.m. since the theatre didn't open until later. The show was included in my ticket.
In Amsterdam they don't have just a few sexshops. They have plenty and they are not hidden somewhere in a dark street. They are in the middle of the centre. In the evenings when you are waiting for the danceplaces to open you can pass your time in the shops, among other tourists, by looking at all the odd things.
I work at a company called Nexus so I just had to take a pictury of this odd thing.
I went back to the hostel and changed clothes and rested for a while before I went back to the show at "Theatre Casa Rosso" which started 7 p.m. if I remember correct. It is a sex show for ordinary people with a lot of humour. Both men and women visit it.
I intended to go to a disco. I was there 22:30 but it opened 23:00 and I didn't want to wait. I went to Leidseplein instead near my hostel. I saw some discos but a guard told me that people came very late, sometimes as late as one o'clock in the night. I felt as if I was about to catch a cold so I went to bed instead around midnight.
I saw that someone had put a t-shirt on one of the other beds otherwise the room was still empty. Later in the night three other guys turned up.
I woke up 7 or 8 in the morning. The other guys were still sleeping. They were wearing very ugly shorts and none of them had bothered to take of their clothes before they went to bed. How could they wear ugly and dirty clothes when they go out during an evening?
I went out shopping sometime after 9 o'clock. I bought a lot of nice clothes.
I had to take out more money in an automat. The instructions weren't in English so I didn't understand anything. I went inside the bank and I guard at the bank entrance showed me how I should do it. I just had to put my card into the machine and I got the instructions in English. I felt a little embarrassed. I had tried my MasterCard previously but the magnetic strip on it was damaged so it didn't work anylonger.
I found a shop which only had men's underwear and bought two pairs which were very nice and sexy.
I searched after a shop where you could buy a little vodka for the evening. It was very hard to find. There were plenty of shops where you could by all kinds of drugs but ordinary vodka was almost impossible to find. I had to ask a lot of people and go some distance before I could find a place.
I just had to take a picture of a photo outside a tattoo place which showed a male breast.
Before I returned to the room I ate a falafel.
When I returned to the room I found that it was filled with smoke. The guys were there and they had been smoking hashish or something like that. You could smell that it was not ordinary cigarette smoke. The guys were really disgusting and asocial. They didn't say anything when I left the things I had bought in my locked boxed. I would have liked to rest in my room before the evening but now I just fetched my book and left the room as quickly as possible. Luckily the weather was nice so I sat on a bench and read and ate some candy.
When I a couple of hours later returned I hoped that they were gone but no such luck. They were sleeping. Two were sleeping on their beds with their shoes on. Why couldn't I get normal room mates?
I prepared myself for the evening and went out. Just outside the hostel a big American car had arrived. The car was full of big loudspeakers and a man was singing rock songs standing on the engine bonnet.
I went to a salsa place which was too crowded. I therefore went to another place with a large dance floor. There were only 7 couples who danced and there were not so much more people. I danced with two women and it was really nice. At half past one most people left so I did the same.
I went to two discos but they seemed to be closed. I went to another disco called "Sugar free" and was there until half past three. I managed to take a shower, brush my teeth and go to bed just in time before the other three guys arrived. I pretended to be asleep.
I went out around 9 o'clock. The weather was really nice. I went to a park and then to the big museum which I just passed by outside. I found another shop which only sold men's underwear. When I returned I wished that the guys in my room had left the hostel but no such luck. They were smoking in the room. I just grabbed my book, bought a Coca-cola and some biscuits and went out to a bench where I relaxed and read my book. I ate a falafel for dinner.
Later I prepared myself for the evening and went out around six o'clock.
It looked as if it should begin to rain but luckily only a few drops came from the sky.
I felt tired since I hadn't had time to sleep and relax in my room due to the guys.
There were a lot of things going on in the centre. Different music groups played at some stages. I drank some vodka with Coca-Cola and stayed and listened to one of the groups which was very good. They played for a very long time good old songs. People danced, strangely mostly people in my age, disco in front of the stage. Even I started to dance.
I went for a walk in the "Red Light District". A lot of people were out so it was quite crowded, maybe because it was Saturday evening. A very beautiful girl, who worked there as a prostitute, convinced an old man to come inside and visit her. The man could hardly walk up the stairs but after some time he managed to go up to the girl.
In Amsterdam they have plenty of shops which sell all kind of drugs.
I looked inside some of the Coffee Shops. They looked quite OK. I wouldn't mind taking a drink in any of them another time, but only a drink and not any of the drugs they served, for instance hashish.
A man made himself a cigarette in the middle of the street. I suppose that it was more than just tobacco in it. A policeman told him to stop what he was doing. He told that he was sorry a thousand times, so he had a lot of respect for the policeman, and then he hurried away.
I visited the "Erotic Museum" which was nice. I like erotic things.
There were pleny of small, quite perverse, chineese statues.
At the entrance was a woman (doll) on a bicycle. The wheels went round driven by a motor. It was a whole in the saddle and up and down came a dildo when the wheels went round.
It was the last evening so I went a last time in the "Red Light District". There was a long queue of people, both boys and girls, who wanted to see the "Casa Rosa Theatre" shows. An African girl in a window signalled to me to come and told me that it cost 25 euros. I said as always no and walked away.
Along the roads in the "Red Light District" were some African men who asked if you wanted to buy cocaine, ecstasy etc. They were however no problem, you just told them no or said that you preferred vodka.
Around one o'clock in the night I went to a disco. You had to stand in a little queue but not for many minutes. I paid 14 euros to get in and 1.20 euro at the wardrobe. The security was even harder than at an airport. You had to put all metal things in a box before you passed a metal detector. After that a man and a woman searched your body. The man found an empty 50 cl vodka bottle in one of my pockets. He asked if he could throw it away and I said yes.
I found an empty chair, which wasn't easy, and sat down and looked at all the people who danced before I danced for a while myself. It was just fast music, no songs and nobody who sang to the music. I suppose that it was the kind of music you dance to at rave parties.
I went home at half past two. The guys were luckily not in the room so I could put on the light and enjoy a good warm shower on my own before I went to sleep.
I think the other guys turned up around half past four.
I woke up 6.30 when I heard someone banking on doors. I think people in other rooms had told the hostel staff to wake them up.
I went up 8:20. I had told the hostel staff to wake me up at 9 o'clock. I packed all my things before the other guys woke up. I woman arrived at 9 o'clock when I was more or less finished with my packing. She wondered why the door was open. I told her that she had to talk with the guys about that since they had put a chair so it couldn't be closed when they arrived in the night. She informed me that it was not allowed since it was a security risk, for instance if a fire broke out. It will be a relief to get away from them. There were tobacco on the floor and on a chair there was a small plastic bag with an attached piece of paper where you could read "1.4 g". I wonder what kind of drug had been in that. On my way out I saw that one of the guys had a lighter and half a cigarette beside his pillow. I suppose he had been smoking in bed. It must be really easy to fall asleep when you are smoking in the bed, especially if you also have taken some drugs. It scared me a little since I had been sleeping in the same room.
Before I left the hostel I told the people in the reception all about the guys and she promised to talk to them. Hopefully the person, who will get my bed, doesn't have to stay in a room filled with bad smoke.
The plane didn't go until later so I could keep my bags behind the reception during the day.
The weather wasn't good and it was raining. I had a soft ice-cream for breakfast at McDonalds. I sat there and wrote in my diary until 12 o'clock. At a table next to mine a man made his own cigarette, probably with more than just tobacco. Outside in the rain a man passed by on in-lines wearing just string-underwear. The rain poured down.
After some time the raining decreased and I went out towards the central station. I walked along the shopping street and found that almost all shops were open although it was Sunday. In one shop a saw some lovely things made of wood.
At the station I found a display which only showed the trains to Schiphol airport. A train seemed to go every 10 minutes.
At the station they have a lot of boxes in different sizes where you can lock in your things. All were however occupied when I was there at 13:45 p.m. They had really nice toilets at the station and a visit cost 0.5 euro.
I went back to the hostel when the rain started to pour down again. Luckily I had brought an umbrella. At the hostel I watched the TV for a while together with some other people while I hoped that it should stop raining. I watched a funny program which was a parody of "The Crocodile Hunter" among some other programs.
At a quarter passed three it had almost stopped raining so I fetched all my things and took a tram back to the railway station for 1.60 euro.
The train departed 16:05 and the third station was Shiphol. The trip takes around a quarter of an hour.
I was quite early so I went and looked in the shops until 16:30 when I could see that the check in was at desk 30. On the ticket you could read "Departures 3" which was one floor up to the right. I finished the book I was reading while I waited for the check-in to open.
The check-in went without problem. They asked if I had packed everything myself and if I had brought some gift with me which I had received from someone else. I said no on both questions and hoped that the guys at the hostel hadn't put something illegal in my bags.
It was a very long way to walk from the check in desk to the gate number 12.
The plane was a little late. When you entered the plane they told us that we were not allowed to put on the security belt yet since they were refuelling the plane.
It is easy to summarize Amsterdam in 5 words, sex, drugs, shopping, channels and bicycles.