Beware her saucy wink, traveler. O, beware. |
I’ve stayed in my fair share of hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfasts over the past five years. And, considering my friends and I travel by the mantra “Sleep cheap and eat well,” we’ve had delightful, unexpected luck in the places we’ve stayed.
Well, except that one time in Amsterdam …
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Boom Chicago Leidseplein 12 1017 PT Amsterdam The Netherlands Tickets: +31 20 423 0101 |
As Michelle, Molly, and I were relaxing over a Guinness at an Irish pub with our Mike’s Bike Tour group), our guide, Egg, pointed to a glowing sign across the square.
“See that?” he said, gesturing to a sign that read Leidseplein Theater above an orange and red swooping blob. “That’s Boom Chicago. It’s an improv comedy troupe from America that’s been here for about ten years. They perform every night, and if you get a chance, you should go. They’re really great.”
As we discovered, “great” is an extremely tame term to describe this gem of a theatre.
Photo from www.boomchicago.nl
» Read the rest of Amsterdam Lesson #3: Boom Chicago ...
If I told you that Amsterdam is a little bit like America, would you believe me?
Because it is, in a way. Except for everyone riding bikes, and the prostitutes, and the legalized pot, and the Dutch language, and the …
Actually, Amsterdam isn’t anything like America. Although sometimes it felt like it, because wherever we went, the streets were paved with Americans. And everyone we met who wasn’t American spoke English. (Unlike when I told my parents everyone speaks English in France.)
Yet, surprisingly, Amsterdam was the only city outside of France where I didn’t feel overly “touristy.” Perhaps that’s because the side of the tourism industry we encountered catered specifically to Americans and Anglophones. Or because most of our tour guides were American. Whatever it was – Amsterdam is a city where Americans can feel right at home … barring the prostitutes, and the pot-slash-coffeehouses, and …
From the moment we stepped foot in the city, Michelle, Molly and I were charmed by the omnipresent view of archaic bicycles flowing en masse through the streets, along the sidewalks, zooming by us with a chirruping trill! trill!. When we discovered that there was a tour – in English! – where you see the sights of Amsterdam while riding bikes like a native …well, we couldn’t say no.
» Read the rest of Amsterdam Lesson #2: Why Walk When You Can Bike? ...
I’d never had much desire to visit Amsterdam.
Like Prague, Amsterdam is one of those “must-see” destinations that every study abroad student seems determined to visit. Which means, of course, that most of what I’d heard about Amsterdam had come from – you guessed it – college students. And although I had heard plenty of stories, not a single one had mentioned, say, the breathtaking works of the Rijksmuseum.
So, when my friends Molly and Michelle asked me to come with them on a whirlwind tour of Belgium and Amsterdam to see sights of the vegetative kind, I hesitated. It wasn’t until they clarified that they meant touring the Netherlands’s famous tulip fields that I decided to accept.
As it turns out, we never made it to the tulip fields. But, to my surprise, the ensuing voyage ended up becoming one of the most enjoyable, entertaining, and unforgettable trips I’ve ever taken.
Over the next few updates, I’ll take you through the canal-lined streets of this bustling city … review my favorite sights and sites … and share some of the memorable moments that made me fall in love with this maddening, mirthful city.
» Read the rest of Amsterdam Lesson #1: Take the A-Train ...