We arrived there after the third train trip of our Interrail & just after a night ride, which we spent in the comfortable couchettes of a CNL night train; so we probably were already kind of tired and we experienced an even higher impact from the city! But it is doubtless that in Amsterdam you will see some very weird things from which, whatever you are high or not, you will be astonished by.
1) In Amsterdam there are weird creatures around. For example, the first thing we saw when we just got out the train station was this:
This nice, pluffy bird was just so incredibly colorful, his wings were yellow, green and blue, and they were shining in the warm sun of that beautiful day like a little jumping jewel. I fell in love with it and absolutely wanted to take a picture, so I started running after this animal trying to get it, with people looking at me like I was mad. The thing is, in Italy the best we have in the city is a pigeon, so how possibly can you avoid to fall in love with THIS?? And furthermore, what the hell of a bird is that?
Don’t you think that only a city like Amsterdam can have such a weird creature flying over its streets? :)
2) The second thing that shocks you when you are in Amsterdam is…well, Amsterdam’s houses!
You stroll down these beautiful streets with lovely canals, you wander by these places taking pictures of their incredible houses, and then you look at them more carefully and you perceive that…they are completely crooked!
Crooked houses in Amsterdam
I tried for the whole holiday to take a picture which could show how much twisted they actually are, but I couldn’t. I think it’s impossible, it’s part of the magic: you have to see it with your own eyes, because no picture can lead the impression of seeing the houses in front of you leaning down like the tower of Pisa, laying on each other, one in the front and one in the back…it’s just crazy, you ask yourself how possibly can they stand.
Leaning houses
Do you think I was just too high and I was simply dreaming of crooked houses? Or maybe you think it’s just an optical illusion? Well, you are wrong: here is the reason why the houses in Amsterdam are twisted.
If you look better at them, you will notice that each of them has a large arm with a hook sticking out from the roof.
Why Amsterdam houses are crooked
That hook is the only way Amsterdam people have to move their furniture: indeed, as the houses are all so narrow and tall, the only way to bring big pieces of furniture up the stairs is to lift them from outside the house and let them in from the windows!
So, as they kept on lifting heavy objects from outside, the houses started to lean forward more and more. Ehm…No, ok, I am just kidding! It was done on purpose like that, to avoid the objects from hitting the facade of the house while they were lifted up!
So, this is it. Thats the secret behind the high houses of Amsterdam. But I prefer to keep thinking that they are high, or that so were the builders ;)
3) In Amsterdam, you just need to think about an object/situation/restaurant, and it will magically appear.
That is true for almost everything, but it works especially with the Subway fast foods. There are so many Subways around the city, and they have the magical ability to appear when you most need them, for example if you are so high that the houses not only seem to be crooked but also to be moving. Then, it will appear a Subway. Just try it out. It’s MAGIC!!!!
We also found out it works very well with places where to sit. If you are tired of walking without a destination wondering why the houses are leaning down (ok, I know I keep saying that, but seriously I couldn’t think about anything else when I was out there!) and you start thinking that you would like a nice place where to sit, it may happen to see this:
a place to sit down and relax
And if you think that no one would ever really sit there and it must be a mistake or a joke, well, you are wrong:
people on the river couch
4) Everyone is high…except for the bikers!!! If you think Amsterdam is a safe city full of slowed down people and nothing bad could happen, you are wrong again.
Those are the tourists. They enter a Coffee Shop, smoke as there was no tomorrow, then get out and wander through the streets like happy zombies.
The people who live in Amsterdam don’t smoke, or they do it so much that they can ride their bike at 70km/h even when they are high. So, pay a loooooooot of attention on where you are walking: if you are on a bike path, you are in REAL DANGER! They won’t be merciful, you are on their way, and they won’t stop if you are in the middle of it. That’s actually what the greatest cause of death in Netherlands is: not cigarette smoke, not cancer…it’s tourists being run over by bikers.
Running bikes in Amsterdam
5) If you are wondering where the Red Light District is…you may be inside it!
It may happen that you are walking through some nice street along a canal, enjoying the view and the sun, wondering why the houses……..ok, you know that. Well, you look around and you notice that a lot of shops are closed, and that their windows are covered with curtains, but there is a lot to see and you don’t really pay attention to it. You keep on walking until it starts darkening, and as the sunlight goes down, some bright, red lights around you grow brighter…you are in the Red Light District, babe!
Sunset at the red light district
It’s weird, since during the day it seemed a perfectly normal place, with shops, restaurants and Coffee Shops.
But at dusk, those curtains you saw in the afternoon are opened and their inhabitants are exposed. Women of every race, size and level of beauty look at you through the windows, naked or barely covered.
Amsterdam’s erotic museum
You may have different reactions to such a sight: some of you (men) will be excited, some of you (women) will feel a bit uncomfortable with it…it’s such a strange and unique place that it is normal to have confused feelings about it. But it’s surely worth coming here, since it is one of the features of Amsterdam and Netherlands in general, and beside the negative impression it may give, it is surely more safe and preserving for prostitutes to work here than to stay the whole night alone in a street, as it happens in other countries.
Furthermore, the red lights which color the canals and reflect in the water are definitely one of the more characteristic views of Amsterdam by night…and you just can’t avoid appreciating it once you see it.
Red light canal