As I mentioned before, I went to Amsterdam for a weekend trip. I arrived Friday morning, and left Sunday afternoon. Friday we spent wandering around, which I highly recommend, just to get a feel for the place. Amsterdam is beautiful, with its canals, houseboats, smorgasbord of architectural styles, and people riding bikes everywhere. It’s like a picturesque step back in time, except with modern bikes instead of penny farthings. And hella better clothes. People even uphold the absolutely adorable tradition of locking locks onto the canal bridges to commemorate their love. Sigh.
After my whirlwind weekend, I feel compelled to share my new knowledge of a few basic things to know about Amsterdam:
- A coffeeshop does not usually sell coffee, it sells marijuana.
- A “space cake” is essentially a pot brownie, but it’s a slice of cake.
- Signs are in Dutch, and some have an english translation, but a lot don’t. However, some Dutch is very similar to English, but if the English word was spelled phonetically and with extra letters. This makes it easy(ish) to read many of the signs and figure things out, even if you can’t understand it. For example, “houd uw kaart hier” is essentially “hold you card here.” Easy!
- Everyone bikes, or rides a vespa. In a lot of places, the area that looks like a footpath is actually a bike/vespa road, and they have the right of way, not the pedestrian.
Seriously, look at all of those bikes! No wonder all the Amsterdamians all looked so good. - Almost everyone speaks English, and it’s insulting to ask someone if they do.
- People are generally very helpful and happy to help you when you’re lost. You may reveal your tourist status, but you’ll get where you’re going.
- Hagelslag is a crucial part of the Dutch breakfast. Essentially, toast or a bagel with butter and haagleslaas is the iconic meal. Hagelslag is chocolate sprinkles, but with real chocolate that is delicious and not the hard, pressed sprinkles Americans are familiar with.
- Museums are expensive, but worth it. There is no student discount, but sometimes 19 and under get in free. However, they ID, so just because you look 19, you can’t get in for free.
- Payment is primarily in cash (euros). Some of the places will take credit card if it has a chip, but often they won’t accept foreign cards, because our credit cards don’t have pin numbers.
- The ingredients on most of the food is written in Dutch, and there’s not an English translation on the box. So if you have allergies, you need to look up the Dutch translation of what you’re allergic to, commit it to memory/write it down, and bring out your notes to compare whenever you buy food. Just ignore the looks people give you.
- Public printing is not cheap. Life without a printer is hard. Some of the train companies don’t accept mobile tickets, or their apps are faulty and won’t let you access your mobile version, and you absolutely have to have that printed ticket to get on the train. In my experience, the public library has printing for cheap, but it does not accept foreign cards. The local grocery, Albert Hijn, has a printer, but it’s really more of a copier. Your best best is the internet cafe. Which is an experience in and of itself. It’s pricey; I paid 4 euros to print two pages (about $4.50). The internet cafes are often in the basement of a store, in a cramped little room, with some very odd, question-inducing signs on the walls and the computer screens. However, your train tickets will be printed! And you’ll get to experience an internet “cafe.”
I seriously had so many questions about that internet cafe. For one, what happened that you had to make the ‘no sexual activities’ sign? Why did they have to make so many (there were 8 signs on the two tiny walls with available space. All the exact same one). Also, why does this computer have a fake copy of Windows? All very odd. Super sketch. But their printer worked, so that’s all that matters!
xox,
Lauren
