derek’s stream of consciousness guide to amsterdam
Tags:I wrote this to a friend — it’s mental vomit of the best things to do in two days in Amsterdam. FYI for anyone who might ever be attending the VU!! And I apologize for the spelling mistakes and writing style. I call this “don’t worry, everyone here speaks english — a quick guide to a’dam.” Enjoy!
quick guide to the city: public transport is super easy but if you’re staying in the city center you can walk everywhere — but to take a tram you buy a “strippenkaart” from either the machines that sell them or a lot of stores e.g. in centraal station, i think ako nieuws sells them; you stamp one strip for each zone plus one for yourself (i.e. traveling within a zone is 1 + 1 = 2 strips, stamp the second; or just tell the conductor where you’re going and he/she will do it for you). the markets in amsterdam are really great, i like waterlooplein which has mostly clothes, nieuwmarkt whenever it’s open which i’m not really sure about, and albert cuypmarkt a bit southeast of the city on albert cuypstraat, maybe 25 minutes walking max from centraal station but close to some. albert cuypmarkt is close to some metro stops like weesperplein or something…
at night rembrandtplein is awesome (stop on some random trams, i always bike or walk there, it’s just south of muntplein where there’s a big tower), leidseplein (stop on #5) is super popular but really touristy, personally i like dutch bars and there’s tons of random ones & they’ll be cheaper than other places. there’s a “jaeger bar” (1,50 euro jaegermeister shots) called st. christopher’s hostel which you can easily get to by walking north from the dam not on the main street with the trams but the street behind the national penis i mean wwii remembrance obselisk. it’s on the right, Warmoesstraat 129
for a cool view of the city you can walk behind and to the right (east) of centraal station and follow the signs to post-cs/stedelijk museum (a modern art museum, temporarily located there)
as far as museums van gogh and rijks are both really nice, i also like a few others like the fotographie museum but you obviously aren’t here very long.
for fast food i like kantjil to go, which is takeaway indonesian food on nieuwzijds voorburgwal just north from the spui on the tram #5, (actually in front of that tram stop, look for a red and white box of takeout food next to a restaurant called kantjil and de tijger, just south of the amsterdam historical museum and north of the american bookshop). maoz falafel which is a bit ubiquitous (there’s one on the main drag of tram #5, leidsestraat which goes from leidseplein to koningsplein over the canals) is also great. new york pizza apparently sucks… i also know a great dutch place i can take you.
if you want to just walk around, go west and south from the city center and you’ll end up in the jordaan/nine streets of amsterdam, which is pretty and has boutique shopping. kalverstraat the main shopping street runs through the dam, it’s pretty hard to miss.
don’t eat mushrooms (sold at “smart shops”) and fall into a canal! those are mutually exclusive — feel free to do either (the second one is more dangerous) but not at the same time!! hahaha.
as far as coffeeshops go (places that sell weed, coffee houses sell coffee), if you’re into that my friends have recommended to me: “de dampkring” just north of koningsplein (stop on tram #5), “homegrown fantasy” (by nieuwzijds voorburgwal, also a stop on tram #5 and the name of a street), and “the bluebird” for hashish (located between waterlooplein and nieuwmarkt). you can have weed on you outside the coffeeshops, really you can smoke it on the street it’s no problem. i’ve seen people do so, especially in the red light district. i’m pretty sure people get harassed more for bicycling improperly i.e. without lights than for smoking weed. if your hostel is cool there’ll be a room that you can party in.
the van gogh museum is really easy to get to, just take tram #5 and get off at hobbemastraat, the stop between leidseplein and museumplein. the “heineken experience” is Tweede Weteringplantsoen 21, just walk from leidseplein southeast past a club called paradiso and a small plein with a hard rock cafe to your south (the holland casino is just south of that) and keep walking for about 5 minutes until you have to walk across a traffic circle and then you’re there, just look for the signs.
if you’re at all into classical music, we should definitely hit up the concertgebouw while you’re here. 7,50EUR for any concert, no matter who is playing, or we could go to the free lunchtime concert wednesday at 12:30pm (we should be there by noon).
i don’t know if you’re flying into amsterdam, if so you can really easily take a train to amsterdam centraal station, which is the city center. or hope on one to amsterdam zuid/WTC and take anything heading north, e.g. tram #5 or metro #51.
of course, a lot of this stuff but not all of it is represented on derek’s google map of amsterdam
have fun and take it easy!
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