As per usual the walking tour was very interesting and we learnt a lot! We saw loads of the city, this was the longest walking tour we have done (3 hours)! And it actually ended up being longer than that because our guide liked to go on about pointless things for a little too long at each stop. We thought it was a little too long, and weren't that impressed with our guide, but we enjoyed the tour nonetheless! From there we wandered around the streets more, discovering quirky little alleyways and some of the strangest shops. I think that Amsterdam is one of my favourite places that we have been to so far. It has such an amazing, vibrant atmosphere. It's so alive with people and colours and smells! And it's just so different to any other place I have ever been, there are so many new things to see and learn about and experience. I have really enjoyed my time here.
Anyway, once we were done exploring we headed back to the hostel for a quick dinner and made our way to the red light district. We had decided to go to the prostitution museum as we had a discount coupon, and the guide from the bus had said it was an interesting museum. And it was really interesting! We learnt a lot about the prostitution trade in Amsterdam. It is definitely worth a visit if in Amsterdam.
You learn about the girls of the red light district and what it's like to work there. And you get the be in the window yourself as they have set up a room that is the same as one of the real rooms behind the windows, with a window that you can stand in and look down onto the street from. We found out that to be a girl working in the red light district you need to register with the council, as they see it as a real job that gets taxed. You get to see how the girls are looked after, which is a part of the museum I really liked. They get food and drinks from local cafés and restaurants and their rooms are cleaned everyday. I think it's great the council and the community look after the girls so well. There was a confessions board at the end of the museum which was absolutely hilarious! We spent a good 15 minutes reading all of the sexual confessions people had written.
After the museum we tried a Dutch waffle from a shop nearby. It was so delicious!
We sat next to the canal, in the middle of the red light district, and ate our waffle and watched all sorts of people go by. Amsterdam is truly beautiful by night.
It had gotten quite late so after we had finished, we headed back to the hostel.
The next day we went to the torture museum. It took us ages to find it, as it's in a strange place and there was a very misleading sign pointing in the wrong direction. Once we got there and paid the entrance fee, we were so disappointed. The museum was pathetic. I love learning about medieval times and torture and all that, so I was really upset! It was a dimly lit, tiny museum that took us all of 20 minutes to go through, and that's with reading every piece of information! The information was very little and looked like it had just been copied and pasted from Wikipedia or something! It didn't really explain the devices it was showing. There was no music or anything to enhance to experience. It was just really disappointing.
The only good thing about it was that it was opposite the tulip markets! We wandered through the tulip markets looking at the beautiful colours and flowers. There were a bunch of cheese shops scattered throughout the markets so we got to try all sorts of different cheeses! They were amazing! The best cheese I have ever eaten! We both wished we could have got some, but as we are travelling we just can't keep it. We had a quick lunch and explored more of the streets and shops.
At around 4:30 we headed over to the Anne Frank house!
It was the one thing I really wanted to do whilst in Amsterdam, so I was so excited! We had been told that the queue to get in was always ridiculously long (like 2 hours) so we came prepared to wait a while. However, we were super lucky and only had to wait roughly 45 minutes! It was great! I loved the Anne Frank house and museum. It was a really moving experience. I had read Anne's diary a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so it was an incredible thing to actually get to see and experience the hiding place that I had read about. It made her story come to life. I think Anne Frank was such an inspiring young girl. She really showed the world the power of words. We spent a really long time in the house and museum, there was so much to see and read about. I would definitely recommend going to see it if you ever get the opportunity.
Today we decided that we needed pancakes. There are a bunch of coupons at our hostel for resturants and what not so we grabbed the ones for two pancake places and went in search of the best one. We weren't taken by the first place we went to, so we went to look for the other one to see if it was any better. It was so much better. Our waitress told us that they served over 100 pancakes! Needless to say it was incredibly hard to make a decision about what we wanted to get. We ordered our pancakes, and when they came out we could not believe our eyes! The waitress actually laughed at us we were gawking at these pancakes so much. They were absolutely massive! The biggest pancakes I have ever seen!! And they were super delicious.
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