The Durty Nelly

After taking a quick right out of our hostel, the Durty Nelly, and another 90 degree turn to the right we found ourselves in the middle of the Red-light District. This is obviously a strange topic, but I am here to tell my stories of our adventure through Europe, so I will write about the things I experienced. We are all aware of what the red lights mean, but the area known for such promiscuity, is not what one would think. Amsterdam is a beautiful city and it does not let one or two of its streets determine its identity.

The first thing we noticed once we got off the train from Berlin was the copious amount of “coffee shops”, which offer not only your favorite concoction of coffee beans and cream, but some other type of all natural substance that the likes of Bob Marley and Cheech were known to enjoy. These shops surrounded our hostel and were pretty much everywhere. After checking into the Durty we rented some bikes and trucked it through the city to Anne Frank’s house, which had transformed into some modern building that did not match the diaries description; the line was long so we decided to not go in. From there we peddled over countless brick arched bridges, past some churches, and headed for the Heineken Brewery.

The Brewery was great and we learned a lot about the history of Heineken; they even let us get a little taste. After dodging more cars, and more bikes (there are more bikes than people who live in Amsterdam and it makes for a peculiar site), we turned our bikes in, and headed back to the hostel for some grub. We met some people from Canada, Australia, Florida, and Sweden, and chilled at the hostel. From there we walked around the streets and saw some things that would most certainly not be viewed on the city streets of Atlanta. This was a learning experience and we were trying to make sure we completely understand the atmosphere of the city.

After crashing at about 12:30, I woke up at 7:30 and decided to sneak out of our 10-bed room and walk around the city. The morning in Amsterdam may be it’s most amazing time; the streets are not filled with obnoxiously high or drunk people, but it was just as any city functions with businessmen walking to catch their trains, store’s opening their doors, people just going on with their everyday lives and pursuing their dreams. I walked as far as I could from the Red light district and walked along the streets near the rivers and discovered some of the cleanest, most picturesque neighborhoods that even Norman Rockwell would be proud to paint. Our free breakfast was served at 9:00, so I reversed and headed back to the hostel, while attempting to soak in the moment before packing, once again, and finding our train for Belgium.

Honestly, I was not really looking forward to going to Amsterdam, for several reason, but in the end it was one of the nicest places we have visited and the stay managed to completely reverse my view of the city as a whole, which is not what is usually depicted in Movies and TV Shows. We are on a train to get Waffles in Belgium; other than that we have know clue what to expect from Brussels. Not knowing what is to come is all part of the fun.

-Brendan