Day 21 - Amsterdam

Dutch sounds a bit like people have a speech impediment (Gesloten = Closed, Goedendag = Good day, etc.). I would like to apologize to all Dutch people, I love the language and the people. We met some of them today when we took the bus to the center of Amsterdam. After a ten-minute ride, we reached the Central Station and got our first glimpses of the city. Since we had no idea what we wanted to see, we simply turned into the next street. It was a completely tourist-filled street, with one coffee shop after another. From every entrance, you could catch a brief taste of the activities inside these shops, which actually lived up to their reputation. However, we had imagined it much differently - definitely without so many tourists. Since the crowds on the street bothered us, we walked until we reached the large square with the National Monument and the Royal Palace (which we only found out later when we looked at a map). There was also a colorful hustle and bustle here, but after a coffee (a real coffee), it was fine.

After observing the people on the square for a while, we went shopping. Since we had come to the city on a Sunday, there were more people there as well. Eventually, we had enough and ventured into the side streets. There, we walked along the canals between the houses and definitely found this part of the city to be better. After we had eaten, it was time to go home.

At the Central Station, we encountered a problem because we had absolutely no idea how to get back. When we found out what our bus station was called, I asked a boy at a bus stop. "Can you tell us where the bus station for Purmerplein is? I think it’s called Ijz…Ijtsch…Ijtschizi…" (The name of the bus station, which I had googled beforehand, was IJzijde. I couldn't remember it for the life of me, so the name ended up sounding a bit strange) Since I had pronounced the name of the stop rather poorly, we didn't expect the boy to be able to help us. "I think it's up there," he said, pointing into the station. Since we thought the bus stations were outside, I replied, "Oh, you mean there is a tourist information? We should ask them? Alright, thank you." However, it turned out that the boy was indeed referring to the station, and he also showed us the right way. Sometimes we were really stupid. At the tourist information office across from the station, our assumption was confirmed: we had to walk through the station, as that's where the bus stations were. But before that, we had to join the line in front of the counters. The man in front of us kindly said, "If you are looking for a ticket, this is the box." Thinking he meant that we wanted a bus ticket, I shook my head and said we didn't need a ticket - oh, how we would have needed a ticket! The tickets actually showed when and which counter to go to. So we waited until the man from earlier left the information office, and then we obediently took a ticket. That was enough of that, so we went home. While we were sitting on our terrace in the backyard of the bar, the landlady came out from behind the bar, didn't spare us a glance, and went into the cellar. There, she shouted "Fock" once loudly and returned to the bar.