I'm back home and ready to recount my last few days in Amsterdam. I suppose I should begin with how on my very, very last day (around noon) - I manage to tear a ligament in my calf running for the 10 tram at Marnixplein.
My last day anywhere is always a sort of ritual for me. I always decide where I'll have my "last meal" (the last two trips it was
Rainmi and
Thaise Snackbar, this trip it was
Burger Bar) and go back to a few places I feel nostalgic about. My morning started off on the right foot - I woke up early, sat in the garden along the canal, ate breakfast, and hand-fed two beautiful swans who swam up. Then I went to catch the tram and
rip!
Not one to be stopped by a little muscle tear, I went to the Leidseplein on the tram and hobbled around a good distance. I hobbled up Spuistraat and ducked up
Kolksteeg street to
find Burger Bar and have my last taste of A'dam. I opted for the Philly Steak with cheddar and bacon and watched it made before my eyes. When I clapped with excited enthusiasm when it was finished, the girl behind the counter simply smiled. Honestly, I've eaten at
Burgermeester and while I do like their lamb burgers, if what you want is a delicious burger and fries that is only slightly more expensive than fast(er) food options like McDonald's or Burger King.
While on the topic of what I like to call
faster food, Amsterdam does faster food better than most places. It's always slightly healthier than true "fast food" and can be reasonably priced. If you want quality and don't want to pay too much for it, stick to the restaurants I recommend. Two burgers (with 3 extras), drinks, and a large fry at Burger Bar was slighly less than 20,00 euros for example.
If you hit places like
Wok to Walk or some of the other similarly concepted Asian takeout places that do whole meal in a Chinese takeout boxes, you can have a delicious meal for as little as 5,00 euros (try the
Kantjil & de Tijger's takeout place on Spuistraat for an Indoneasian
mangkok takeout or if you want something much more authentic there's a tiny little Indonesian takeout place on Elandsgracht that was amazing and a massive meal cost 6,50 euros).
Oh and did I mention it kept raining? So there I was limping around with this highly ineffective Thermocare heating pad stuck to my leg trying to say good-bye to the city I love, but the weather wasn't cooperating. So when it rained I ducked into coffeeshops. I was saying good-bye to Amsterdam afterall.
Speaking of which, there are
good coffeeshops and there are
shitty coffeeshops. What makes a coffeeshop shitty? When they don't let you smoke without buying their crappy weed. The worst of the bunch is
The Grasshopper on Spuistraat. In order to smoke there you have to buy 25,00 worth of their crappy tourist weed
AND drinks. No thanks, I told them. Even slightly crippled I'll still chose to walk five more minutes to
Homegrown Fantasy dank u wel!
Good coffeeshops? I have my favourites. For the past six years I've gone to the following regularly and
never been disappointed:
Tweede Kamer - great stuff, helpful and hilarious staff who are quite serious about their business, and a favourite of locals. The seats aren't the most comfortable, but they give the best cookies with their coffees.
La Tertulia - A great place to smoke, good brownies, great seating areas, amazing vibe, and really (really) great staff. They also have all organically grown products. This is not the place to go to get Cheech & Chong high - but it is the place to sit, have a great smoke, and they have a great menu of toasties, milkshakes, and teas. They also have great games available and when it's sunny there is no better place to sit outside and have a smoke.
The Grey Area - Pothead centraal. If you want some serious weed, the kind they seem to only smoke in stoner movies, this is the place for you. By far the best weed in Amsterdam (and it better be for the prices). Watch out though because they have weird hours (12 - 20h00) and it's quite small so it's a sort of pick up your stuff and go sort of place.
Mellow Yellow - It's the first coffeeshop I ever went to and it stays out of the typical Amsterdam game. It's obvious too. Lots of locals, very few tourists. Really great Tibetan Buddhist murals to stare at too.
This trip I went to some new places as well. The best of the bunch was by far
New Times. Great weed can be had here for less than 8,00 euros a gram. I loved the atmosphere at
Bas Joe, Homegrown Fantasy, and the Greenhouse (the one on the canal, not the bar or coffeeshop on Warmoerstraat).
I was pleasantly surprised to discover
Amnesia, which is owned by Barney's but has better stuff and a better atmsophere. I don't get the hype that surrounds Barney's, but Amnesia was a nice place to buy and sit for awhile.
The best thing I did on my trip? Go to
Boom Chicago on the Leidseplein and ask about the boat rides. They're not "free", because they do pass around a can at the end for donations, but you can if you're on a budget give less than the "suggested" 10,00 euros though I don't recommend it. The boat rides are given by volunteers who work for the Saint Nicolaus association and go towards keeping up their boats and keep the rides available to anyone who signs up for them. The boats are from the early 1900's and were used to transport goods along the canal so they're very open and close to the water unlike other boat rides you can take.
I loved the boat. I learned even more about the history of Amsterdam, had a friendly chat with some of the other people, and even got to have a smoke! On the day I had signed up for it rained all morning and at the last minute I decided to at least see if the ride might still be on because the rain had stopped. Sure enough it was. The association uses
doppler radar to check the weather and so the ride was a bit later than the original time, but I was pretty impressed overall. Well worth what I gave at donation time (20,00 euros).
I hobbled back to the flat after taking two wrong trams and having to get off at the wrong place. The lady who runs a sort of B&B had arranged a friend to bring me and my bags to the station. She doesn't advertise, but if you'd like a beautiful room to stay in for 60,00 euros a night with breakfast included and a real Amsterdammer to talk to, just shoot me an email (
lafemmeflaneuse@gmail.com) and I'll pass on her email to you (it's her place that has the garden where I hand fed the swans).
I arrived to Paris. I was exhausted and knew I might be in for a surprise once I got home. After all I did leave a 22 year-old in charge of my beloved La Chienne and my flat for two weeks...
I wish I had snapped a picture, but I was so shocked by the state my flat was in that I could do nothing except hug my excited little hound and try to form a plan of attack in my head. Disaster isn't a strong enough word. All the plates and pots and pans in the sink were coated in a blue-ish mold. I couldn't force him to clean the house either because he had to catch the train back to England to register for college. Dammit.
I am an only child. When I met D almost three years ago I adopted him as my little brother. I'm almost 10 years older than him and sort of look out for him. He's not an only child though. He has three brothers and a sister who are all younger than him. I have adopted F and S (the little sister) too. Though F and S live in different countries so I don't see them as often.
Now I "mommy" panicked shortly before I left because I thought maybe I hadn't left my hound and flat in the care of the most responsible person. I hadn't. La Chienne isn't so used to being without human companionship. The flat was quite happy and clean when I left her...
So a lesson learned. I cleaned up (a little, the flat needs a complete top to bottom), made
porco à cacciatore with from scratch sauce, and fell asleep on the couch at 7 pm...
I'm not so happy to be home, but I am happy to see the hound again. After two weeks with two cats I can say as cute and interesting as cats are, nothing beats coming home to a dog.
Nothing.
