Underwhelmed in Amsterdam: first day recap (& rant)

Today was my first full day in Amsterdam, and it definitely was not what I expected (like, at all).

I think my past routine of not researching where I’m going and just turning up doesn’t really apply well to Amsterdam, even though I thought it would. I assumed the city itself would be quite pretty, and just walking around exploring the streets would be a fun time. I think because of the canals and how old the city itself is, I joined dots between Amsterdam and Venice (spoiler alert: I should not have). So I’m not too sure if my expectations were just skewed, or maybe you should be high the whole time, but I was a bit underwhelmed on today’s adventures.

My hostel is not right in the city centre, so my first task for the day was to take a train to the central station, which was only 15 minutes and super easy to figure out. Once I arrived, I pulled out my google maps and tried to sketch out a rough route of where I could walk to and explore. I found a couple of op shops/vintage shops that looked cute, so I made a plan to go between them as a little self guided walking tour. But for the first half an hour or so I really just wandered around the streets, trying to get the vibe of the city. I honestly think I ended up being closer to high from the second-hand smoke than I did to being orientated. I guess not being a massive weed fan doesn’t really lend yourself to an incredible time in Amsterdam?

The extra annoying thing is I can’t even tell you the places I saw, I genuinely just walked around. Not booking myself in to do something at a museum or something similar was probably a mistake, yes, but the other cities I’ve been to so far everyone recommends just walking around and exploring little spots, so there was no reason why Amsterdam couldn’t have been the same. And maybe I wasn’t in the right spots in Amsterdam to just wander, but I was genuinely confused at the lack of things to look at! Weirdly enough, one of the prettiest streets I found (during the day at least) turned out to be the Red Light District, which I stumbled upon completely accidentally. Just walking around from the station, I did a little survey and thought finally, I’ve found a cute spot, this is such a nice, quiet area! When I checked my location on google maps I was slightly take aback, not gonna lie. But hey, if it’s nice, it’s nice, I spent quite a while walking up both sides of the street. Once I knew it was the Red Light District, the decorated windows, boarded doors and sex shops did seem to make a bit more sense!

I kept walking around, crossed a couple of bridges, and found an Episode, a Dutch op shop/vintage store that my friend Anouk recommended me visit (she’s Dutch, so her recommendations are always going to be wonderful). And she was 100% correct with this one. I needed some time out of the weather anyway, it had started to rain and was quite overcast, so being in the little shop was a great reprieve. Once again, I cursed my lack of room in my suitcase, although even though I’m sure the pricing for Amsterdam was reasonable, it was still a bit on the expensive side to be able to justify actually buying anything. It turned out this specific Episode was on a street with a couple of other shops of a similar kind, so I spent quite a bit of time looking through them. There’s something about just looking through cute clothes that will always be therapeutic to me, even if I don’t end up buying anything.

From there the rain subsided slightly, and I ducked into an Albert Heijn, a Dutch supermarket chain I was familiar with from Rotterdam and stocked up on some food. For some weird reason my hostel is surrounded by apartment buildings yet it’s a 30 min walk to a decent supermarket, so I had to plan what food I would need and buy it this afternoon. From there I was happy to just keep wandering, hopefully stumbling onto a nice street or 2. But since that wasn’t guaranteed, I thought I’d be productive and call Mum for a bit to get a debrief on what was happening back home. We chatted for an hour or so, and I showed her some of the cute views. I was curious to know what she thought of the city since I knew she’d visited, to which she responded, “yes I know I’ve visited but honestly I can’t remember thar much”. Ok slay, Mum. Don’t need any further clarification there, hope you had a wonderful time 😉

Part of me wonders if the weather had something to do with my not completely enthralled first impressions of Amsterdam. I do think in a bright, warm day it would be much nicer. But, I also believe that an objectively good city to visit should be enjoyable in all seasons, so I’m not going to cut too much slack for that. I also think if I did my itinerary in reverse, and started with Amsterdam, I would’ve liked it much more. There’s something to be said about me feeling a bit burnt out with constantly being on the move, and I don’t really have a big passion or excitement to explore. I’m not sure if I can put that entirely down to my travel fatigue though, because in my current state right now I could think of nothing better than getting on a train and going for a walk in Ghent, so there’s something to be said for that. There’s also an edge to Amsterdam I wasn’t really expecting. Sure, I know weed-tourism (yes, that’s a thing) is very popular here, but it’s not a knew thing. I wasn’t expecting it to have an impact onto anything else, I was expecting it to be a casual part of everyday life. Unfortunately that was not the case. I saw quite a bit of tension with police as they tried to police activity. Even buying weed is legal, it’s not legal to smoke or consume in public places, just like with cigarettes. For some reason, this part of the law seems unreasonable to many people in the city, and I did feel bad for the police having to put up with it.

And the city itself is nowhere near as picturesque as what I was expecting it to be. If anything it reminded me a bit of Dublin, where the people were lovely and nightlife was vibrant, but the attraction is not the city itself. Which also confused me further, cos I do feel like people want to visit Amsterdam even if it’s not on a smoking-weed principle.

Another factor that is probably detracting from my experience is how expensive everything is to do. I guess I haven’t been seeing the crazy Euro summer prices in the other places I’ve visited. And this was on purpose, I could’ve gone to Italy and Greece and France, but I knew the automatic surcharge for the time I would be going. And though no one made me believe Amsterdam was cheap in comparison, I had no reason to believe it would be more expensive than Belgium, or Germany. But it definitely is! Sure, groceries are expensive, but that is what it is. I have to eat, so I don’t pay much attention to those prices, I have to pay them no matter what they are.

What’s been disappointing are the prices to go visit museums, galleries and other attractions in the city. I’d say the average cost to enter a museum so far (student ticket) was between €5-10, with €10 being on the pricy end. Entrance to the Rijksmuseum, which is probably the only one I did have interest going to, would cost me €25. There’s no student option, and that didn’t include any sort of tour or audio guide. Just to get into the building. I can’t justify that kind of money just to see some art. $50 for a museum entrance is crazy! The Van Gogh Museum is priced exactly the same as well, so it’s not even like I can pick the ‘lesser of 2 evils.’ This all adds to the quality of the experience I can have in the city. If walking around and getting to know the city that way isn’t the thing to do, then I have no problems visiting ticketed attractions, but to then charge that much for entry does rub me the wrong way.

I’m also not new to the fact that touristy cities overcharge tickets to popular attractions (think the Louvre, Vatican City etc) however, I would argue that in the cities of Paris, and Rome, where these attractions are located, you can have a valuable and enjoyable experience without visiting them at all. They’re obviously great to do, but not a ‘make or break’ situation to the experience of a city. It’s a bit slimy to hinge the success of Amsterdam’s tourism on either being high the whole time, or overcharging for its only worthwhile experiences.

That being said, I am here for a good amount of time, and I must admit whilst I was walking around today I was regretting my decision for being here for such a chunky period of time, I’m sure there’s more to see and explore than what I did today. And I’m definitely going to do a daytrip out to another town at some point which I’m really looking forward to, should get the vibes there that I wanted from Amsterdam. I’ve also made some friends too! The 2 guys in my dorm are so sweet, Matthew and Fabien. Matthew’s from the US and Fabien is German, and we’ve been getting along really well, so it’s nice coming back to the hostel in the afternoon knowing you have people to debrief with.

I also met 2 Aussie girls in the kitchen this evening who had just arrived, and they were the first other people from Perth I’ve met this whole time! Even crazier than that, we all live in a 10-minute drive from each other, they went to the other local high school to mine, and I’ve danced with Sarah’s sister before! The chances that we had never met back home yet we’re in a random hostel together on the outskirts of Amsterdam is just crazy to me. Hopefully our plans will line up and we can go out together at some stage, I was a bit apprehensive about trying to go clubbing in Amsterdam without knowing anyone, and I’d have to take the train back after, but if I’m with Sarah and Sian, I would definitely feel better about that.

Let’s try to have some fun at our last destination before exchange starts!

Currently MIA,

Lauren x