I Amsterdam

Amsterdam pilot: The One With Amsterdam

Amsterdam is also famous for its red-light district, de Wallen. Window prostitution is legal in the Netherlands at specific places. The red-light district is located in the centre of the city along major canals and is clearly marked on maps.
Centered around the Wallen, but also elsewhere in the city, coffee shops sell cannabis. This is not completely legal but is tolerated when small quantities of cannabis (up to 5 grams) are involved.

: Wikipedia on Amsterdam


History of Holland? Geography of the low-lying states? and to the extent of my patience, Belgian Chocolates???
Whats that?! No one was interested
2^nd June -- (Ohh! ya . Happy BDay, Sushant!)

Amsterdam 1x01: The One Where Prakhar Gets Away

7 IITians to catch a 06h55 train on a Saturday morning, after a 5 day weekend from the other side of the not-so-early-rising-Paris-town. What is the probability of success?

Thalys happens to be a super-fast-TGV league luxury train. & bloody expensive as well! 15 €, 1 way! Thalys serves the BeNeLux countries, linking them with France and Germany. Hence, almost all of them, start from Gare Du Nord, which is the northern terminus of Paris. As luck would be, Versailles is in the west and Lozere (from where Avin, Maru, Pandey, DJ & a debutant Das, would come) is in the south. Paris dutifuly works 35 hours in the week and no more & doesn't even think of Saturday dawns.
Waking up at 05h20, was a good idea. Not waking up earlier - was a bad idea.
In anticipation, of failing myself - I had cleverly (ya.. rite) shaved and bathed the night before. Out of bed, dot on the 4th snooze, I woke up Prakhar and was ready to roll at 05h28. Prakhar has, by then dutifully taken his place on the comode. The 5 from Lozere, had by now comfortably boarded the train, that would take them to Gare Du Nord - no change. Things didn't really look bright then. Nevertheless, managed to get along with Prakhar onto the 1^st bus of the day. [Ohh! Did I mention that Paris prefers to sleep on Saturdays]. Since, it was the premier bus, managed to drain out some guilt, inspite of the fact that the bus wasn't supposed to be caught anyways.
Reached Versailles Chantiers at 05h56. 59 minutes to the departure .
Doable. Yay.
No train from Chantiers, till 06h15. There was only 1 four letter word, I could think off!

Got on to train for Montparnasse - sans arrêt. Some angel removed a few stops. 06h27 touched Montparnasse. As luck would have it, Metro ligne 4, is farthest from the Grand Lines. By farthest, I mean a few hundred metres, involving a 4 lane walker, as well. When your train leaves from another station, 10 stops away from the subway station abt 250 m away, in 20 mins - you know its a long haul and there is only 1 four letter word you can think off! Apparently, Prakhar can't run/ walk/ or even sit for a prolonged stretch. As a result, he was caught napping, literally, when the metro came & sleep walked into it, only to resume his reclining stable state in minutes.
In Metro at 06h35. 20 minutes and counting. 11 odd stops in between.
Now there was this peculiar issue of Prakhar, having to validate his Eurail Pass. Its done, at a SNCF counter. So when we reached the Gare Du Nord, station, I directed Prakhar to the reservation counters of the train and steamed down the station for Thalys at platform number 8, and up the platform for coach 16.
DJ, aka Bahraini, was faithfully waiting at the gate. I managed to catch hold of him. Climbed aboard the train, and within less than 5 minutes, the train left. Closely made it.
& ya! Prakhar didn't. The only time, I was not with him, he managed to miss the train. Everyone, had to obviously, blame me for it!
7 IITians can't do a thing right, at 06h55 on a Saturday.
There was only 1 way, the other 5 made it - Nightout mara!

Amsterdam 1x02: The One With the Beach.

After a lazed out, Thalys journey, we reached Amsterdam Centraal at about 11h00. Clueless, as to what we should do thereafter, we met another Indian, by the name of Abhishek in a nearby Doner, who had slightly better homework than ours. He suggested, that we go to a nearby beach called - Zaandvoort. It was a Topless optional beach, so arriving at a consensus, didn't take long. Eurail entitled us to free travel. We changed trains at Harlem, and were at the beach soon. Meanwhile, we let Prakhar join us.
We had nice fun, though most were ill-prepared for getting wet. I, went into the Sea in Jeans and that too the only pair I had on the trip. whatever - who cares :)
Saw a few topless women, my first experience at that. Respected everyones privacy and have no pics!
Left for the city at about 4.

Amsterdam 1x03: The One With the Prostitute

As the night closed in, few other than me, were interested in seeing the city. But none the less, I dragged them across town to Anne Frank House, where the entry fee was a deterrent. Nonetheless walked about 5 kms. around the city, along its canals and so on. Pictures can be found on - http://picasaweb.google.com/shantanugangal/Amsterdam .
Soon, the time for the inevitable was upon us. We went to the Red-Light district, which is in the town center and had a look at what Window Prostitution is! Its exactly, what the words mean. There is a window, real girls standing in place of where mannequins should be, and sex is for sale.
Since, drugs in small quantities are for sale, some brownies were bought and consumed. Anyone who had it, said it was mild and doesn't seem like will induce a high. 'Disheartened', subsequent plans were made.
I will keep this really short & skip the details.
1. D11 2. 021 3. D02 4. 014, in that order.
D10 chickened out and D08, along with 032 covered the event.

As the men, narrated stories of their spoils, the joy was apparent.

Amsterdam 1x04: The One Where DJ steals the thunder

It was about 2hrs from the time, he ate the brownies, that DJ got hashed. In front of our eyes, he started flying, hallucinating, felt like a SuperMan, committed brave deeds and apologized for his behavior - all at once. He downed some Orange juice, yet gave clear signs of what was to come. We blessed our stars, that Das and Maru, were still contributing, in controlling DJ.

Amsterdam 1x05: The One Where they are down all night.

As we regaled, at DJ behavior, we made our way out of the RedLight area. While, they could clearly have wanted another go, at 50€, it was going to be among the single most expensive 'purchase'.
Meanwhile, we tried to find a hostel / hotel, for the night. All the hotels, howsoever costly, were booked. The train station, is closed at 1 in the night and there were no trains, to anywhere after 00h30. The shops, thankfullly (unlike Paris), were in no mood to shut.
And then it hit.
Within a space of 10 minutes, the remaining 4, were down. The only thing, they could think of was either doing something crazy (as DJ continued to do) or sleep. And before, we made any decisions on the arrangements for the night, they were dozing.

The fraternity of the hood, was down and out.
All of them, were wearing similar pull-overs saying Paris.
All of them, had greyish hoods, that covered their heads.
All of them, were heavily doped.
All of them, were sleeping hunched on their bags, on a street in Amsterdam.

Prakhar hadn't bought any such pullover, he didn't have a hood, he wasn't doped, but he slept!
Abhishek and myself, stood guard as the fraternity slept.

It was great fun doing so, but we knew it wasn't a routine practice since people were unabashedly giving us glances, glares and to top it off - people were taking snaps. It didn't seem good. Amsterdam, is no Paris. There is known crime. It was a foreign city. And to make matters worse, we were at the head of the street, from where traffic from the red-light area, spilled onto the street.
It was a good thing : Since there was constant traffic and hence a lesser chance that we would be publicly looted or something alike.
It was a bad thing : Since most of those coming from the prostitutes, were also high on alcohol, if not drugs.

Every adventure in Bombay, seemed way more safer at this time. With 5 people to care for, there was little 2 others could do, in face of an intentional crime. We walked around the bench to keep ourselves warm. We talked to each other, about how vulnerable our position was. We posed for a few pictures. We forbade a few others. It was time, for rush of thoughts and emptiness of mind. It was a time when you had to be responsible for 6 others, as weather induces sleep. It was a time, when thoughts like - 'I did no thing & am up at night', come and have to stoved away, faster than they make you lose your calm. It was the time of my life!

Just after 01h00, 3 cycle-mounted police came up and rounded us. "A fine of 75€, for sleeping on the streets" :O
But since, we were visibly foreigners & they believed us, when we said that all hotels were full. They figured that we weren't miscreants and let us off, after directing us to a few cheap hostel locations, a couple of streets away.

As they moved away, the threat of paying a fine, if caught a second time, clearly loomed large and got everyone moving (each to his capacity). A group of 8, clearly wasted trying to work their way across a new town, isn't a pretty sight.
But we made it to the 1^st : No Vacancy. Similar, was the case, with the 2^nd & a few more.
At last, a hotel guy, looking at our condition offered us an apartment, at 40€ per head, for a few hours of sleep. It was atleast 1.5 times, as costly compared to what a diligent traveler might end up with. But, there was little squabbling space and we accepted.
The apartment, turned out to be great for 4, which meant that 8 of us, were happy to adjust and slept off on the beds, within minutes.

Amsterdam 1x05: The One With The Morning After

Thankful to be alive, with our passports, Eurail and life intact, we slept till past 9! Incidentally, our apartment, was in the Red Light District as well!
While, the rest were back to almost being normal, DJ continued to be a Super Man! :D
Since, visiting museums, wasn't very high on the priority list, we decided to leave Amsterdam for Den Hague, as we could see the famous Dykes (finally, the geography of the Low-lying Nations ;) ), and possibly, the International Court of Justice.
After grabbing a quick bite, we left for The Hague .. Another Day - Another Story - Another Time!