Amsterdam: Bike Taxi's

This past weekend I traveled to Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. After stepping off the train I instantly noticed how much was going on in the city, and the first obstacle was finding our hostel in an unknown place. I rode on the train with 90 percent of our class, but it was up to just Katie and I to find where we were staying, the Flying Pig. Getting off the train Katie claimed she knew where she was going, when in reality she had NO idea. This became a little overwhelming because we were two American girls with large backpacks lost in the city, especially when we were grabbing unwanted attention of the foreign men. We quickly decided to take the easy way out and hop on a bike taxi (something I highly recommend if you are ever lost in the city, it’s five Euros for anywhere you need to go at any hour of the day). Little did we know Katie and I would end up taking this same bike taxi two more times that same night to get around the city due to us being directionally challenged, which should make future weekends very interesting. Our first ride on the bike I started to notice the different territories within Amsterdam. There are three different lanes on the streets of the city, a lane for bikers, trams and cars. This creates a lot of competition for space once you add people into the equation. With all three lanes of traffic it makes the city seem like it is in constant motion and almost made me want to be doing something every second I was in Amsterdam. With all the biking and trams it seemed everyone always had somewhere important to be. The first night we were in and out of our hostel in minutes ready to explore the city, however, our friends were staying way on the other side of town, which resulted in another bike ride. We took the bike up to the red light district and we got to experience the stereotypical Amsterdam: naked girls in windows and coffee shops. This district is a complete territory of its own within the city. The red light district itself is only about a street long, but I think a must see when traveling to the city. But at night it can be kind of a scary place for girls so naturally Katie and I took the first bike taxi we saw and got home safely. A total of three bike taxi's in one night. If you are ever lost in Amsterdam or are just as directionally challenged as Katie and I, I highly recommend asking someone for directions because the majority of people we ran into spoke English or hop on a taxi bike. Otherwise you might end up leading your friends around the city aimlessly for an hour trying to get to “your cooler side” of town, which happened to Katie and I. One thing I learned from the weekend is I should never lead a group around Amsterdam again and I’ll never believe Katie when she claims she knows where she is going.