Scenes from Amsterdam

To wander about Amsterdam is to meet the friendliest people, drink delicious coffee, find hipster joints, smell weed, smoke weed, ingest weed in every way possible, know the sunlight at its amicable best and see a bunch of swans. I was quite the non tourist in Amsterdam. Didn't do one useful traveller thing. But I think I was all the luckier for it. I had the time to really chill with this chill city. Here are some, pictures from the time I was in Amsterdam. 

This is Jani. Writing on the bags of coffee he just purchased from his very lovely store. Sahit and I are like coffee bloodhounds in Europe. We simply must enter every inviting coffee store and buy coffee. We wound up flying back to Bangalore with almost 4 kilos of coffee souvenirs in our luggage. But here, in my mind, Jani is a rockstar autographing our coffee. 

Staying right in Amsterdam could prove to be a challenge and maybe even, expensive. Trains - I'm not a huge fan of because they're expensive again. But with the lovely buses, you can stay in the neighbouring districts. The bus drivers are extremely friendly and extremely helpful. Why would I recommend staying outside the city? You get to see a lot of open farms and cute houses, glossy horses and chubby cows lounging in sunlit pastures. Quite worth the commute.  

This doggie lives above an Indian restaurant. So it's no surprise he has no chill. He barks at every single passerby and make threats of jumping from his window to munch off a chunk of your calf or something. But right opposite his window is the chillest juice joint with the chillest dude you might have ever met in your life. Jay's Juice. I'm going to call the chill dude Mister Jay. We hung around Haarlemmerstraat quite a bit during our Amsterdam stay and we saw Mister Jay walking this no-chill doggo. They make quite the pair. 

As a child, I loved drawing. And tulips featured in almost every scenery photo I drew. Mostly because they're so easy to draw. So seeing them for the first time was like meeting an old friend. 

Amsterdam's brown cafes are such exciting places to be. Most of them have been around for a really long time. Places like Cafe Chris and Cafe Hoppe have been around since the 1600's. 

Clogs or clompen are the funnest shoes you'll ever see. Sure they are typical and touristy. But you cannot go to the Netherlands and not have a pair of souvenirs. 

How to have your cake and burn it off too. Amsterdam has it all figured out.