Backpacks Bauy-Amsterdam
We were digesting the trip to Amsterdam and only now put it on the blog. We promise it wasn't from the dumplings👀
We left Portugal on the 29th for a short long weekend getaway to visit the Netherlands for the first time together. We arrived around noon and went from the airport to the city by train and the ticket for that trip was around 3 € per person.
We chose to book a hotel in a more guarded area of the city center, but we were very eager to see the hotel as it was called the most musical hotel and the perfect home for musicians or enthusiasts! With only 50 rooms, the Q-Factory Hotel had music studios, 2 concert halls and a nightclub cafe morefunky ! Every day of the trip we had the opportunity to hear and see concerts when arriving or leaving the hotel which brought avibeA lotcoolAnd alternative to the whole hotel.
Within the activities that we managed to do on this trip the museumNxt AmsterdamWas definitely the one that let us down the most. It is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated toNew Media ArtExploring the various sensations of the audiences who visit you. Everything looks great so far, right? So, the problem was not with the quality of the exhibitions because they were, in fact, incredible! The ticket cost € 25 and was very out of the city and we ended up walking 1 hour and 15 minutes on foot, for housing areas under construction, with a very apocalyptic aspect, to have a visit of about 15 or 20 minutes. Again, the pieces were incredible, but the museum, perhaps because it is recent, has only 3 rooms which, in our view, did not justify the very high value that we paid to enter.
To walk around the city we opted for public transport and we had already bought them! It was 45 € each for the 4 days and we could use it on trains, meters and buses and it was quite worthwhile because the public transport network of the city is excellent and well equipped!
What about the food? For those who know me know I travel with new dishes and restaurants. Amsterdam ended up surprising us because all the meals were amazing!
We started in a brutal Mexican, the Local Dealer, and the two together stayed around 70 € and only became "more expensive" because each glass of drink cost 11 €. Ramen is a fairly common dish in the city and what we visited was also quite good. The highlight of the trip goes to Karavaan. Although neither I nor Vítor were vegetarians, the food was really amazing! There are several restaurants in the chain scattered around the city and, as we liked it so much, it was the only location we ended up repeating-very willingly😋
We also made the mandatory visit to theRed Light DistrictAnd we ended up not being as shocked as that. Obviously it is a “bizarre” image for us Portuguese, it is a world apart stripped of prejudices or shame. They take over the body as almost a free property of each and from which each one can do with the same as he wants! On my side, as a woman who can make her choices, I think it is very good that everyone can do freely what they want without the fear that others can judge us!
We choose to leave the obvious to the end-Cann🌱Bis
Talk about the Netherlands without talking about this topic? Impossível.
Despite being a mandatory experience in visiting the city, the truth is that it is not something that we connect so much today as we might want to know in the past. Even so, we wanted to experience the feeling of total freedom and without discomfort in the eyes of others and, of course, it is super different from what happens in Portugal.
It turns out to be funny too from time to time to see people socks inKnock-outOr to vomit for taking things to the extreme precisely because there was this freedom-a large part of them, most likely, were tourists. As in the countries from which they are also prohibited, they end up wanting to do too much and pass the limits making this freedom something almost negative because they do not have fun.
Despite this, we didn't visit anyCoffee ShopBecause the environment didn't make me very comfortable and they were all very dark. We opted before for a kind of drive-in but it was done on foot. There was a small window, people buy and travel, with nowhere to sit.
This difference in realities between Portugal and Amsterdam about the legality of cannabis is something that ends up being of interest to all generations, whether to be in favor or against and, as in all topics, there are two sides of the coin.
On the BAUY side, we believe that legalization contributes directly and immediately to the reduction of crime and trivializes the issue, ceasing to be a kind of “forbidden fruit”, thus making it, also less appeasable for those who do so just because they want to challenge laws and rules.
Thus, the Netherlands is a mandatory destination within Europe for anyone due to the shock of realities necessary for us to evolve as a society, stripping us of prejudices and picuinhices related to the lives outside our own✨
Text: Francisco Barros