So we headed out into the city. We ambled through the red light district where the window displays were just opening up. I expected it to be a lot seedier. I actually was more intimidated by the coffee shops (not that I went in any). Naively I thought they’d be like the coffee shops you get over here with people sitting around sipping expensive Latte with a smoke in hand. But they were dark dingy and some had loud house music pouring out and the clientele seemed to be proportionately male.
The red light windows had “ladies” in their underwear sitting on stools more often than not engrossed in their phones. I did wonder what they were doing I assumed it was just regular things like doing an online shop or texting their mates. I even saw one women eating noodles while waiting on her next customer. I think it didn’t seem as sleazy as it is legal, so out there in the open; and I hope less likely the women are forced into situation they are not happy with.
We pootled around the streets looking for a bar, it was only around 6pm but due to the sizes of the bars and the number of people (it was Saturday night) we found it hard to find somewhere. We did eventually stumble into a bar where we could get a seat, didn’t catch the name, but from their selection of only Red or White wine I decided on trying another beer. I tried a palm as we sat around and chatted about what we thought of Amsterdam and it collective array of nightlife and shops. We’d even, on the way, passed the “Condom-ory” a museum/shop dedicated to the wonderful world of the protective aid.
My Palm beer wasn’t very nice, also this is where I decided to taste S salted liquorice at that point the beer tasted a bit better at least when it was taking the foul liquorice taste out of my mouth. Once we’d finished we decided to head over to the less festive part of time to find another drinking establishment (and some pain-kills for J neck as the wasp sting was still hurting). We walked past the station again and headed into a different part of town.
This was a more residential part of the town with lots of houses/apartments. Because of the time of day the lights were on. Also because, as H informed me, in the past the people of the Netherlands used to suspect people of Witchcraft if they shut their curtains, you could see right in to people’s living rooms and kitchens. So of course we had a nose, and I surmised that I could definitely live there although I think I’d need a lottery win to have a house in that part of the world.
Even though we’d only finished eating around 2 hour previously we passed this lovely little restaurant called Duende www.cafe-duende.nl . H thought it might be Dutch tapas (Never did find out what that is) but it was traditional Spanish tapas. The restaurant was quite out of the way and we only found it as we had just wandered aimlessly through the streets. It was beautifully tiled and like the other restaurant a bit cramped we moved 3 times till we all were happy with our table.
It was a really relaxed atmosphere and the staff were brilliantly helpful giving us English menus so some Cava we ordered meat, cheese and Olives, deep fried cheese, Spanish meatballs, Tomato and herb topped bread, garlic prawns and my favourite calamari. At first we were worried that this would not be enough for the 4 of us. Although after digging in we all were feeling full again but did manage to finish ever last bit of food J. It was delicious and I would recommend anyone heading that way if you can find it eat there. H said she would definitely bring other visitors out that way. Giving it a 9/10 only 1 point off as there wasn’t enough sauce with the deep fried cheese lol..
Having our stamina levels topped up we walk all of 5 building before we found another restaurant/bar with outside seating. It did boast the appearance of blankets and heaters so we decided to sit outside. After ordering a bottle of Pinot, we discovered that the there was only one blanket, luckily J and myself was already under it, so we were in no mood to give it up. Also the heaters even though they were put on after a horrendous noise and a burst of flame from the gas powered monster, both us and the bar staff agreed that they were better off than on. So we sat in the cold clear evening chatting and drink wine.
While we were half way through our glasses in between our shivers. Some of the group wanted to go home, I pointed out it was only just gone 8pm and I insisted that we stayed out till at least 10pm lol. J spotted another bar across the street, our next destination. We crossed the deserted road, toward the deserted bar, unsure it was open due to the lack of patrons. Finding the door open, Im sure there was an unnatural creek and I hear a distant crow caw, we wandered in. The walls from ceiling to floor were adorned in framed football shirts and it smelt of beer and broken dreams. The bar boasted a barman and a lone drunk sitting slumped over the bar. The rest of the girls were in a merry mood, I was slightly worried we wouldn’t make it out alive.
It was my turn and we decided to have aperitifs S & I had “43” and J&H had Drambuie. I got the order while smiling and nodding when the drunk on the bar started talking to me in Dutch even though I ordered in England. I paid my money, grab the drinks and made it back to the table. 80s music was kicking out over the PA system. We sipped our cold warming liquid and bopped along to the sounds of yester year. We were definitely started to get more relaxed and H now has some singing evidence on her phone. The girls wanted to stay on as we neared the bottoms of the glass. I was starting to get worried about our safety as I looked over my shoulder back at the bar. I have never seen a man clean a glass in a more sinister way. So using my great power of persuasion and the fact they were all a bit merry we headed on.
One more street then another bar, back to fizz and we plotted making our fortune, by writing our story of how we met. Think of the famous five with four, drinking and talking nonsense. As it had gone 10 we could head back to the station. Even thought there was a sign pointing one way in our infinite wisdom we turned and went the other way. A couple of street later we ended up at another bar up the stairs and had wine. We got chatting to some locals who recommended we try the local Gin “Jenever” it was horrid, burnt all the way down. Although I did manage to finish it off.
Next thing we knew it had gone 12 and we didn’t know what time the trains ran too so we high tailed out of there. We had an interesting time getting back, one of the crew decided to lie down in the street for a photo. We flagged a cab when we realised the GPS was broken and we ended up even further away from the station. We had 7 minutes to make the train he drove like the wind got us there with 3 mins to spare.
I leaped from the cab like a Gazelle followed closely by another one of the gang. I darted across the road dodging cars and Trams. Turned around to see where the rest of the team were. One was hot on my heels the others…. Well all I’ll say is one was on the floor tried to get up only to end up back up on the floor when my other friend oblivious to what was going on right next to her was calling to us over the busy road. Needless to say we missed the train and had to wait 45mins. So I had some more fries covered in Mayo and Ketchup, think there was more Mayo and Ketchup than there was chips.
End of the night we got back to Utrecht couldn’t get a train back to Hilversum so flagged down a cab. After leaving by the steepest train step in the world seriously they must have built it on a side of a cliff. Go in turned to our host and asked her where she lived, which at the time she was unsure of. Luckily as the chips had soaked up some of the booze we managed to him to take us aback to a Hilversum landmark and directed him from there.
So finally back after a brilliant day. I scaled the mountain of the stairs got a huge glass of water and fell into a drink induced sleep.
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