. Welcome to the second part of my Amsterdam adventure. I promise you won’t be disappointed. If you hadn’t, please have a read about how the Part 1 went.
The next item on the list was to explore a couple of beautiful museums (from the outside) that Amsterdam had to offer. The first museum was Rijksmuseum and the second one was Van Gogh Musuem. During this trip, I realized how much I hate visiting museums. The first thing was the ticket price. I didn’t want to spend 50+ Euros on just exploring something inside of a building and it appearing too wise for my dumb brain. Also, you must know that I was exploring Amsterdam during the full bloom of the Tulip Festival, so, you can imagine, I didn’t want to let go of this opportunity to explore the outdoors beauty and ditched the plan of purchasing tickets to go inside these museums. I briefly visited the Amsterdam Downtown area and when I got bored of all the walking and seeing countless of beautiful tulips around me, I had a brilliant idea of purchasing the Heineken Brewery experience tickets to get inside one of the most famous breweries in the world and see myself how the experience looks like. The tickets were cheap too as I didn’t mind spending 17 Euros on a ticket where I would get to learn about some history of Heineken and possible drink a one or two pint of beers. I had my fingers crossed but I wasn’t prepared for what was about to come next.
It was just a few minutes walk from Rijksmuseum to the Heineken Brewery factory tour. I knew I was going to have fun the moment I walked in. I was surrounded by funny people who knew how to have fun. Everybody knew exactly why they were here and were waiting to get their hands on some Heinekens. But, before doing that, we had to go through the usual “tour” part of the experience. I didn’t really understand the brewing process, except knowing that they use wheat to prepare Heineken and that was it. I told myself, Milind, you are too dumb to understand it, so just better enjoy the tour and just wait for some cool pictures to be taken. There were a couple of spots where I really loved taking pictures and they were designated “selfie spots” for the social media posts. The penultimate part of the tour was simply amazing and something that I hadn’t experienced before. Man, the presentation, the lighting, the sound, and the experience as a whole was out of this world. I remember enjoying it to the fullest and remember other people awing the experience; At that moment, I realized this was worth the time and money.
The next part of the experience was what we were there for. The tour guide told us that this was the freshest beer we were going to taste in our lives, and boy, he was right. The taste of that beer is still with me and even after three years, I hadn’t had a beer which tasted like that one. I still crave for that taste from time to time. But, the more exciting that was waiting for me at the end of the brewery.
At the start of the tour, they had given us a wristband to wear, which told the authorities that we were allowed to wander inside the brewery and when the tour ended, our guide told us that we could use the beads on those wristbands in exchange of a glass of beer, which was freshly brewed right at that brewery. I exchanged my 2 beads and chugged my beers in no time. The time our tour ended was a perfect Segway to start the evening festivities for the brewery so they decided to play a little game and whoever played, they got a free bottle of beer. Chugging down a couple beers didn’t quench my thirst, so I decided to join in. The game was to pour beer perfectly in a glass, without forming any bubbles. It felt easier when I saw other people doing it. When I got to the stage, I knew it was harder than it looked. I sucked at that game, but, fortunately, the person that I was competing with sucked even more, handing me the win. That’s how I won a glass of Heineken. Right after that, a couple people approached me saying my enthusiasm impressed them and they wanted to give their beads to me. A beer connoisseur in me instantly accepted their invitation and got a couple more beers for myself. I must say after having 5-6 rounds of beers, I felt little uneasy, but it was all worth it. At the end of the evening, before heading out, I wrote my name on the huge blackboard with the date, sort of commemorating my entire experience in that single picture. I must say this was the best thing I did, at least today. I left the place, a little dizzy, and just smiling at all the beautiful people riding their bicycles outside. It was time to head to the hotel to get some rest and possibly, wear of the effect of many beers on my body.
When I was walking back to the hotel, I saw how a typical traffic jam looks like in Amsterdam. All the beautiful girls and grown men were riding bicycles with their fancy outfits and you could see that they took the entire road, causing the traffic to block. Being a little high on the beer made me smile at this situation, because it didn’t feel real to me.
Anyway, I got back to the hotel somehow and just laid on my bed for a couple of hours. When I woke up from my evening nap, I realized it was dark outside, so I decided to head to the bar that was downstairs and see what’s up with Amsterdam at night. I was pleasantly surprised to find the hostel bar was buzzing with people. There was a pool table, a smoking room where people were smoking mostly weed and a small area for some food and drinks. It was a karaoke night, so, everyone was taking part in singing some songs. Too tired to be in a social environment, I decided to opt out this activity and headed outside to have a quick bite. After exploring a lot, I decided to have a burger as the jet lag was finally catching up to me. I decided to call it a night at around midnight as I had an early checkout the next morning for my next stop of Europe trip: Brussels in Belgium.
I had a long day today and going to have a long day tomorrow too, so, I better get charged up a little.
Next stop: Brussels, Belgium.
stochasticity 
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