Welcome to the penultimate day of my Europe tour. This day was filled with travel and exploring parts of Amsterdam that I couldn’t during my first visit to the city.
The day started off with me traveling from Paris to Amsterdam. As you might have guessed it, I used BlaBlaCar to get from Paris to Amsterdam and it was the hilarious exchange between yours truly and the driver of the car that it still gives me a chuckle remembering it. So, when I searched for people driving from Paris to Amsterdam that morning, I chose someone with the cheapest price and they told me to get to a spot where I will be picked up. Now, the person that I was talking to was a lady and the driver of the car was a guy, so I thought of the situation as a little phishy, but as I was traveling during the morning-noon hours, it gave me enough courage to try it out. The lady told me the person who is going to pick me up has a big ponytail in French, which I thought was a funny way to describe someone. When I looked at the person, I chuckled a little as he really had a long ponytail. Anyway, after this, the journey was quite straightforward. We stopped at a rest area for a quick food and bathroom break and I spent 50 cents just to use the restroom. I requested them to drop me at Eindhoven Centraal Station as they were heading different route than Amsterdam Centraal. I saw how massive Eindhoven station was and spent a few minutes exploring before heading to Amsterdam.
Like last time, I booked The Flying Pig hostel. The only difference was that I stayed in a room with 4 beds and now I was going to stay in a room with 6 beds, so, it was relatively cheaper. After checking in, it was time to explore some nearby gift shops to see what to buy for my friends and family back in India and I couldn’t find a lot of appropriate gifts, so settled for some keychains and magnets.
After doing some window shopping, I had one last spot on my list and that was to visit a restaurant called Moeders. This place is famous for having pictures of mothers from across the world. I thought of putting a picture of my mom there too, unfortunately, it was heavily packed and I couldn’t get a seat, so, I had to return given the wait time was more than an hour.
Once I got back from Moeders, I relaxed for some time and took a quick nap. By the time I woke up, there were a couple last few spots on my list that one should definitely visit when they are in Amsterdam. These spots are quite taboo to talk about around your family, so here it goes.
The first spot was Red Light Secrets Museum. I figured I should visit this place before heading to the Red Light District. Glad, I was staying near the Downtown area, which allowed me to walk less and get to these spots quicker. This was my last evening in Amsterdam, so I just wanted to relax and take the day in. The crowd at the museum was more than I expected and there was a line for you to get in. They were charging a ticket price, so I opted out from actually entering the premises and just took a couple pictures from the outside.
The next spot was Condomerie. When I was doing my research, this place stood out as it was highly unusual and interesting place to visit. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow me to click pictures inside but I was fascinated by the variety of condoms and what not. This was certainly the most unique place that I had been to throughout my Europe trip.
And that brings us to the last stop of my Europe trip Red Light District. Everyone that you talk to who visited Amsterdam will definitely say that you should visit the Red Light District and I am the same. I would highly recommend visiting this place, just to see how liberal the people are and how prostitution is treated as a business or a normal job here. I was fascinated by the casual approach of all the ladies in the Red Light District. I am not going to lie, I did feel like going on, but, looking at those ladies and how tall they were and their attractive physique, I didn’t really feel that I was going to go through it. For the first time in my life, I was actually a little scared at the thought of sleeping with someone, gosh, I know its funny, but, that’s how I felt. I called my best friend from there and told her how I was feeling and we had a good laugh about it. Man, it was an interesting way to end my Europe tour.
It was a perfect way to end the evening. I was tired with the 6 hour car ride and exploring everything on foot, so I had to call it a night and get ready to head home as I had a flight to catch to my motherland – India.
Next stop: April 13, 2019 – Homecoming, Patansaongi, Maharashtra, India.
stochasticity 
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