We walked around and around until our feet led us to the De Nieuwe Kerk and the plaza in front of it where doves were being fed by tourists. I went looking for the Coster Diamond tour but ended up in a souvenir shop where I bought my ref magnets. Well, maybe next time I get to join that tour to see where the girl's bestfriends are! :P
Walking towards the Centraal Station, we also saw a van Gogh exhibit but unfortunately, it was already closing and they were displaying "remastered" paintings in 3D form. It would have been nice to see them but I wanted to see the real ones.
The Centraal Station is a really cool building with its size and color. I just had to have a lot of pictures taken of me here - just to say I was really there! LOL. Anyway, I'm a tourist, right, and that is what you do! According to Wikipedia, this main railway hub is used by 250,000 passengers daily, excluding transferring passengers. It was designed by Pierre Cuypers and A.L. van Gendt and opened in 1889 (wow! very old!) and features a roof span of about 40 meters (I told you it's huge!) fabricated in cast iron by Andrew Handyside of Derby, England. Hmmm... Isn't the Eiffel also made of cast iron? Imagine this: this railway station was opened only a year before the Philippines declared its independence from Spain at Kawit, Cavite. When there was so much progress happening on the other side of the world, our country had still been struggling for its independence. We've got a long way to go.
The next stop was the -- yes, you guessed it right -- the Red Light District. I don't think one should pass up a walk at the Red Light District when in Amsterdam. It was not yet nightfall but there were already windows with red lights switched on and women being displayed, doing their jobs. While walking, I was not sure how to act actually. Should I smile when we make eye contact or should I ignore them? May I look (or stare) at them and not make them feel uncomfortable? But it seems that it's me who is uncomfortable. Blocks and blocks along both sides of the canal, red lights switched on one by one, and people just pass by with some of them occasionally looking at the "display." There were young women and old women. On the chubby side, and on the skinny side. Blonde, brunette and other colors of hair. Yet all of them made up and wearing the uniform lingerie (or a robe). Then I realized, that just near my hotel, is a building with clear windows and there were red lights on it. Apparently, the hotel I chose for us, is still near the Red Light District. No wonder I also smell weed while taking a shower. The smell permeates -- I thought it was only my hair that smelled.
The sky began to turn dark and my companion and I decided on a last adventure - see our classmate and his family for one more time and have dinner with them. The only challenge was, their hotel was way out of the city center. Fortunately for us, there was this old lady whom I talked to and helped us get off our stop. We saw our friend, ate abon (yummy!) with his family, and played with his kid. Sadly, time flew so fast and we had to say our goodbyes. We took the tram again back to Centraal Station, walked towards our hotel and happily see that our friend had arrived (but nowhere in sight) since his stuff is all over the place.
It was a tiring day, starting with only a few hours' sleep, teary goodbyes, airplane ride, teary goodbyes again, train ride, hotel hunting, walking tour, dinner with friends, goodbyes and hellos again.
Tomorrow is a brand new day and I'm excited about it. I'm going back to Germany!
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