There are a few museums you can check out, including the Van Gogh museum (duh), the Photography Museum (or FOAM as its called) which always has really cool exhibits, and the modern art museum (I can't remember what's it's called because I never went there since it was under renovations, but apparently it's really cool and has a Lichtenstein exhibit right now).
Food-wise, the Dutch leave much to be desired. But there are a few diamonds in the rough. You NEED to eat Indonesian food while you're there (colonialism yay). You can obviously find it at little snack shops but if you want something nicer/sit-down go to Cafe Kadijk (really cool decorations too) or Kantjil Tijger (pricier but really bomb food). There's also an awesome Italian restaurant called Vapiano which is located in the Central Public Library (pretty close to the train station) which is amazing. The library itself deserves a visit just because it's beautiful and looks like an Apple store for books. If you want really good breakfast (like, American style if that's what you've been missing, I know I was) go to Barney's Uptown. Barney's Uptown is like the sister-bar of Barney's, a really popular coffeeshop. If you do want to partake in authentic Dutch cuisine, get some pancakes at Pancakes Upstairs (it's this tiny restaurant upstairs in an old Dutch house, it's really cool)
My favorite places to go around town were Spui (also, the pricier Indonesian restaurant has a cheap take-out spot there), Newmarkt (touristy but with lots of cute cafes and coffeeshops), there's a cool market most days at Waterlooplein (near the Rembrandt museum too), Harlemerstraat (where you can find Barney's), and the Jordaan (a really bohemian area).
For bars, I suggest the student bars Skek and the Kriterion, and the squatter bar De Dos (I think I'm spelling that right). For coffeeshops, Kadinsky (in Spui) is really classy, Hill Street Blues (in Newmarkt) is nice because they have good milkshakes, and Blue Bird. Dampkring is the most famous (apparently it was in Ocean's Twelve) but I never wound up going there because it's pretty expensive.
Obviously see the Red Light district. But don't buy any food/drink/whatever there because it's hella expensive.
I would definitely recommend that you rent a bike, if you'll be there for a few days.
PS - "Thank you" = Dankuwel (donk-queue-vell) or just Danku, "Please" = Alstubleift (al-stew-bleeft), hello = hello, the letter "g" is all phlegmy, and the letter combination "ij" sounds like a long 'I' or a 'y' noise ('tijger' sounds like tiger). That's all you really need to know. If they sense that you don't speak Dutch fluently, they'll just switch to English, which can definitely be annoying when you're trying to learn the language.
15 years ago
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