FOAM (the photography museum)
http://www.foam.org/

COBRA Amstelveen (museum of the CoBrA avantgarde movement)
http://www.cobra-museum.nl/en/home.html

http://www.woktowalk.lt/ when your high

and if you've got the time get the train to breda and go to the graphic design museum

http://www.graphicdesignmuseum.nl/

awesome stuff! thanks guys, gotta check it out :)

keep ideas for places coming! i'll collect em all. thanks!

Haarlem is little more than 15 minutes away by train, and this place is great:
http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/home/?language=en

Anne Frank musuem (Depressing but very inspirational) The Van Gogh musuem was really nice.

The cannal cruises are a bit overrated but worth going on if the weather is good.

Always watch out for bikes, the Deutch ride every where.

There's a nice little road of boutigues and vintage stores down by where the Vans shop is.

Get a map, silly as it sounds, I went with my family and the first day we were in Amsterdam, we ended up walking in a straight line from the train station and where we ended up was literally just a coffee shop district. That's not to say that there isn't coffee shops every where in Amsterdam, because there is.

You'll find that it feels like a very safe, nice city. All the buildings in the centre of city are really nice architecturally.

The red light district is worth walking through as an experience (I walked through with one of my sisters and my dad, who was holding a shopping bags). It's not very large and runs along two sides of a street.

Opposite the flower market there is a really good falafel place, I can't remeber the name of, it's green though.

If I remeber anything else I'll let you know.

I'm sure that you'll have a great time. There are a lot of familar brands in Super Markets if you keep an eye out and the shop C1000 sells American candy and cereal.

Elliothread said:the shop C1000 sells American candy and cereal.

Definitely what you should be eating in Europe.

I recommend checking out this shop
http://outlandstore.com/

When you come back, you'll be drawing like Austin Pardun...

I went, I saw, I got high.......

Elliothread said: The Van Gogh musuem was really nice.

It's fantastic, crowded as hell though, and there's likely to be a long queue at the ticket office.

Elliothread said: You'll find that it feels like a very safe, nice city.

The feeling of being safe wanes away after midnight, and is completely gone by 2 AM or so, when drunk tourists disappear back to their hotels to pass out and more unsavoury characters emerge from the shadows.

Rico said:

Elliothread said:the shop C1000 sells American candy and cereal.

Definitely what you should be eating in Europe.

I agree with you, it's just that some people aren't willing to try different things. Though I must admit that I wasn't as adventurous as I should of been as I became a vegetarian a few weeks before and nothing really has "Suitable for vegetarians" on it.

BCHC said:

Elliothread said: The Van Gogh musuem was really nice.

It's fantastic, crowded as hell though, and there's likely to be a long queue at the ticket office.

Elliothread said: You'll find that it feels like a very safe, nice city.

The feeling of being safe slowly wanes away after midnight, and is completely gone by 2 AM or so, when touristy crowds are replaced by more unsavoury characters.

I can imagine that this is more than true, as I said, we went as a family and left before 10.

If you plan on going to a few different things, you can get to the tourist information centre and buy tickets that will let you get into a few different things and que jump the Van Gough musuem. The Musuem stays open until about 9 or 10 so it could definately be worth checking out in the evening, when it is more likely to be quite.

Elliothread said:

Rico said:

Elliothread said:the shop C1000 sells American candy and cereal.

Definitely what you should be eating in Europe.

I agree with you, it's just that some people aren't willing to try different things. Though I must admit that I wasn't as adventurous as I should of been as I became a vegetarian a few weeks before and nothing really has "Suitable for vegetarians" on it.

/sarcasm.

to make this more of an adventure, we booked a boat to stay instead of a hotel. hah!

all places saved so far. thanks for your help, this is awesome! gotta be like austin. afterwards. austin powers!

One more thing: even though Holland has open borders with other EU countries, there are random checks. Specifically targeting the tourists who'd want to bring some of that good stuff home.

yep thanks bchc i am aware of that! will have my german passport by my side to rub under every policemens nose :) can't wait to experience those museums. and the long waits. haha.

FEBO (fast food chain)

site is meh http://www.tattoos.com/xxx/mus01.htm but check out the Tattoo Museum (and Henk Schiffmacher), if you're into this kind of stuff

Jandro said:FEBO (fast food chain)

Definitely. They also serve fried chicken which in my opinion tastes way better than KFC's

Elliothread said:Always watch out for bikes, the Deutch ride every where.

Just nitpicking but that should be 'Dutch'. By saying 'Deutch', you're referring to the Germans. Obviously Chris knows this.

If you're planning on seeing performances, you can check out http://www.paradiso.nl/web/show. Paradiso is famous for having international artists. It's not huge but the place has a nice grand-cafe kind of vibe.

I don't know what kind of music you're into but The Milky Way is another great place to hang out at night:
http://www.melkweg.nl/voorpagina.jsp?language=nederlands&disciplineid=muziek

If you want to be the regular tourist, you can check out this site if you haven't already:
http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting/placestogo

Personally I still love Amsterdam but I think those tourists attractions are boring but then again I'm biased since I only live 30 minutes away. I guess it's like the New Yorkers getting tired of tourists wearing those I Heart NY tees or visiting the Statue of Liberty. Also, Holland has way more to offer besides hookers and weed. So if you're in Holland for the entire week, try to visit other places as well besides Amsterdam. Check out The Hague, Utrecht, Maastricht... Just ask around. Also, just because it's legal here, doesn't mean you can smoke weed out in the open just as if you were smoking a cigarette. You might get a warning or even get a fine. And it's not appreciated by everyone. Obviously. Have fun.

i would love to go.^ had me at hookers and weed.

Johnny Keko said: Check out The Hague, Utrecht, Maastricht...

Utrecht has a museum of Australian Aboriginal art.

http://www.aamu.nl/home-us
Hague is beautiful and has several major art museums, Mauritshuis and Galerij Prins Willem V among others.

http://www.mauritshuis.nl/index.aspx?siteid=54

http://www.mauritshuis.nl/index.aspx?SiteID=106#
The Escher Palace, on the other hand, is a tourist trap! Most exhibits are scanned reproductions.

If you'd want to go to a coffeeshop definitely check this one out: http://www.greenhouse.org/index1.htm it's awesome there.
Never really had problems smoking weed in the open in Amsterdam, nowhere in Holland actually.

About Cafes and venues:

Rock/Alternative/etc:
There are a couple of awesome places to go, but depends on which music you like.
The Cave is an awesome little bar/livehouse thing.
http://www.thecave.nl/
Winston Kingdom is pretty cool, with different stuff everyday.
http://www.winston.nl/
The Minds is some sort of punk cafe with beer for one euro.
http://theminds.nl/home/home.html
Also you can just smoke in any of the previous three places, but only tabacco inside The Cave i think.
Milkyway was already said, but the Paradiso is also good:
http://www.paradiso.nl

Other:
Jimmy Woo is awesome:
http://www.jimmywoo.com/

Also, there is this place near The Challenge (http://www.challenge20.nl/index.php?s=home), but I forgot it's name it was pretty awesome though with a lot of electro and stuff, maybe I'll come back on that later. (Maybe someone else knows)

thanks again people - amsterdam trip was really worth a journey!

checked van gogh museum, the anne-frank huis, FEBO, woktowalk, the FOAM, bought stuff my girlfriend didnt understand at the outlandstore, saw half naked ladies eating popcorn standing in the windows at 11 am and yes the red light district is also the area where it smells like piss the most, tried to find the tattoo museum a whole afternoon but it couldnt find on the address where it used to be, felt very safe, all nice people there, hang out in the grasshopper & greenhouse for some smoke and never got asked for passports. and as said we slept on a boat - the botel if anyone else wants to check out!

thanks again you guys really helped me out. i will check out more of the night life the next time there ;)

van gogh museum was a snooze fest

Heineken factory on the other hand was a good time.

Skull With Hair said:van gogh museum was a snooze fest

yep and too expensive if you ask me!

Botel sounds like fun. Glad to hear you had a good time.

well, at least one picture you have proof i was there :)