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About a year ago my lady picked up a book called Chicago’s Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Windy City written by Jonathan Stockton. From time to time I pick up the book when I’m in a mood to find a cool bar as an alternative to the standards that I frequent in Lakeview and Lincoln Park. I’ve been to some of them and if I am lucky enough I will be able to hit up all of them on the list some day.

Published by IG Publishing in Brooklyn the book is described by IG Publishing as:

Chicago’s Best Dive Bars features opinionated reviews of over 90 of the grungiest and grittiest drinking establishments in the Windy City. If you want to avoid the tourist traps listed in those “other” bar guides and find out where the “real” people do their drinking, then Chicago’s Best Dive Bars, like its New York and San Francisco predecessors, is the drinking person’s guide to the delightfully filthy underside of Chicago bar life.

Continue on to the dive bar map.

DAY 3

The next morning we woke up around 8:30, got ready and had breakfast, then hopped a tram to Central Station. One thing we learned about making quick decisions is check train schedules. Upon arriving at the station we found the international ticket booth but found out the train for Paris didn’t leave until noon. We had 2.5 hours to kill, so we decided to hit up the Apple Store to check some email. We hung around there for about 30 minutes then walked back to the train station to get some food. While walking back we decided to take some pics of the huge parking ramp of bikes. I have no clue how they know which bike is theirs.







We all decided to have some pastries for lunch, I really have no clue why but that’s how it ended up. After our meal we headed over to our train platform. None of us had ridden a train in Europe before so we really weren’t sure how it all worked, but we were excited. Our trained arrived just as it started raining and of course our train car happened to be outside. We hopped on, threw out packs on the storage rack above the seats and sat down. We were sitting in the middle of the car, our seats faced each other with a table in the middle. Clint and I sat next to each other while Brett sat across from Clint. A gentleman we didn’t know sat across from me. This guy had the worst cough ever and one point I thought we was going to keel over and die. Serial. For the whole trip to Paris he was coughing up his lungs on Brett and I. If you know Brett and you’re reading this - he gets cranky if he doesn’t get enough sleep and he was trying to take a nap on the train - so lets say Brett was not in a good mood. Our train ride was uneventful and the only entertainment was when they announced pick pockets might be boarding the train in Brussels, Belgium. So, ya know, watch out for that when you’re there.

DAY 2 - Into the night time

After our wicked nap we decided it was time to hit up this town again. We were once again hungry and feeling like sushi, earlier in the day we saw a Japanese restaurant near Wok & Cook and decided to head there. When we arrived we ordered some sushi rolls and flat bottled water because you can’t get tap water in Europe and most of the time they give you sparkling water, which is nasty. So note yourself, when in Europe make sure to ask for tap water if you are just looking for some plain American water. After our delicious meal we decided to head over to the Red Light district to get drunk and walk around and see the neighborhood.



Upon arriving at the Red Light district we decided to hit up the Grumpy Sailor again. It was fairly busy with both guys and girls. From our table you could see the canal and all the ladies of the night. This one girl should have put a revolving door on her place because damn, she had a crazy turn around.



After having some drinks we decided to walk around and head to another bar the Bulldog which also has coffee houses by the same name, if you don’t know what a coffee shop in Amsterdam is, it’s a place to get and smoke weed. The Bulldog is a pretty popular place among the touristas. We enjoyed our drinks and decided to walk around some more. When we were walking around we ran into some drunk Irish guys looking for the Grumpy Sailor. Being the friendly Americans that we are, we showed them where it was and stayed to have some more drinks. They were friendly guys from Dublin and one of them didn’t like Guinness, I always thought that would be a crime in Ireland. The Irish guys called it an early night or they went off looking to buy some ass. Either way those dudes split and it was just us again. We needed some new scenery and decided to go to another bar down the street.





This new bar had a nice feel to it, the staff was polite and the girl bartender was cute. This bar had two levels to get to the upper level you had to climb this narrow staircase which wear the bathrooms are located also. With all these narrow stair cases all over Europe, I know now why most Europeans aren’t fat, they can’t be or else they would get stuck in the buildings. While we were enjoying our Heineken we decided that we need to see Paris. And since we were only a few short hours away, we were gonna go to Paris the next morning, via the sweet rail system. After we finished our drinks we decided to head back to the hotel to rest up, because in the morning we were hopping on the tram and heading to Central Station to catch a train to Paris.

In January 2007 we took a trip across the pond and around Europe in a world-wind 7 day trip to Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne and Frankfurt. Our first stop was Amsterdam - The Netherlands. This is the story about day two - day time adventures.






Here we are with day two.

The next morning we awoke to Brett SMSing us asking where the hotel is. After sending him the address and waiting for him to show up we went down to get one of the great things that come with European hotels, the free breakfast. This bad boy consisted of turkey, ham, cheese, hard boiled eggs and different types of bread, they also had different types of juice. The only real downside to this was that all the juices were sorta warm. This was not so good, but we have nothing to complain about here.

After fueling up we decided to hit the city again, heading up to Leidseplein then heading southeast over to the Rijksmuseum, which was under construction at the time.

After walking by Rijksmuseum we decided to head south to museum square to get some pics of the I AMsterdam sign. After the photo-op we decided to get some coffee and tea at a local cafe where Clint snapped some excellent pics. When we finished we decided to go to the Van Gogh museum to get our European culture on. It was enjoyable visit but we must look suspicious because security was riding our asses the whole time.

When we left the museum around noon and the rain was coming down at a good pace. A good enough pace that Clint got scammed into buying a sweet umbrella that cost 8 Euros. But being that it was lunch time we decided to celebrate and go on the Heineken Experience! If you go to Amsterdam this is a for sure place you gotta check out. And the cost was relatively low, I think it was 6 or 8 Euro. The people that work at Heineken are the nicest people in Amsterdam, not sure if its because they’re drunk or that they get to work in a brewery all day long. They all were very friendly and had big smiles all the time. The self guided tour was fun and they had a bunch of little activities which include drinking beer, sending video messages to friends, spinning on turn tables, a virtual tour of Amsterdam from a horse wagon and foosball. Also at the end of the tour you get a free gift, we received a bottle opener. Once we gathered our gifts and picked up our coats from the coat check we started are search for food.

When we walked outside the rain had turned into a mist and we decided to walk north towards the city centre. We didn’t know what kind of food we were in the mood for, so we decided to walk around and choose whatever looked good. We finally decided on Wok & Cook, it hit the spot, we all thought the meal was really good. They gave you generous portions the only thing that they could’ve had more of is seating. But the cramped seating was intimate, you might have issues if you’re claustrophobic. But this place that is tucked into a very tiny street was awesome. After enjoying are meal we needed to sleep it off and headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

In January 2007 we took a trip across the pond and around Europe in a world-wind 7 day trip to Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne and Frankfurt. Our first stop was Amsterdam - The Netherlands.

Clint’s Amsterdam flickr shots
Jay’s Amsterdam flickr shots

The stuff that we liked about Amsterdam:
The Heineken Experience
The endless amounts of Heineken that you can drink all over the city
Very beautiful women (the best in Europe some might say)
The small portions of food so we don’t get fat
Cool Dutch food
Really smooth liquor

Some of the dislikes that we had:
Small portions because we want to get fat and were always hungry. Expect small portions.
The mean looking people.






To sum it up
Some people can’t get past the reputation of weed and prostitutes, I mean its a def plus, but there are other things to do in Amsterdam too. If you’re not high and knockin’ around some ladies of the night<cough>brett</cough>, you could get some culture at one of the many museums, or grab 3 beers and a gift at the Heineken Experience. Just watch out for the bikes. There are a ton of bikes here. Also you’re gonna need a map. Navigation is a mess if you are used to navigating American streets. The best way that we have learned to experience a city and a culture is to walk around it. Pack up a bag and just start walking. So with camera’s in hand that is what we did in Amsterdam. We walked all over the city, across bridges and canals, and up and down little alleyways.

The Arrival

Clint and I arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam at 7:15 AM. It was a decent KLM flight from Chicago O’Hare. The flight attendants were good looking and polite, you can’t ask for more then that. After exiting the plane, we loaded up on euros at the first ATM we saw. Clint had some issues with the European pictures showing you how to insert your card, but after figuring that out, we thought we were set. So just take your time and make sure you put your card in correctly or you will start out looking like an ass. Next, we then headed over to the airport cafe to get a tiny cup of cappuccino. We needed a pick-me-up after the flight, and boy did it wake us up. Those tiny little cups sure do pack a punch. I def recommend picking one up if you haven’t yet. And don’t expect to get it to go. One of many cultural mistakes that Clint made.

Next on our agenda was to find Brett who we thought was coming in at the same time as us. The reason he didn’t fly over with us is he was heading back from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I’ll let him tell that story. So we head down to baggage going through the passport check-in to the EU which I must say was a breeze - maybe it was because we were a couple nerdy looking white guys, but who knows. Getting back into the US was a lot more trouble thanks to the crabby asshole in Detroit who was on a power trip. We’ll save that story for a different time though.

Next, we arrived our carrousel. Our bags were the only ones left - we snatched them up and proceeded to wait for Brett. The plane from Tanzania landed, people picked up their bags and then everyone was gone. But where was Brett?! We had no clue, so we decide to sit there awhile longer and also checked to see if we could get some info from the airline. We knew it was a long shot but had to try and no it didn’t work. We tried calling his mountain climbing ass to see where he was, but we didn’t have any luck with that. We had to make a game time decision. Keep waiting because he might have missed his flight, or leave. We ended up leaving, I mean, who knows, he could’ve been dead on the summit and we weren’t going to let him dying ruin our time in Europe. After cruising through customs again where they don’t check anyone - its just a door, we headed over to the Amsterdam Information booth to buy some tram passes thinking we would use the tram a lot, turns out we like to walk more.

After talking to the girl at the Amsterdam info booth we headed down to catch a train into the city center. Not really knowing what train to take and where to get off, we decided to get on the first train that said city centre.

We ended up getting off at the RAI stop because I read in a book that if you’re staying by Leidseplein you should get off there. Hey we have time its 9:00 AM we get off start walking thinking this doesn’t look right, all we see is office building and a couple hotels. After walking for about 5 minutes we decide lets head back to the train stop. On the way back we see a tram and we’re going to ask one of the workers where it goes but they proceed to yell at us to get on. We decide why not it must go somewhere. It was a good move on our part because we were heading towards the inner city. After riding the tram for about 10 minutes and it looks like were well within the city we decide lets get out here. We hop out at Rembrandtplein if you know Amsterdam its not really close to Leidseplein but hey we’re closer. We pull out a map decide we’re here and need to get there lets walk it. When you’ve only been in the city for about 20 minutes Amsterdam can be confusing since all the buildings look the same and its no grid system. I must admit, it was fun walking around the city that morning. The streets were pretty quiet but by Amsterdam standards it was early. After finding are way through the streets and canals, we finally walked up to our hotel.

Exploring

Our room was nice it had a Euro feel especially with the beds pushed together. Clint and I were ready to explore, we ditched our packs and decided to head back out and hit this city by foot. We needed some food after are flight so we were looking for something kinda authentic to The Netherlands we decided to hit up the Pancake Corner. This place ruled. After looking at the menu with all sorts of weird pancake mixtures, Clint had the pear chocolate and ice cream pancake and I had a bacon cheese and mushroom pancake. I have to say it wasn’t that good but interesting.

The awesomeness of the Pancake Corner

Jay’s pancake w/egg, bacon and cheese

Clint’s pear, chocolate and ice cream pancake

After breakfast we had no clue what we wanted to see and where anything was so we just walked. We ended up finding are way to Nieuwmarkt which was pretty empty, so we decided to map up. After seeing we were close to Dam Square we said lets go west. We had a surprise on are way there. Hey there’s a half naked lady in a glass doorway knocking on it wanting us to come in. As you might have guessed we walked into the heart of the Red Light district, which can be shock right away but you get use to it pretty quick. We decided to stroll around the Red Light district and check out what was happening, we figured out whoring was happening. After checking out the ladies of the afternoon we headed over to Dam Square and check out the royal palace and things. We noticed on the map the Anne Frank’s house was near by so we strolled over. We didn’t go in because we were going to save that landmark when Brett got into town but never got back, maybe next time.

After Anne Frank’s we headed back to the hotel to take a power nap, which by the way, was most excellent.