Dam Good Lodging

Yeah, that pun isn't going away anytime soon. You see, the time has come for me to share with you some anecdotes from my recent trip to Amsterdam. I shall begin with the story of the boat.

My companion for this adventure was none other than Joshua (the real boyfriend; not the trash-man boyfriend... much to my chagrin... what?) who had crossed oceans for a visit with yours truly. That's devotion. Anyway, during his visit, I got a few days off of work in honor of Oxi Day (a national Greek holiday of independence), so we took the opportunity to travel. Destination: Amsterdam.

Before arriving, we had booked a hostel, of course. This hostel was unique, though. Because, you see, it was, in fact, a boat.

Now, we thought this was a brilliantly fun and spontaneous plan for lodging but there was one thing that never crossed our minds until we were en route: We weren't really sure what to tell our Dutch taxi driver-- "Um... to the sea? Please?" Luckily, we had a sparse map from the hostel's website that indicated that the boat was somewhere in the vicinity of the Nemo Museum, which is the children's science museum in the city, apparently. So, that is what we told our cab driver who was very confused why we allegedly wanted to visit an interactive science museum designed for children at 11 o'clock at night. He must have double checked with us ten times during the drive. I think at one point we tried to explain to him that we were looking for a hostel but that it was somewhere out in open water, but then we stopped when we realized that no matter what we said at this point sounded crazy.

The driver let us out on the road perpendicular to the driveway to the Nemo Museum, and as he drove away into the dark Dutch nighttime abyss, and we stood there weighed down by our backpacks letting the cold, cold air wash over us, well, that was when we thought Here's hopin'. And we started to walk towards the water.

We were now wondering where to start. There was a harbor, yes, but there were dozens of boats. We started looking for ones that looked like hostels? During this search, I started to wonder if maybe the boat had sailed. Or if perhaps the whole thing was some practical joke made up by some traveler who had perhaps sampled too much of the local culture of Amsterdam. Josh kept the faith and led us running up and down the various docks until, lo, there it was: the Vita Nova. Floating hostel. Well, it was well tethered. Thank God.

"11 o'clock. Right on the dot just as promised." We were greeted by Hisse, the "captain" as it were, who was pretty much exactly the kind of Dutchman you would expect to own a boat hostel. His skin was obscured by an endless medley of tattoos, which were exposed by the fact that he was clad in simply a white tank top despite the fact that it was October in the Netherlands, and he had at least two lazy eyes. But he gave us a good map and a postcard with the majestic Vita Nova pictured on the front, so he is a champion.