My Walk of Shame in Amsterdam’s Red Light District
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Amsterdam is home to what is probably the world’s most famous Red Light District.
The area, known as De Wallen, is home to window prostitution, sex shows, coffee shops (selling cannabis, not coffee), and hawkers offering up cocaine. It’s not one of the city’s top tourist attractions for nothing!
Would you believe me if I told you I had my very own walk of shame in Amsterdam’s Red Light District? No, it’s probably not what you’re thinking.
First, a little back-story:
On my trip to Amsterdam, my friends and I stayed in an Airbnb. The apartment was perfect! It was in a great location, and was a quick Uber ride from everything we wanted to see and do. Most importantly, it was well within our budget! This was my first time staying in an Airbnb in a foreign country. So far, the experience couldn’t have been better.
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It was our last night in Amsterdam, and we were exhausted after a long day of wandering around the city. We decided to turn in pretty early so went to pick up a couple of happy cakes from the neighborhood coffee shop and some Apple Bandit cider from the Albert Heijn before heading back to to the apartment to pack and relax. After the happy cakes kicked in, we started to get hungry, so what else was there to do other than order some Papa John’s on Uber Eats?
Twenty minutes later, our pizza is here and we go down to pick it up. At first, I thought it was just my boyfriend and I going down to pick up the food, but it turns out that my other friend wanted to come down too. The door closed behind him, and guess what?
It locked.
It was 11:00 PM, freezing cold, and we were stuck outside of our apartment without coats. I was the only one who even had shoes on!
My phone, the only one with a local SIM card, was on 13 percent. I started frantically trying to get ahold of our host, who wasn’t answering his phone. Luckily, after about 25 minutes of calling, he finally answered. He tried to get ahold of his colleague who lived nearby so that she could come let us in, but those attempts were unsuccessful. Our last resort was for us to take an Uber to his apartment to pick up the spare keys.
No big deal, right?
Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a big deal, as I was willing to do almost anything to be able to get back inside. The downside? His apartment was right smack-dab in the middle of the Red Light District, in a section where cars weren’t allowed.
We called an Uber and told our driver about our emergency, and he was nice enough to wait so that we wouldn’t have to try to call another Uber back to the apartment. Since I was the only one wearing shoes, I volunteered to be the one to run to the apartment to pick up the keys. The driver drove as close as he could, told me to make it quick or else he would make my friends get out (he was nice enough to wait, but he wasn’t very happy about it!), and off I went.
I was wearing a pair of leggings, a bright orange San Jose Sharks t-shirt, and house shoes, with no coat on in extremely cold weather, so I got some pretty strange looks as I was making my way to the apartment. Luckily it was only a couple minutes away from where my driver dropped me. I found the apartment and finally got the key that I had went on a walk of shame through the Red Light District for.
My host was amazing about the whole situation. He even offered me a coat to wear as I was walking back to the car! I felt so bad about it happening so late at night, but he was very understanding and wanted to make sure that we made it back safely inside the apartment.
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Lessons Learned
This situation is probably my top travel mishap, and I definitely learned some lessons.
First? NEVER leave your accommodations without a key, even if it’s for a second. Make sure you have on shoes, and a coat if it’s cold outside. Make sure to bring a phone with you too in case something like this happens.
I’m also SO THANKFUL that I had a local SIM card. I bought it for 30€ at the airport, and it gave me a local number with 500 minutes for calling/texting and 2GB of high-speed data. Having a local number made it so much easier to contact my host, both for check-in and during our emergency. I don’t think I’ll ever travel without one again! Plus, it was so nice to not have to rely on wifi for Uber rides, which is how we got around most of the time.
I’m also really glad I had my bra on and leggings instead of my too-short, slightly see-through pajama pants because that would’ve made this whole story so much more embarrassing.
Ultimately, things like this happen, so they’re not something you should get worked up over. Yeah, it was super embarrassing at the time, but we ended up safe and sound. Now, this is one of my funniest travel stories to tell!
Do you have any crazy travel stories? Let me know in the comments!
You can check out the amazing Airbnb we stayed at in Amsterdam here!
Just remember that the doors lock on their own 😉
Also, if you’re new to Airbnb, click here to get $40 off your first stay!
Afraid of getting locked out of your Airbnb? Check out Amsterdam’s hotel options!
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