These guests at the Flying Pig youth hostel in Amsterdam might be smoking pot.

After I paid the nice multilingual beggar who’d carried my backpack for me from Amsterdam Centraal Train Station (the extra “a” is for Anne Frank–never forget), I left behind the cold Dutch night and stepped into the Flying Pig Downtown Hostel. My first impression of the place, which I’d been told was a must-stay in Amsterdam by a particularly sleazy friend back in the States, was not a sight or a sound but rather a smell–the distinct odor of burning cannabis.

I laughed out loud and thought, well, that’s why we’re all here, isn’t it?

The Flying Pig is not a free-for-all orgy of pot, however. Smoking is verboden in the dorm rooms and only allowed in the common areas at night. (Little rules like those ones differentiate The Netherlands from Tijuana.)

The rooms were clean enough, no better or worse than other hostel rooms. And the proximity to Amsterdam’s main sites–Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, Heineken Experience, coffee shops, red light district–is hard to beat for the price (€16.30 for a dorm bed to €39.30 for a bed in twin or double room). A night in one of the dorm rooms might just come with a free sex show.

Take advantage of the Flying Pig's free Internet access to get on instant messenger and tell your friends stateside, in the middle of their work day, how stoned you are. It kills.

Your stay includes a buffet breakfast each morning, linen, kitchen access, and a locker. And, there’s no curfew, leaving you no excuse for missing the evening’s final set at one of Amsterdam’s live sex shows.

The Flying Pig Downtown Hostel Amsterdam
Nieuwendijk 100
1012 MR Amsterdam Holland
+31 (0)20 4206822
downtown@flyingpig.nl

(Photos: Courtesy of the Flying Pig)