Amsterdam

June 25, 2010

We took the metro the airport & stayed the night there again. Soo exhausting! Preethi and I ran through side streets in the ran to get to Nuevos Ministerios on time. we got a few hours of sleep in the airport and a couple on the flight. We got to Amsterdam with the sun shining ( of course :] ), got ready in the airport bathroom, admired how nice the Amsterdam airport was (it had huge paitnings on the walls, lounges as big as a terminal with red couches filling the room, and modern decorations everywhere--even in the bathroom!), & we were on our way. We picked up lunch at the supermarket in the airport and ate it on our bus ride to the city. Finding our hostel was probably our most difficult task to accomplish in Amsterdam. The directions the hostel gave us were FAR from correct and no map we found had the street (Bloemstraat) we were looking for on it. If that wasn't enough to confuse us, in Amsterdam, each side of the same street has a different name! I don't understand the point of that, unless they were trying to get people lost. In that case, Amsterdam succeeded. We ended up calling our hostel so that they could give us directions from where we were at. We finallyyy found Shelter Jordan--the Christian hostel we were staying at--and checked in. Other than their inviting us to bible study at 8 p.m. and it being very quiet, Shelter Jordan was no different than any other hostel we have stayed at. Actually, it was probably better. It was quiet, clean, & the people were so friendly. We put our bags in luggage storage and left to explore.

I fell in love with Amsterdam as soon as we started walking around. All of the canals are simply gorgeous--every corner we turned, we found another canal that was prettier than all of the other ones we had seen. I think it would be awesome to live in one of the house boats on a canal! They are adorable. Oh & I loved how EVERYONE rode their old-fashioned bikes through the streets, dinging their bells to let people know they were coming. It gives so much character to the city. Their bikers can get pretty intense though. Their bike paths are absolutely not allowed for people to walk on--you'll get run over if you are on it! They are like cars in Amsterdam--they even have smaller stop lights for bikes :)

Our first sight to see was the Anne Frank House. Actually, we saw Zuiderkerk (Southern Church) first. It is a 17th century Protestant church that played an important part in Rembrandt's life and was the subject of one of Monet's paintings. We could see that from the road of our hostel. We went to the Anne Frank House, saw how long the line was, and decided to come back later. It fit into our schedule better that way anyway. We took a few pictures of it, then decided we wanted a picture of the two of us in front of one of the house boats. We asked a cute, old guy walking by if he could take it for us. He told us that he didn't think he could, and that he has tried so many times but can never get it right. We weren't really sure what he was talking about until he started trying to take the picture. It was hilarious! He held the camera up to his face, then realized there was a screen instead of a hole for his eye and he looked so shocked! Then he started moving the camera back and forth toward us then toward him, toward us then toward him, with the most focused/confused face :) He was adorable! He ended up taking a good picture, but we were cracking up in it!

We went to the Tulip Museum afterward (Amsterdam is known for tulips). We just walked around the first floor. If you pay to go to the basement, you can learn about how to grow tulips. They had a lot of cool stuff inside, especially the pictures of the fields of tulips! We started walking through the city, and I don't know if I have said this before, but I love walking through the cities we visit. I feel like I get to know the city so much better when we walk because we run into so many different things and we can get a sense of direction of the city so that by the time we leave, we can go places without a map. We walked by a few "coffee shops" and could smell the weed from outside of them. Some of the popular ones there were Bulldog Cafe and Feels Good Cafe. We found shop with a wall FULL of wooden shoes, which is another thing that Amsterdam is famous for. We tried on a pair, and I don't know how anybody could actually wear those things! They are so big and uncomfortable. I'd fall down as soon as I started walking.

We went to see the National Monument in Dam Square, which also has Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in it. Their National Monument is so unique--I love the birds sculpted like they are flying into the back of it. We headed to the Red Light District next. Getting there was so awkward. Of course it isn't on the map, so we had to ask some girl working at an ice cream shop where it was. It consists of many streets and canals, but prostitution is limited to a few streets. It was mind-blowing to see the girls in the windows or standing on the streets. I can't even imagine what that kind of lifestyle is like. With the signs for live porn, the girls, and the sex shops, it was hard to believe we were in the same cute, little city with their bikes and canals.

After the RLD, we stopped at the park in front of the Iamsterdam sign, took a picture of me insdie the giant d, then headed to the Van Gogh Museum! The museum was incredible! I didn't want to leave. We kept trying to pick out our favorite, but it was impossible. Although, we both really loved Almond Blossom. The museum has the world's largest collection of van Gogh's work. It has over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and 700 letters. Some of the paintings include The Potato Eaters, Wheatfields under Thunderclouds, and Sunflowers. I know you are probably thinking "I thought you saw the Sunflowers in London", and I did! Van Gogh wanted to capture the blooming August sunflowers in a series of 12 paintings. He finished four sunflower still lifes, but thought only 2 were good enough to hang in Gauguin's bedroom. He later painted three copies of them, one of which is in Amsterdam.

We headed to the Heineken Brewery after the Van Gogh Museum. We looked around the outside, took some pictures, and decided to eat dinner. We ate at a Chinese place called Wok to Walk--delicious! I got noodles with chicken, which I finished in about 5 minutes. We walked by a Vlaamse Frites stand--French fries in mayonnaise--but were too full to get any then (we did get some in Brussels though!).

After dinner, we went back to the Anne Frank House. It was a chilling experience--to think about her story and how we were walking in her footsteps. We went through the secret entrance behind the bookcase, saw her and her family's rooms, and almost every other corner in the house. The hiding place is a labyrinth of hallways, stairs, and little rooms. The steep staircases had such small stairs that I had to walk sidways just to get up them. I remember specifically the one that ran from the ground floor, to the first, and straight up to the second. The eight people hiding in the secret annex depended entirely on the five helpers. Anne Frank often played the clown because she was too scared to show her serious side ("I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart"--Anne Franke). Her diary reveals that side of her, however. She was so intelligent for only 13 years old--I couldn't believe that some of the quotes we read came from such a young girl. ("And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world"). It is amazing how positive she was throughout it all ("Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart"; "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world"; "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains"). Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the leader: when any decision needed to be made, all eyes were on him. Anne's mother Edith was often gloomy in the secret annex, but found comfort in her faith. Margot was Anne's sister who was calm and serious. She also kept a diary, but it was never found. The Franks were in hiding with Fritz Pfeffer as well as another familiy: father Hermann, mother Auguste, and son Peter van Pels. Anne Frank wrote her world-famous diary while in hiding in occupied Holland. After two years, however, the people hiding in the secret annex were betrayed and arrested. Otto Frank was the only one to make it back.

The Anne Frank House was the last thing on our list. It was still pretty early, so we went back to the hostel so that Preethi could get her computer and went to a cafe so she could work on her speech. Everyone inside was so friendly, and the waitress was so helpful. We decided to walk to the train station to make sure we knew exactly where we were going the next morning since we had to catch an early train to Brussels. After that, we pretty much called it a day.

I thought it was kind of funny how Amsterdam is so small that you can only get certain things in certain areas. Like if you wanted to buy a shot glass, you could only get them on a side street near Dam Square. If you wanted Vlaamse Frites, there was only one part of town where you could get them. Another thing about Amsterdam is that I love hearing people speak Dutch (most people there can speak English too so we got around fine). It sounds kind of goofy, and I just love it because most of the people we encountered were so happy and friendly. I love listening to other languages in general. I'm always amazed at how so many different languages have developed over time. That is why I love being in airports in Europe. I hear countless different languages there--English, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, African, Russian--it seems like I hear them all! In the States, I really only hear English--maybe Spanish if I'm lucky. Just another thing I've noticed. Anyway, I (of course) LOVED Amsterdam overall! It is definitely one of my favorites.