Amsterdam took me by surprise! I went to Amsterdam with the impression that the city was overtaken by prostitution and drugs, but that is definitely NOT the case. Amsterdam is incredibly beautiful and one weekend was not enough to see it all.
The train ride to Amsterdam is four hours long. Not so bad because I love the train, but still pretty long. When we got to Amsterdam my first impression was BIKES. Outside of the train station (and everywhere else in the city) there were hundreds and hundreds of bikes. After figuring out the tram system, we found our hostel and started sightseeing!
First of all, like I said, Amsterdam is beautiful. There are dozens of canals that run throughout the city and tons of bridges as a result. The houses are brick and actually reminded us a little bit of the architecture in Adam’s Morgan in Washington DC. Whenever we turned a street corner we were taken aback by yet another beautiful bridge and canal.
Oddly enough, the first thing we went to see was the red light district. For whatever reason I was under the impression that the red light district was off to the side of the city, but nope! It’s right smack in the middle of everything. We went to the red light district to find Indonesian food (Amsterdam has a large Indonesian population and therefore really good Indonesian food) but walked around a little too.
Saturday, we started the day with a three hour, FREE walking tour of the city. One of my roommates, Grete, had recommended this company, Sandemans, to us because she had taken their tour in Edinburgh. The tours can be free because the guides only work on tips. Our tour guide was an American masters student. She was incredibly, incredibly knowledgeable and it was an incredible tour for being free. We walked all over the center of the city and saw things like the red light district, the oldest church, the Royal Palace and famous coffeeshops. A few interesting things we learned:
*Selling marijuana is actually illegal in the Netherlands. However, the authorities in the Netherlands have this philosophy that if someone is doing something illegal but it is good for business and it doesn’t harm anyone than it is ok. Since marijuana is both lucrative and harmless the authorities turn a blind eye. Someone hasn’t been arrested for smoking a joint in 35 years.
*The people in the Netherlands are some of the tallest in Europe.
*Prostitution was made entirely legal in the Netherlands in 2000. The oldest prostitute is around 75 years old…
*The Netherlands was the first Republic in Europe.
She was also great for answering all of our questions about places to see and places to eat. This company has tours all over Europe for those of you who are interested. I would highly recommend it.
Saturday evening a few of us went to the Anne Frank House. It was a sobering experience; however, the museum was so well done and I learned an incredible amount about something I admittedly didn’t know much about. The museum not only had the original diary of Anne Frank, you could walk through the annex where they spent two years in hiding.
Saturday for dinner we ended up eating pretty late at a “pancake” house. No, unfortunately these weren’t pancakes like we have in America (and ever since I have been craving American pancakes…), they were more like crepes actually. We walked in 10 minutes after Sara (of Sara’s Pancake House) had closed her kitchen. She was incredibly nice and accommodating though. She allowed us to stay as long as we wanted and was very patient with us when we ordered dessert after dinner. She was just one example of the incredibly nice people we met in Amsterdam.
Sunday, we got up and went straight to the Van Gogh museum. The museum has a special exhibit right now called “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night”. The exhibit followed Van Gogh’s influences for painting his famous “Starry Night”. It discussed and gave examples of French painters Van Gogh idealized as well as showed how he studied the night sky. I was fascinated by the exhibit and loved Van Gogh more and more as I walked through. The museum is pretty large so we didn’t see much of the permanent exhibit but we got a good taste for Van Gogh.
We pretty much spent the rest of Sunday eating haha. Amsterdam has great (and very unhealthy) food. Just imagine… a waffle drizzled in hot chocolate sauce with a little bit of powdered sugar on top. How can you resist that?
It was interesting being in a place where they don’t speak French. So many Dutch people speak English so we had no troubles whatsoever getting by, but it was weird walking into a store and just speaking English to the store owner assuming he/she knew English. Just something we’re not used to after being in France for almost two months (ah! Where does the time go??).
When I got back home my host parents had left a big poster of Obama sitting on my desk. It was funny and made me a little homesick. However, I now have a large black and white picture of Obama smiling on my wall :-)
The red light district at dusk!
Me and Jackie in Dam Square before the tour started on Saturday.
Can you tell that these houses are leaning forward? And do you see the hooks hanging from the top of the houses? Our tour guide explained to us that the Dutch use the pulley system to move large furniture from the top floors down to the street since the stairways are so narrow. However, they realized that the things they were lowering down would bang along the front of the house on the way down. Therefore, they built their houses leaning forward to prevent this. Why they didn't just make the pole with the pulley on it longer, I don't know...
A beautiful courtyard outside of a Protestant church. The Netherlands has been historically protestant and, as a result, the Catholics had to have secret churches all around Amsterdam for many years.
The narrowest house in Amsterdam! (the pinkish brick house in the middle) Apparently, the man that lives there is taller than the house is wide. Therefore, when he lays down to sleep he can only sleep longways in his house.
Yet another beautiful canal.
The girls I traveled with.
A pretty ridiculous picture of me in front of the most famous fry shop in Amsterdam... like I said, we experienced Amsterdam's food.
A flower stand in the flower market.
One of my favorite pictures from the trip.
My friends in the "am" of the "I amsterdam" sign!
1) my next blog entry: "emma goes to amsterdam to find a husband"
ReplyDelete2) FANTASTIC PICTURES. i love, love, love the one of the red light picture at dusk. i also love the one you love. they both look like they could be paintings... well done, you.
I feel like the longer the pole is the more likely the whole device is to snap off at the base (at least the way it's set up in my mind). I also feel like it's easier to strengthen a pulley than it is to make a house lean forward.
ReplyDeleteOh geez I've been doing to much homework...