Amsterdam

What do you think of when you hear Amsterdam?
This is what came to my mind:

(The Sin City of Europe, I´d say)

All I was really expecting from Amsterdam was a colorful city of drugs and prostitutes.. That´s true, but only in certain parts of the city, the red light district of course, sidestreets going this way and that, lined with doors and lights advertising the prostitutes. That apparently is a main attraction for tourists, walking through the district at night checking out the variety of women, (and there are definitely men too) but be warned, you are not supposed to take fotos, because the pimp is probably on the balcony above watching the passerbys, waiting to mess someone up if they take advantage of his ladies. We ventured through the streets briefly as we were really just looking for a cheap quick place to eat but more then anything, seeing these women on display was very sad. A lot of them wore some god awful makeup and their wardrobe choice made me uncomfortable, but I just don´t think I´ll ever be able to understand why people choose to put themselves in that position, and it´s even worse when you see someone entering the doors or exiting, because I was sad for those people too. I don´t know how appropriate it is to be talking about this but I just couldn´t get over how sad I was for these people, especially seeing the prices that are listed for each girl, I swear it ranged from 50E to 500E. ANYWAYS, what I was saying earlier....

Amsterdam is SUCH a beautiful city! The red light district is really fun at night, that´s where all the people are, but once you get away from that, you can get lost through this quaint little streets with the cutest flats/apartment building lining the spiderweb of canals that weave through the city. Our hostel was in an awesome location, everytime we went to "town" we had to cross over the canals and see paddle boats and other motor boats cruising under the bridges. Here is a foto of the canal at night:


Besides one day of chilly cold wind, we had sunshine and warmish (for northern europe in april) weather the whole time. For this, we had a lot of meals along the canal and outside and to-go so we could cruise around and enjoy the beauty of the city..Here are some fotos of the canal and some of my friends:




The Dutch are a really nice people....everyone was very helpful, and it was an added bonus for us because the majority of Dutch people speak English pretty much fluently. It was interesting to listen to Dutch being spoken because there are a lot of similiarities with English, and like German, every now and then you can catch an English word or a word that we use in the middle of it..

So back to our hostel...we stayed at StayOk Vondelpark, which was located right next to this HUGE and really beautiful park called..........Vondelpark. Since our touristy stuff was limited to the VanGogh museum and the Anne Frank House, we spent a lot of time picnicing and relaxing in this park.. There are various little ponds and trees and flower beds and bike and pedestrian paths and something for everyone. We especially were attracted to these sideways trees that grew over the ponds and we found ourselves very often hanging out in the trees, here, look:


The transportation system in Amsterdam is really amazing. The heaviest traffic is due to the mass number of bikers that weave in and out and will NOT stop for pedestrians. Most people go to Amsterdam and end up renting bikes because it really is the easiest way to get around, the streets are practically designed for them, and there is a parking garage (multiple levels) just for bike parking, SO, the boys one day, while we went to the Anne Frank House, rented bikes and tooled around the park and the city over the bridges and followed the canals. The tram system is also very effective, but if you are a tourist, you have to know that they are pretty much SILENT trams, and they will honk if they are about to hit you but otherwise they come out of nowhere and just speed past you. No one got hit while we were there, but I´m sure some people have before, OUCH. Here is a foto of a cute orange Dutch bike in Vondelpark:


So some touristy stuff that we did was go to the Anne Frank House, which we had to wait in line for well over an hour, but being there was very real. We got to enter through the bookshelf which hid the door to their apartment and as you go through each room there are some fotos, diary entries and videos playing.. Most of the windows had black shades over them, just like they were when the Frank family lived their, above the father´s company factory. Things I learned about Anne Frank´s story that I either didn´t remember or never knew were: Someone secretly betrayed the family and told the German police about people hiding in their building 263 Prinsengracht, and investigations post-war still haven´t uncovered who was responsible for the betrayal. I had also forgotten that the father, Otto Frank was the only one to survive concentration camp and after he was free, he returned to Amsterdam and his secretary who was not taken by the police gave him Anne´s diary that she had been keeping, so he published it and was very active in making the apartment a museum that focuses not only on events of the past but the prejudice and discrimination that continues in our world today. Last thing: Anne Frank went to Montessori school, just a little shout out.
(I didn´t get pictures of the Anne Frank House because I don´t think youre allowed to for one, but even if it is allowed, I was too wrapped up in being there that I actually sort of forgot, plus, I think everyone should just go see for themselves, it is just something that we all have studied and a very important part of our history)

The Van Gogh museum was also really interesting. It isn´t as big as I thought it´d be, but it is set up in a very unique way. You are guided through the museum in chronological order of his life, and you can see his different styles as they changed from when he first begain painting to when he was in the psychiatric assylum to before he died. And as you entered into each era of his life, there was a background story and told you all about what he was doing at the time, who he was influenced by, etc etc. I also didn´t take pictures here, because I could not. I wish I could´ve spent more time in the museum because of course his artwork is incredible BUT there were just too many people and it was frustrating to wait in line and move at a pace that´s not your own. I did learn how to pronounce his name in Dutch, so remind me to tell you when I get back, it sounds like you have something stuck in your throat when you say it correctly.


Ok so there are a few other things that Amsterdam is known for and they are:

WOODEN SHOES!
oh those Dutch.

HEINEKEN BEER! (brewed in the ´Dam)

..and lastly are the BEAUTIFUL tulips everywhere.. they have this huge tulip garden just 20 minutes or so outside the city and in April they are supposed to be in fool bloom and so colorful and wonderful.. unfortunately it was going to cost us almost 40E to go, so we hung out in the park instead for free.. but, because tulips are my favorite flower, I was determined to buy one and carry it around. Well that was a difficult task because they only sell them in bunches (for cheaper then anywhere else but still what was I going to do with a whole bouquet?) or you can buy one souvenir wooden tulip which is lame. So, God was just so down with finding me a flower that I walked into a souvenir shop just to look around and I saw a few tulips sitting in the back in a sink and I asked if I could buy one (PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE and I explained to her how bad I wanted just one and she thought I was weird for sure...) but she ended up just giving me one really beautiful flower! So I carried it around and it made me very happy then when we were at the train station on our way out, these really obnoxious Americans dropped their bags and pointed at me and were like, LOOK OUR FIRST TULIP! LOOK HOW CUTE... as if I didn´t understand that they were 1)pointing at me and talking about me and 2)that I understand English. So I just stood their waiting to see if they´d continue pointing at me and then the lady with the fanny pulls out a camera and starts taking pictures of me. So then I decided to make things funny and awkward and I posed for her then finally spoke in loud english, DO YOU WANT A PICTURE OF THIS FLOWER? and then they laughed and said oh we are just so happy to see our first tulip, then I said, you´re from Minnesota aren´t you...I´ve been to Minnesota once in my life and for that I will never forget that accent, also because Bobby´s World is amazing. So then I made her take the flower and take a picture with it, she was so happy, and I guess I just made her day because I let her have it, and told her to just put it in a vase and take care of it, because it was just starting to open up in the sun. And yes, they were from Minnesota, CALLED IT!

Ok, that´s it for now. I really really have a love for this city, it was just so beautiful and Dutch people make me really happy. I couldn´t stop thinking about how Caleb needs to move here so he´ll fit in with all the tall blonde folk. I think everyone should visit Holland for their own personal interests, but Amsterdam is totally worth a visit.