Amsterdam

Well Amsterdam you are different than what I expected. I knew that there is this drug use party scene but I thought it was going to be much more than that. Not so much. Maybe we stayed in the wrong area, but we did get an occasional smell of drugs even walking through the nice sections.

We arrived at our hostel two days ago and were immediately greeted by the smell of marijuana in the lobby. OK I knew this was going to happen, but it was directly where we were staying. The hostel was very nice though and very clean. We were on the top floor and had access to a patio that overlooked the adjoining roof lines. It was beautiful.

Our first stop was to the grocery store for supplies and waters. Caleb found a great deal of 0.79 euros for a huge bottle of water! After getting it back to the hostel it turns out it was sparkling water – yuck! This was our first introduction to the availability of sparkling water, apple juice, etc. available at the stores. We had to be careful from here on out. We walked around some more and saw several food shops that looked so yummy! Sara and I looked at each other and quickly decided we were going to eat our way through Amsterdam. We ended up grabbing dinner at this place that sold fries. I wasn’t sure about it at first but they were quite good! Caleb said they are the best because they are double fried. Unfortunately we could not bring them into the hostel. Apparently fries and ice cream are outlawed in our hostel and several other establishments throughout Amsterdam. What catastrophe caused fries and ice cream to be outlawed all over? That night we chilled on the roof top patio and slept in the following day. It was glorious to sleep late after the day of travel.

The next morning a few of us grabbed breakfast in the hostel lobby – it was the “traditional” lunch meat type breakfast I’ve seen in Bulgaria. A few of us didn’t make it to breakfast (intentionally and unintentionally). Sara and I remembered seeing this pastry place that looked amazing! And that’s exactly where we got breakfast! I tried an apple fried doughnut and apple flaky pastry. Both were delicious and hit the spot first thing in the morning! After breakfast we walked around and saw the Reich Museum and the “I Amsterdam” sign outside the museum. On our way out, we saw this line painted bunnies. Each one was painted differently and it turns out it is part of a world organization. Our favorite was the duck bunny.

We kept walking around and eating delicious food. After all our walking we grabbed some beers and wine and played cards on the rooftop patio for a few hours. It was a great time of connecting together and laughing.

Nighttime view of the canals.

The following morning, we went back to the pastry place and I tried three different things – a traditional Dutch doughnut, a fried apple fritter thing and churros. All delectable! Then we headed to the Anne Frank museum. I did not know quite what to expect, but it was so moving. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures, so I’ll try to describe it as best as possible from memory.

The museum takes you through the beginnings of Otto Frank moving to Amsterdam and building a business. Then you see a short video of one of his surviving employees that helped him, his family and friends hide. In the video, she describes Mr. Frank asking her to help his family hide. Without any hesitation – she said yes. She was risking her own life willingly to help her manager and his family for who knew how long. This is early on and I’m already crying. Great. During the initial background you are moving through the main part of the house where the business is operated. All along the walls are quotes from Anne’s Diary and from Mr. Frank. On display are pictures from family albums before the war. You see Anne and her family like any family laughing, smiling, wrapping arms around each other in embrace. You also see the scale model that was created from a description Mr. Frank gave in the 1960s. The model shows you a good overlooking visual of where everything was laid out.

Next, you come down a hallway and in the room ahead you see a bookcase swung open to show the secret annex. The bookcase is original and the contents on the shelves appear original as well. You have to bend down and step up into the annex. Just behind the bookcase is a door (which is unmovable for purposes of the tour) and just beyond a very steep staircase on the right and a hallway on the left. Down the hallway is Mr. and Mrs. Frank’s and Margot’s bedroom. It is very small with no furniture. The furniture was removed by SS guards when the annex was discovered and the inhabitants captured. Mr. Frank requested that the rooms remain empty for the tour. However, there were staged photographs in each room so you could see how it was at the time of their hiding. Next you move into Anne’s room that she eventually shared with Mr. Fritz Pfeffer. Still visible are the pictures of Queen Elizabeth I as a girl, celebrities and art Anne used to “decorate” her room. It is amazing that these have still been preserved. Again I’m crying and now sniffling. From there you see the small bathroom and then climb the steep staircase to the van Pels' room that is also the kitchen and general gathering place for all the inhabitants. Next you see the “room” or cubby that Peter van Pels slept in underneath the stairs to the attic. In every room, there is a staged picture and quotes from Anne’s Diary describing the room.

After walking through the entire secret annex, you come into a room that has Anne’s plaid diary – her first one – and the other diaries and scrapes of paper she used after filling up the plaid diary. She wanted to be a writer and she turned out to more of an inspiration than she may have imagined at the time. She wrote about desiring to see the sun and play outside. Yet there was not this tone of entitlement or complaining in her words. It truly makes you think about your life and what you complain about. It does inspire some self-reflection.

We walked around the city again taking in its architectural beauty before heading back to the hostel for a quick nap. After the nap we took a pizza cruise through some of the canals. Our guide was a beautiful Dutch woman with crazy curly hair and red lipstick. She informative and funny while pointing out points of interest like the house boats, no curtains, the dancing houses, bicycles, and churches. The house boats used to be where hippies lived for inexpensively. Now it will cost you about half a million euros to get a place on the canal for your house boat. As we are passing house boats, you can see directly into their living quarters. She said that her mom always told her that if you close the curtains it means you have something to hide. So a lot of Dutch people leave their curtains open in the common areas, but not bedrooms or bathrooms. The dancing houses are a set of 4 or 5 houses along that canal that are very crooked. Now there are a lot of houses that are crooked up and down the canals but these are VERY crooked. The houses were originally built on wooden poles. But one dry summer the water levels in the canals sank and the poles began to rot which cause the houses to slump on one or more sides. The houses have been renovated to sit on concrete bases and the floors leveled out, but people of them. Who wouldn’t want to live in a crooked house? Well they cost millions. Amsterdam has more bicycles than residents and typically people have had multiple bicycles in their possession but they can often get stolen. That’s why you buy an old looking one and no one will want to steal it. They find about 20,000 bicycles at the bottom of the canal every year from people just pushing them in. Also if your bicycle is broken – you ask yourself if the repair will cost 30 euros or more. If yes, then leave it somewhere and someone else will grab it and fix it. And they may sell it back to you someday.

The dancing houses in Amsterdam.

Bikes are everywhere!

The cruise was delightful! Afterwards we took a stroll through the red light district to say that we had been there. Turns out – it was just block from our hostel. Walking through it I just feel this sadness for the girls. They think that their only worth is to sell their bodies. It was awful. It was also the first time I saw someone openly on the street offering to sell anyone cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs. Crazy! Courtney made the comment and it is so true – this was not quite as bad as New Orleans Bourbon Street. The girls in Amsterdam are in windows behind a barrier. The girls in NOLA are out in doorways and catcalling you to come in. It really was no worth seeing.

We went to bed early for our long day of travel to Berlin the following morning.