The night before I left, I went to my friend Emily's house with Johnny and Laura Lapidus. We relaxed and talked over a few bottles of wine, cheese, and baguettes. The plan was to go to the Eiffel Tower that night. Somehow, the time escaped us but we ran out, made the Metro and got to the Eiffel Tower at around 11:15 pm. Of course, we brought another bottle of wine with us. The 4 of us sat on a bench in the Champ de Mars, the huge field across from la Tour Eiffel, drinking wine and staring up at the monument. On the hour, the lights start blinking and flashing for about 5 minutes which is really cool. It was an amazing night, just to be in Paris, sitting at the Eiffel Tower, realizing how unbelievable it is that I'm here, in this city, at this point in my life. It was a lot of fun.
Now for Amsterdam, also a lot of fun! I left for the train from my friday class. For trains within the EU, there isn't really security or anything. They don't even tell you what track you're leaving from until 10 minutes before departure so it's pointless to show up early. I travelled alone because I bought my ticket kind of last minute. It was cheaper for me to get a first-class ticket for "jeunes" (tickets are cheaper for people under 26). First-class was really fun. All the chairs are really comfy and they serve you a full-course meal. And the drink cart comes by every 45 minutes with wine, beer and whatever else you could want - I stuck to wine. It was a 4 hour train ride from Paris to Amsterdam with a few stops: Brussels, Rotterdam, Antwerp. I brought everything I needed for the weekend in my messenger bag, which included my school books since I came right from class. Travel was really easy.
I walked 10 minutes from the Central Train Station to my hostel, St. Christopher's. The hostel was IN THE MIDDLE of the red light district, on Warmoesstraat! But I walked in and saw 3 people from CEA Paris which was funny, and there were a ton of other Americans. I randomly got assigned to a hostel room with my roommate and another random girl. I would think if I were a girl, traveling on my own, staying in a hostel, that I wouldn't want to be in a 3 person room with 2 boys...but I never even met this girl because I was only at the hostel to sleep and either she was asleep or we were whenever we could have met.
My old camp friend, David Dresner, is studying in Amsterdam for the semester. So he came to the hostel and walked me around the city for a while. Amsterdam is a really cool city - it's techincally below sea level and the whole place is canals. The city is built above the water. It's a beautiful city! The architecture and design makes the whole place feel very quaint. Dresner walked me down Haarlemmerstraat and showed me Leidseplein, both cool areas of Amsterdam. I love the dutch words...they're actually not that hard to say but they just look so funny. We went to his apartment, which made me so angry with my living situation. His room was as big as my apartment! And he had a really nice kitchen and living room...it looked all brand new! We ate dinner with a bunch of his friends (there are a few apartments with kids from his program in the same building). Then he walked me back to my hostel where I met up with my roommate, who had just gotten into Amsterdam, and some other people from CEA.
Red Light District
We explored the city that night. Went to some of the coffeeshops, went to a few bars, walked around the Red Light district. We went into this one bar where we must have been the only tourists, even though a huuuge percentage of the city is foreign born. Everybody looked so 'dutch'. They had their pastel colored button downs and shaggy hair and rosy cheeks. It was funny. They had good beer. The red light district was interesting...pretty shocking. You literally walk down the street and there are women in little rooms that have doors/windows facing the street. They make seductive faces to try and get you to come into their rooms. My roommate compared it to a zoo, where the women are in 'cages' and you can go 'pet' them. When the curtain is closed, that means that the woman is with a customer. I found the whole thing pretty awkward and degrading. I was with a girl walking around and she got really freaked out by the whole concept. It was also funny seeing African women in traditional robes and older tourists walking around at the same time as us. I could not imagine my grandparents touring the Red Light District at night!
The next morning we woke up and went to the Heineken Brewery. I was touring around with my roommate, my friend from Paris, Caitlin, and her friend from Barcelona, Stephanie. I'm glad it was 4 of us because it gets a little intense when you're traveling with too many people. It was about a 30 minute walk...which is all the way across the city. It's not a big city, and only around 900,000 people live there. Everyone bikes in Amsterdam! There are bike lanes on every street and bicyclists have the right of way over pedestrians and cars. They will run you over if you don't move. And people don't lock their bikes to anything. They just put a chain connecting the front wheel to the frame so you can't ride it. It's amazing how trusting they are...and that they don't have to worry so much about theft. They also have a really cool tram system that goes through the middle of the streets. People bike and drive over the tracks and then the tram will beep and they will move. I didn't use it ever because I liked walking around and nothing was really far.
Heineken Brewery
Heineken was 15 euro...which isn't that cheap -- but we did get 4 beers throughout the tour (you're only supposed to get 2 but what can I say, I'm a charmer). The tour goes through the history of Heineken, how beer is made, a tour of the beer vats, and taste tests. The marketing is intense! There is literally a room where you lay down in a chair and stare at images of Heineken around the globe and they yell words at you like, "passion, quality, taste, committment!" It's pretty funny. You walk out like a Zombie, thinking, "I love Heineken, it's the best beer in the world, Must Have Heineken!" My roommate bought Heineken beer glasses that we have in our apartment now. They also have a really funny "ride" during the tour..where there you are on a moving platform as you pretend you're a "hopp" and go through the beer making process...really funny.
After Heineken, we walked back to Leidseplein to meet some other people from Paris and Barcelona. Throughout the weekend, I ran into probably 50 people I knew. That is not an exaggeration. It was Michigan's spring break so I saw a bunch of people who were visiting Amsterdam over spring break. I saw people from high school who were studying in Florence and Barcelona. It was ridiculous. We got thai food for lunch which was pretty good. Then we went to the Van Gogh museum.
Van Gogh Museum
There was a special exhibit at the museum called "Colors of the Night" and all of Van Gogh's paintings that featured the night and dusk were brought back to Amsterdam. It was amazing! Starry Night was so cool. You weren't allowed to take any pictures but I really liked Van Gogh's stuff...and he was a pretty interesting character - nuts! We were at the museum for about 2 hours, which was perfect, and I really was into Van Gogh's paintings.
We left the museum and I met up with Dana Bernstein and the same crew that was in Paris the week before. They were in Amsterdam on the last leg of their journey so we had dinner at a Greek restaurant. It was fun to see them. I met my friends from Paris at an Indian Restaurant after. They were there with a bunch of girls from Boulder who were studying in Barcelona. I didn't really eat but had some amazing Indian spinach dish that I definitely want to try again. We went from the restaurant to an improv comedy show. It's called Boom Chicago! and it's all in English. There are some American actors and some Dutch but they all speak English. It was really funny...they made fun of American tourists and picked on people from the audience. I would say there were at least 40 Michigan students, my year, in the audience of 200 or so.
We walked through the streets on the way home. There are some weiirrdd people in Amsterdam. All of these British girls were dressed up like clowns/hookers and were so drunk (or on other drugs) running around the streets. Amsterdam is like a fairy tale land...everything seems fake and totally bizzare. We took an hour or two to walk home, just stopping at random places along the way. They have really good Fries in Amsterdam, which I ate along my walk.
Anne Frank
Sunday morning, me and Justin woke up early to go to Ann Frank. I had a 2:30 train and he has a 2:30 flight. We walked to 263 Prisengracht, where Anne Frank was in hiding, and there was no line at the museum. I think it had just opened...we got there around 10:15. It was a chilling experience. The museum is very well done...and it's so strange to see this typical Dutch street and think that Jews had to hide in the attic for years to escape the Nazis! I know it sounds naive but Amsterdam doesn't seem like the type of city where things like that happen! Everyone seems so peaceful and friendly...I guess they're also not the type of city that could really stand up to the German Army. The house was truly amazing. Otto Frank didn't want the rooms to be refurnished but there are models of how the apartment was set up and there is a display with the original diary. I was really glad I got to see the Anne Frank house. There was this one quote that has stuck with me since leaving Amsterdam, that basically said, "Of all the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, we only read the story of Anne Frank. Maybe it's better that way. It's too painful to think of the immense suffering and pain of so many stories just like Anne's."
After the museum, Justin left for the airport and I went to find the Fluorescent Light museum that my friend had told me about. Unfortunately, after some extensive searching, it was closed on Sunday! So as a consolation, I went to get Dutch Pancakes with Caitlin and Stephanie. They have these mini pancakes called poffertjes that were delicious! By then, it was time for me to head to the train station and go home! No first-class this time, but I fell right asleep.Amsterdam was an amazing city. I would love to go back sometime later in life, definitely more in the spring time to see the amazing flowers. There is a lot of really interesting culture there and it's a very inviting place. A very easy, successful first travel experience!
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