Amsterdamned

After Munich and Salzburg, part of the group headed north to Amsterdam. I had no idea what to expect, but from what I had heard about this town I expected hippies everywhere.

When we got there the girls headed to the hotel we booked (no way I was doing 3 Ducks again with people on drugs) and the boys headed to their place.

We had no idea what was in store for us.

The "I Amsterdam" thing thats supposedly famous.
We saw this sign after going to the Van Gough museum. I loved seeing all these works of art under one roof. He was so talented.


View from a bridge of the Red Light District.

One afternoon we went to the Red Light District. I was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. The women stand in the windows, probably drugged out, hoping to appeal to some sick person. The way the women are displayed is not as though they are people, but an item that you can buy (like a pair of shoes). We were there for maybe 15 minutes though 5 would have been enough for me.


Kari, Cameron, and me at the Heineken Brewery/museum. Note our cool hats. All of the girls got them except for Kari/lameo.
The outside of the Heineken Brewery/museum.


One of Amsterdam's infamous "coffee" shops.
Madame Tussaud's wax museum. (we didn't go in though)


We went to Anne Frank's house one morning. The line was really long but totally worth the wait. I read The Diary of Anne Frank in elementary school, so it had been a while. In my memory the area where they lived seemed reasonable, but standing in the room that Anne shared with another person was pretty surprising. The rooms were tiny. I cannot imagine living there for as long as they did. We got to walk through the door that led to the Annex (the one that was blocked by the bookcase) and head up the stairs. Seeing where this young girl hid for her life was very touching. Throughout the house there were excerpts from her diary. It was hard to believe that someone so young was so insightful.

A-MAZ-ING Pancake (Bacon and Cheese)

After Anne Frank's house, we went down the street to The Pancake Bakery. They had soooo many pancake choices. I opted for a savory pancake with bacon and cheese...it was wonderful. Other people got sweet pancakes like nutella. Just thinking about it is making my stomach growl.

All of these experiences (Van Gough, Heineken, Anne Frank's house, etc) make Amsterdam seem like a charming town, but the in between times left me with a different mind set. As previously mentioned, I expected a hippie town. Instead of hippies there seemed to be people who lived there and rode around on bikes or drug addicts. The presence of crazy drug addicts kept me feeling uneasy for a lot of the trip.

On our last night in Amsterdam, one of the girls got pickpocketed (her wallet and passport). We got to spend some quality time at the Amsterdam Police Dept. While waiting for her paperwork to process, a man came in with no shirt on holding a plastic bag. I was terrified. He went up to the police at the desk and explained that he had too many mushrooms and mixed them with alcohol. He woke up like this (shirtless) and figured he'd been robbed (really? you have no shirt or wallet...how'd you come to that conclusion?). He went on to say that he was seeing things, his brain was not working right, and he needed a doctor. In America he would have been rushed to the ER. In Amsterdam, the police laughed and told him to wait in line.

After waiting for a while, the police said that the whole system was down in all of Amsterdam and we'd have to come back in the morning. On another note, in the police station one of the police women looked at our group and asked if we'd all been helped. We all nodded "Yes" and probably looked confused since we were all together and she pointed at me and said, "Oh I though you were Dutch." I was ecstatic that I didn't look like an American tourist like the rest of the group, but they attributed it to the fact that I am the only blonde of the group.

Though I left Amsterdam ready to get out of that town, looking back I would like to try it again. If the weather had been nicer, it would have been neat to do a bike tour through the country or see the Rembrandt museum.

Next stop: Prague!

Ciao for now!