I Amsterdam

Amsterdam was my last trip with my roomies and one during my program. Again, I went to the city not really knowing what to expect but knowing that I wanted to see Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank House, which I did do both. I was told that there is not much to do in the small city but it was beautiful, and they were right. Our hostel was among the top rated in Europe and was centrally located in the city. This trip parallels Spain in the way of atmosphere, mindset, and city varying my other travels. Being the weekend after Spain, I wanted this trip to be relaxing and knowing that there is not that much to do I knew that could happen. Since we flew into Eindhoven and bussed it to Amsterdam, it was already midday and tiring from all the travels. Being conveniently located amongst shops and busy streets, we just took to the streets to explore the city. The city has many beautiful canals and bridges, along with cobblestone and old buildings that all maintain a similar feel. That was something I noticed about the city is that a lot of the canals, streets, bridges, and buildings all looked the same or resembled one another. I took a lot of pictures because each time that I was blown away by the beauty but most of my pictures look the same because it was basically the same sites being photographed each time. Everyone rides bikes there with lanes dedicated to bicyclists. When crossing the street you would have to look out for cyclists rather than cars, the city was full of bikes. We chickened out of the bikes due to the cold weather and wanting to walk everywhere so we could photograph the sites. As you may have already guessed this was a weekend of coffee shops, food, and wandering the streets aimlessly.
Food was everywhere in this city, I mean every other store and always open. The bakeries were brightly lit and displayed an amazing array of goodies such as Belgium waffles topped with fruit and whipped cream, cookies, and pastries galore. Of course after each meal the bakeries were a must. The food was pretty good and had a lot of variety, which kind of reminded me of America, but it was really expensive.
I was not that impressed with the Van Gogh Museum, which is weird because it came recommended. I am not sure if we missed something but there were only 3 floors of artwork and not too much on display. There was a mix of Van Gogh’s with artist that he was influenced by and influenced by him but they were mixed in together. Not all of his famous works were on display either, but that is understandable because they are all throughout the world. I think the major factor was how crowded it was and took awhile to view each painting. That takes away from the connection with the painting and is pretty distracting from the noise. The Anne Frank house on the other hand was very interesting and really enjoyed it. It was setup at the actual building where she and her family and others were kept in hiding. The front part of the building was her father’s business and the back house was redesigned to hide them. Quotes from the diary were written on the walls and videos of her father and lady that hid them told stories about the hardships and their take on the diary. It was a very informative museum and I seemed to get a lot out of it.
At night we did manage to get to the famous Red Light District seen in movies like Eurotrip. It was clothed women in windows that were actually doors. The windows were actually lit with a red light, but it wasn’t as crazy as I expected. Obviously it is sad to see women selling themselves like that but it seemed somewhat normal. The buildings were the same as the ones throughout the city and everything looked the same, just more window doors basically which I guess is why it seemed normal. The women were clothed and were doing normal things like sitting and talking or on the phone or even eating, not coming out at you or anything. It did not feel unsafe or too gross, but rather another tourist attraction.

Amsterdam was a nice way to end my travels with the roomies. It has led to a calming vibe that has followed me back to Prague. The city of Amsterdam is very beautiful and has an old city charm to it.