Amsterdam, the Venice of the north?!?

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Whoever is responsible for coining that phrase was a shortsighted fool. Amsterdam is infinitely nicer and more interesting than Venice is, and even though they both share canals, it's still an insult to Amsterdam. Quick useless stat for people like me that love them: 70% of the Netherlands is under sea level. There you go, and now on with my journal.

During my time in Amsterdam I am staying at a christian youth hostel called "Shelter Jordan". Why? several reasons really. The key reason is that it was one of the only places with rooms available, and it was cheap. but after some thought I decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to stay in a place with at least a few morals. Amsterdam is a party city to be sure, and it is packed with lots of kids spending their parents hard earned cash and trying out drugs, getting drunk, and so on. I am a little tired by now and appeciate the joys of a good nights sleep, and at the wrong hostel that would be nearly impossible to obtain. So this place just might work out for me, since I am not into the drug scene myself, and can't afford the pleasure of drinking myself into a stupor.

I arrived in Amsterdam around 1700, and within an hour I was checked into my hostel, and out roaming around. The only museum close by and still open was actually the main one that brought me to Amsterdam, the Anne Frank House. I imagine everyone will know her story, but just in case, I will explain it briefly. Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who grew up in Amsterdam after her family moved there from Germany in 1933, when Hitler seized power. As the war started and developed quickly, Holland was quickly captured and occupied by the Nazis, and as they were rounding up the Jewish population, the Frank family went into hiding in 1942. The family lived with several friends in a small apartment hidden in the back of the office building where Otto Frank (Annes Father) worked, and they successfully hid there until August 1944 when they their hiding place was betrayed by an unknown source. The SS stormed the apartment and all the occupants were sent to camps. The only survivor by the end of the was was Otto Frank, with Anne dying, rather tragically, only one month before the war ended. This is all rather typical of those times, except for the fact that Anne kept a detailed diary of her life during those times, and it survived the war, and today it can be found as a novel that many millions have read. I was also extremely lucky when I visited since apparently there are normally very long lines for this museum, yet when I went there at around 1800, there was no line in sight, the place was very quiet inside as well.

I read the Diary of Anne Frank less than a year ago, so it was all rather fresh in my head. Entering the Anne Frank House, the same apartment the Frank family hid in, has a very heartwrenching experience and it moved me greatly. I entered on the main floor, saw the offices and storerooms before climbing up the stairs to be confronted by the bookshelf swing-door into the secret annex. I climbed those steep stairs, carefully so as not to bump me head, and entered. I saw all the rooms, the kitchen and dining room, the room Anne shared with Fritz, the small bathroom, and everything. By the end of it all I was in tears despite my most macho efforts to hold them back. It was an amazing place to visit, and if you read the diary and took it to heart as I did, then you simply must visit this place.

After seeing the house, I wandered around Amsterdam a little, into the center and then back to the hostel, stopping at a supermarket on the way for some cheap eats. I finished the night out reading and drinking my chocolate vla, which turned out to NOT be chocolate milk, but a 1 litre carton of pudding.

[sleep]

Well, I didn't sleep too well. Despite the fact that I am in a Christian hostel and everyone was sober for the most, some other annoyances kept me awake. First of all, the room I am in has 18 beds, yes....18. And it is a small room, they have us packed in there like sardines, and given the summer heat, it smells rather awful and the air is thick. Secondly there were at least two people snoring very loudly, one was loud enough to shake the bloody walls. Everyone has noises they cannot stand to hear, like nails scratching down the blackboard and such, for me it's the sound of snoring. It drove me insane, and it took all my self control not to scream after an hour straight of that horrid noise. I will have to find earplugs as soon as possible.

On the positive side though, I had a good free breakfast at the hostel in the morning, pancakes! And once breakfast was done, and I cleaned myself up, I took a walk over to the Rijksmuseum for a look at the finest museum the Netherlands has to offer. Interesting museum it was too, with a variety of art forms on display, from the traditional paintings, to cannons, and even a few dollhouses on display. The museum is under renovations right now, so they are limited in what they can display, but I will assume that this means that only the cream of the crop will be shown, and that suits me to a tee. I was only in there for about 2 hours, and that is even with me taking my time and working my way slowly through everything they had to offer, but I really liked it. There were many of the old Dutch masters to be seen here, most notably Rembrandt, but what really caught my eyes were some of the ink drawings of old Naval battles between the Dutch and the British, such detail in those things!

After the Rijksmuseum, I felt like more museum fun, and luckily for me the Van Gogh museum was practically right next door, so I wandered in there. I have never been a huge fan of Van Gogh's work, and only found a few paintings there that I liked, but the museum also explains many details of Van Gogh's life, and this add's spice to visit. Van Gogh was a very interesting person to say the least, and the manner in which he became an artist was surprising to me. It wasn't until he was aged around 27 years old in 1880 that he became an artist at the suggestion of his brother Theo, and he entered this career with much enthusiasm despite never having painted before. Throughout the years his skill level rose, noticibly on the paintings I saw, but he never really acheived any success in selling his work with very few people appreciating it. This failure eventually led to a despression for him, feeling his hard work was doomed to nothing but failure, and when he was only 10 years into his painting career (with over 900 paintings completed), he decided to take his own life by shooting himself in the chest. Ironically, what he hoped would be a fast death actually ended up be very slow and painful, and he didn't die until 2 days later, his brother Theo by his side. Van Gogh's work didn't acheive any real fame until the turn of the century in 1901 with a large exhibition in Paris. The man who lived poorly, being supported by his brother, and couldn't sell his paintings is now considered one of the greatest painters of all time, and his work has been setting records at auctions for highest prices paid, quite the legacy for such a tragic individual. The art world never has made much sense, has it? The museum wasn't fantastic for me, since I am not a huge fan, but I did learn a lot from it, so it was worthwhile.

After Mr. Van Gogh, I strolled through Amsterdam to the Vondelpark, the largest public park in the Netherlands, where I relaxed in the sun for awhile, eating fantastic Dutch pastries. How I am losing weight I cannot understand, given that I eat all this stuff.... Another thing about Amsterdam, everyone here cycles, and I mean everyone. I took a picture of one of the cycle garages where people can park this bicycles, and as you can see, it's insanely large. Cars are as common as cars, if not moreso, and it's tricky crossing the roads without having a "ring-ring" going off at you. I like it though, it's cool to see, and I prefer it 110% to the way Rome was.

[sleep]

Today was a day for seeing some of the historic area's of Amsterdam, and the more....hmm....well....infamous.

I started the day off by visiting the Westerkerk, an old church just down the road from my hostel. It has a very tall tower which can be climbed to give a decent view of the city, so up I went and took a few pics as usual. Today was a special day though, and I took the tour at just the right time. At the top of the tower there is what is known as a Carillon, and today there was a one hour concert with a gentleman on the top floor playing. A Carillon is basically a keyboard like arrangement of levers which, and watching the guy playing this thing was pretty cool, it looks very difficult.

From there I headed into the heart of Amsterdam to go exploring. First up was the museum of what is known as Amsterkring in Dutch, or it's English name which is "Our Lord in the attic". This is a Catholic church that was secretly built back during the times of the reformatiom, when people were forbidden to practice Catholicism. A man named Jan Hartman bought 3 adjacent buildings, which his family occupied on the ground floor. The attic levels were, however, transformed into a church where Catholics could celebrate mass in privacy. This church and building have been well maintained and are almost 100% original, which is impressive given that it dates back to 1661. It was a very interesting place to visit, and seeing the grandeur that the loft of these 3 buildings was converted to was very impressive.

So what did I do after seeing 2 churches? Why I went and visited the Sex Museum of course! No, I am not kidding. I was walking along a street and couldn't help but notice this place just sitting there in all it's glory for everyone to see, and simply had to explore it. The place was more hilarious than shocking, and it was good to enjoy some light hearted fun....for the most. I got to see ancient statuettes of people on the job, a wax figure of Marilyn Monroe standing over those vents, a flasher, two huge chairs shaped like penises (and all the cute girls posing for really funny pictures), and more. I even took some good pictures, but since I don't want to run the risk of having my beloved online journal removed from this site, I won't be posting them on here. I am learning so much here in Amsterdam!

I spent the next several hours walking around, browsing the stores of Amsterdam's amazing shopping dictrict, and relaxing, reading, and being surrounded by pigeons in Dam Square.

Later that night it was time for me to finally do what everyone has probably been expecting, see the Red Light District. I go searching since I don't know the exact area of the city it is located in, but when I turn onto one street I instantly know I have arrived as I see all the bustle and the red lighted windows. It's an....interesting experience, walking along a street and looking into windows at beautiful girls wearing next to nothing, and having them try to get you to come and see them. I walked right down one side and up the other, feeling quite safe with the crowds of people around. Actually a large portion of the crowds were groups of tourist girls, who seemed to be enjoying themselves very much, and I even saw several couples walking around holding hands....some were getting on a bit in years too. I guess this street is just as much of a tourist attraction as it is a place for iniquitious acts these days. Then again, it has been the tourists doing the acts for a long time now as well. It really was something different, and a new way to spend the night.

[sleep]

Time to go meet some friends down in Rotterdam, a city about one hour south of Amsterdam by train.

I have known Vince and Morris for about 2-3 years over the internet, playing games and talking, and since I am halfway around the world in their country, I simply had to meet the guys. We spent the day wandering around Rotterdam seeing sights such as the Erasmus Bridge (a huge bridge), the Euromast (a huge tower), and the cubed houses (a huge....err...block of cube shaped houses). I asked my friends who this Erasmus character was, since there are countless structures names after the fellow around Rotterdam. They had no idea, shame on them! So I did a little research and have found out that he was a theologian/humanist back in the early 16th century, born in Rotterdam, who wrote some famous works on his views of Christian life back in his time. He skirted the line between Reformist (on the side of Martin Luther) and the other side with the traditional Catholic church I guess... I never have been too interested in religion. Revealing this is purely something I told my mates I would do, thinking it would be more interesting than it turned out to be, haha.

Anyway, in between seeing what we saw, we stopped for a bite to eat, and I had to try something Dutch, since I hadn't done so yet. I ordered up Krokettes (croquettes) which were mixed meat paste things rolled in breadcrumbs and cooked until piping hot. When you cut into them you get to see the disgusting looking mess of meats dripping out, but they tasted rather nice actually, I didn't mind them at all.

Eventually we had to part ways, and I headed back to Amsterdam for the night. By this time I had done everything I could think of there, and chose to just wander the city again that night, enjoying it's rich character and fun feeling.

[sleep]

Off to Copenhagen!

I liked Holland a lot, and had a good time in Amsterdam and Rotterdam while visiting my friends. Dutch people are super friendly, and despite the fact that I spoke only English the whole time I was there, noone seemed to mind. In fact, everyone spoke English almost flawlessly. Oh, and there are a LOT of tall people in this country. I am 182cm tall (about 6 feet), and often felt rather short, even around some women. Dutch girls are very pretty as well I might add, probably the prettiest of my trip so far, but we will see how long that lasts with where I am going over the next 2 weeks!

Oh, and no I didn't go into the coffee shops to sample their wares. That's not my scene, regardless of it being legal or not. I did get a chuckle at the smart shops around town though, selling Magic Mushrooms and such.

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