Amsterdam, My Amsterdam, I AMsterdam...an awesome weekend with friends.

Amsterdam.  Just say it with me:  Amsterdam.  Amsterdam.  It is not a city you visit without having preconceived notions as to what the trip will entail.  It is not a city most people know much about, but everyone knows SOMETHING about of course.  It was the city that began my spring break.

Now, when I say spring break, I really just mean a vacation from a vacation (all of study abroad is more or less a vacation for 80% of the time).  But nevertheless, I’ll still call it spring break.  This particular weekend was extra special because I met four of my best friends and housemates for the fall there.  Alex came from Madrid, Evan and Mark came with Caleb from Tel Aviv (they stayed with me the previous weekend in Prague and went to Paris in between), and my friend Jared flew all the way from Ann Arbor for the weekend.  Yes, we convinced him to come, though it didn’t take much convincing at all actually.  Alex was traveling with his friend Dan, so he came as well, which was fun.

I left Prague early Thursday morning for Amsterdam via WizzAir.  If you’ve never flown WizzAir, it is a cheap, European discount airliner that charges you for everything, much like RyanAir or equivalents.  The inside of the plane was not nice, and the turbulence was awful, as in I thought that the plane was going to break up at 30,000 feet.  But luckily, we landed safely in the Netherlands.  Because the flight was through a cheaper service, we went to Eindhoven Airport, not the main airport, and had to take an annoying bus into the city center.

Finally, I arrived in Amsterdam around 3 pm.  We chose to stay in the Marriott.  Yes, the Marriott.  I know, it sounds really ironic to go to Amsterdam, the liberal capital of the world, and stay in the Marriott.  But, most of the good hostels were booked when we planned the trip, and the hotel offered a special weekend deal.  Plus, many hostels in Amsterdam are pretty shady, so we opted to split a four person room for five people (taking turns on the floor), and for a similar cost we enjoyed a nice hotel in a great location.  Spoiled?  Perhaps, but it was so worth it.

 All the boys posing with the "I AMsterdam" sculpture.

*Side note:  to set the scene, make sure you keep in mind what conditions I am walking around in.  Basically, there are bicycles everywhere.  More bikes than people here.  There are bike lanes, people lanes, tram lanes, and car lanes.  Traffic is so complex I’m not sure who has the right-of-way.  But, the Dutch love riding bikes and being efficient.

The first day was pretty relaxed, as we were all pretty tired from traveling and Alex was not there yet.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to see the Van Gogh museum, a must-hit on any visit to Amsterdam.  It was very cool I thought.  The colors on some of the paintings were stunning.  After a quick rest we went to a café near the University of Amsterdam for dinner.  It was Evan’s 21^st birthday, so we of course had to go to a couple bars, explore the crazy night scene, and hang out some more.

Friday we slept pretty late but decided to go on a free tour of the city of Amsterdam.  This is through the same company that does all the other free tours I’ve taken, NewEurope tour company.  They are pretty reliable, so now I feel pretty comfortable beginning my orientation to a new city through them.  That took up most of our afternoon, but we learned a ton about the city.

Amsterdam is obviously pretty liberal.  Well, there is a reason behind it, and it is rooted in business more or less.  Amsterdamers, and the Dutch, have had a longstanding tradition of trying to let things be that satisfy three criteria, and thus do not usually prosecute crimes that aren’t hurting anything, are good for business, and are discrete.  Thus, something like smoking marijuana isn’t actually legal in the country, but it is not typically prosecuted if you are responsible about it.  But more about the “darker” activities later.

The Dutch used to be a world power, especially on the sea.  Their mastery of the canals around Amsterdam really showed their expertise in manipulating water, and the city was really interesting architecturally.  There was a lot of brick, and if the weather had been better we would’ve taken some stunning pictures.

A rare break in the weather led to some beautiful pictures.

We also learned that the Dutch have been very open to religious and cultural tolerance over the years (another thing that has lead to good business integration).  When Catholicism had to be legally “outlawed,” they still allowed “secret” churches because the Catholics were pretty wealthy.  During the Holocaust, many Amsterdamers protested and fought back against the Nazis more than other countries because even non-Jews viewed Jews as Amsterdamers, regardless of religion.

Even the legalized prostitution in the city has its roots in business promotion.  The tradition started when sailors would return to port after long journeys on ships with no women.  The sailors would come home, receive their pay after a long voyage, and go straight to the red light district.  Everyone ended up happy.

Needless to say at this point, it was a pretty informative tour.  The most interesting or bizarre fact I learned though was that the Dutch collect between 25,000-30,000 bicycles from the canals each year.  They love their bicycles here, but apparently they love chucking them into the canals for sport even more.  And, per our tour guide’s advice, if we ever need a bike, walk up to someone and pretend like they stole it, because chances are they picked it up somewhere and are just using it.  They just shuffle bikes here.

 Many old houses in Amsterdam lean forward so that a pulley system could be used to raise things to the top floors, without the items smashing against the side of the house on the way up.  Gotta love that idea, right?

Okay, back to some action.  The tour was our main activity for the day, but soon after we met up with Alex, who just arrived.  We grabbed food at a random pizza place, explored a little nightlife, and went to sleep.

Now, I know everyone wants to know about the “coffee shops” and red light district.  Obviously, I’m going to keep this blog PG, so if you want to know my full opinions of things you’ll have to ask me some other time.  But I will say a bit about what these places are and what I think.

Coffee shops are absurd, by all American standards.  You can literally walk in, they show you a menu of different marijuana you can buy (or weed-baked goods such as brownies or “Space Cakes”), and you can sit down and smoke.  It’s that simple.  It’s exactly what you would expect in Amsterdam.  I don’t think the Dutch usually go to them, it seems to be a lot of international people walking in and out.  Our tour guide pointed this out as well.

The red light district actually looked exactly how I thought it would, but nevertheless it is insane to think that such a place like that exists on this earth.  Now, I was slightly uncomfortable walking with my 15 year-old sister through the sex-shows in Paris.  But, during the day, the red light district has a surprisingly family-friendly type atmosphere.  It is almost too comical and shocking to be taken seriously.

There are numerous sex shows, where you can go in and watch, well, sex and other acts.  There are of course the sex-toy shops.  And then there are the red light windows.

From what I learned, women can rent out these spaces for 8-hour shifts.  There is a small glass door with a red light over top of it, and if someone wants to go in they talk about a price, and that’s it.  There is a whole order to the event, with hygiene and health being key.  Because it became officially legal 10 years ago, these women pay taxes, receive government support and protection, and keep everything above board (actually, a lot of people in the ‘industry’ were upset to see it legalized because they had to pay taxes).

We were also warned never to take pictures of the windows or we would face the wrath of the prostitutes or nearby bouncers.  Enough said there.

 On one of Amsterdam's many bridges.

Saturday it rained a lot, and so we didn’t do a whole lot.  I guess the “highlight” of the day was going to the Heineken Experience, where the original factory was.  In my opinion, the whole thing was a bit overrated and not worth 15 euros, even with a couple free samples at the end.  It was extremely touristy, and we didn’t even get to see the factory.  The beer was very good and very fresh at the end, but it was not that great of an event.  We also took it easy that night because we wanted to get up extremely early and beat the lines for the Anne Frank house the next morning.

Jared and I...no one else would take the picture with us.

Sunday morning we got to the Anne Frank house at 8 am, when the gates open at 9 am.  We were first in line by 20 minutes, but by the time we left the house the line was probably 2 hours long at least, so I’m glad we did the early thing.

It was a hard place to be, much like the other places of Jewish history in Europe I’ve visited so far.  I thought the museum was extremely well done overall.  It was not big, as the house was a former factory in front with living quarters in the back, and the hiding space for the Frank family as well.  So there was not a lot of room for information about the Holocaust.  Rather, they shared information about the Frank family, and told their story.  This was a pretty effective way to bring out your emotions.

There were two things in particular I will remember from the experience, that will stick with me.  First, upon entering one of the first rooms hidden behind the bookcase, there were markings on the wall where the parents kept track of the children’s height as they grew.  It just got to me, and made the place so real; people actually lived here, the story actually happened.  My mom did the same thing when I was getting taller.

Second, at the end of the tour, there is a display with quotes from famous people who have visited the house, and a lot of family photos of the Franks.  In particular, there is a timeline of pictures from when Anne was born to right before she was deported, showing her getting older.  And then it stopped obviously, because she was found.  This got to me as well.

It was a sobering experience overall, but something everyone should do when they come to Amsterdam.  Luckily, we were cheered up by the pancake bakery down the street (I had numerous recommendations to go).  They had about 75 different kinds of pancakes, and I settled on pancake with chicken, cheese, and pineapple.  It was delicious.  The Dutch definitely know their pancakes and waffles.

Putting some molasses from the tub onto Jared's pancake...I believe he got ice cream, banana, and whipped cream?

We kind of wandered for a while that afternoon.  I took a nap because it was raining and I was going to Barcelona the next day.  We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Café (I know, way touristy, but it was just easy for once) and that was that.

It was great to see my friends, and great to experience a new city.  I’m constantly surprised that each city I go to is so different, even though everything is in Europe.  I wonder if Munich will be similar to Berlin, or Madrid will be similar to Barcelona.  I guess we’ll see.

I really enjoyed Amsterdam overall, but I could never imagine myself studying there or staying more than 4 days.  There is definitely some stuff to do, but after a while, I feel like I would get annoyed with all the people who come there to drink or smoke and destroy the city.  I don’t know, maybe I would approach the whole city differently if I were there for 4 months instead of 4 days.  It was just pretty intense, but really fun.

I’ve been in Barcelona for about a day and a half now, but I want to blog about the city all at once so stay tuned for that in a couple of days.  Hasta la vista.