Amsterdam, Netherlands

It is always hard when a truly happy moment and a especially sad moment happen within just one weekend. Travelling proves to be a little rough on the heart as so much love and wander can be found and then almost as quickly as it came it is gone again. Longing, always longing for just one more hour, one more day, one more time. When landing in Amsterdam this weekend with a group of friends I was excited and was ready to experience all the wonder this city has to offer. But, two days in Amsterdam is simply and sadly, not enough. However, I must concentrate on the good and be happy that I had such an opportunity to go even for the short trip!

Amsterdam is a lively, beautiful and friendly city. Like most tourists, we mainly stayed in the downtown area (Dom) and tried to explore as much as we could! We arrived Thursday night after a short airplane ride from Prague. We found the hostel with some help from the friendly Dutch people, met the rest of our group, ate dinner and went to a cool bar. I was pretty tired after a class all day and was happy to go to sleep!

Friday morning we packed our stay with first a trip to the Van Gogh museum. I have always loved Van Gogh's paintings and it was beautiful to see the largest collection of his paintings, letters and drawings. I also loved their temporary exhibition which was printmaking-I LOVE this type of artwork and it was a pleasant surprise! Next we made our way to the city center to participate in a free tour of the city. After our first tour in Berlin I have decided this is one of the best ways to see the city. There were places we never would have seen and history we would never know if we didn't sign up! Amsterdam is so beautiful and seems like an amazing place for a young person to live! After the tour we went to the Heineken Factory. We missed the tour of the brewery by twenty minutes :[ But got to see inside. To save money we did not use public transportation except to get to and from the airport. This made for a lot of walking! Everything is a lot more spread out than in Prague so it was pretty difficult but got to see a lot along the way! Anyway, I was not too upset because Heineken is not my favorite kind of Holland beer, I like Brand! We got hamburgers for dinner, yum! And went to a comedy show called "Boom Chicago" that mixes improve comedy and skits. It was really funny and all around a great night.

Saturday we ate some traditional "sweet pancakes" (crepes) for breakfast and then headed to the Anne Frank House. The line was sooo long but we got in relatively quickly. The Anne Frank house is really interesting and sad. This is where she and her family as well as other Jewish castaways hid during the Nazi invasion of Holland. The saddest part is Ottis Frank's (Anne's father) story. He survived the concentration camp where both his wife and two daughters died. He came back to his office in Holland and was given Anne's diaries. Very moving. 

We finished the day with a boat tour around Amsterdam and saw more industrial parts of the city. Our most shameful part of the trip is when we tourists tried to get back to the airport. This endevour included a 5 minute wait at a bus stop that no longer exists and a run through the streets to the correct the mistake. Oh jeez, silly tourists!

I really wished I had more time in this unique city. If I had more time I would have wanted to see other parts of the Netherlands and experience more of the city. I will have to go back one day and see more!!

Local Flower Market

Main square

Red Light District

Our tour guide tells us that hundred of people (men) die each year from falling into the rivers while they try to pee. For safety reasons the city has built these structures for public use. Over the guide's shoulder I caught one in use! Apparently during the time local women protested that their should be public restrooms for them. In protest, nearly 200 women went to each bridge and peed!

Site of the Dutch West India Trading Company now part of the university

Statue and tulips in one of the famous convents of Amsterdam

This site is used for all the local protests and gatherings

Squatting houses were popular here during the last decade. It was popular to squat in Amsterdam because it wasn't illegal. If you wanted to squat somewhere you would set up camp and call in to the authorities and tell them your name and what building you were in and that you were squatting. They said O.K. Numerous amounts of buildings were saved in Amsterdam because of squatters, which without their residence would have been torn down.

Heineken Brouwery

Line into Anne Frank House