Amsterdam, my new love, one day I will move there. Even in the dreariest of weather the city was beautiful. The canals ran throughout the city and the architecture was absolutely incredible.
We arrived on Saturday morning. After waking up at 3:45 to make it to the bus station in time to catch the bus to Marseilles airport, the 10 of us flew (survoler) to Eindhoven from which we took a 2 hour trip on a double-decker bus to Amsterdam, the city of dreams and insanity. We decided once we got there to find our hotels and rendez-vous around 5:30 so we had some time to rest. Lyndsay and I walked in the cold attempting to navigate while exploring the city that we instantly fell in love with. After about two hours we stumbled upon our gem of hotel. Now, when I say gem I mean it in the most ironic sense because this place was a hellhole. From the outside it slightly resembled the Hollywood Tower Hotel, better known as the Tower of Terror in Disney’s MGM studio in Orlando Florida. We were given our key which led to the attic where we found the smallest room, with the smallest twin bed I have ever had to sleep in with another person.
Lyndsey's reaction:
After hours of Room Raiders subtitled in Dutch, we ventured into the cold to meet up with the other ladies. The 8 of us decided to go to the Anne Frank house which was a far walk but incredible. It was surprisingly large. Alas, it was a museum and the place was packed tight. We, along with thousands of others, toured the annex like salmon swimming in a pack, stopping to see the preserved documents and Frank family height charts. As a child I was nearly obsessed with Anne Frank, as my mother will attest to, and so my plan was to observe the space in a silent reverence, taking in every emotion that the space evoked. This did not sit well with the parents who decided to bring their crying, obnoxious children. Can I just say now that if you are a parent and you decide to visit a city, DO NOT plan on going to anything where people will be trying to be pensive, it’s annoying and your 3 year old will not benefit from the experience and chances are you will be embarrassed when your child starts yelling to his friend about the girl whose finger got cut off in a door while onlookers stare maliciously.
After Anne Frank we went to dinner at an Italian (mafia?) restaurant. It was well deserved and delicious. As the blizzard stirred outside, we devoured Italian deliciousness indoors
Sunday was, as you all know, Easter Sunday. This holy day would not be complete without a church service thus after a breakfast over Pokemon in Dutch, Lyndsay and I ventured into a Dutch church where we fabricated dialogue in English to match the moving lips of the foreigners. It was pretty amazing, the people were friendly and we sang (in Dutch) songs that we knew in english. After the service we rushed to meet Marisa, Anjuli, Jamie, and Brigette at the van Gogh museum where we spent 2 hours and 7,50 € I’m going to be honest when I say it was a bit underwhelming. Once again tourism created a sense of closterphobia and I was unable to fully intake the wonder of it all. I did however enjoy a floor full of Van Gogh’s sketches and letters to his brother, which I read in French. For lunch we stopped at a Bollywood resto from wonderful Indian cuisine and a friendly waiter. Shopping was the obvious choice to pass the time until we had to meet with some friends at a pancake house. As you may notice, pretty much all of our excursions consist of a little bit of sightseeing, a fair amount of shopping, and a whole lot of eating; in order to fully appreciate a culture you must appreciate the cuisine, or at least that’s what we say. Needless to say, the pancakes were absolutely delectable and the conversation about the overproduction of dairy products in the 80’s was delightful.
Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and wandered the city until we met up with the other 4 for lunch at Hansel and Gretel’s pancake house (yes, pancakes again, they were that good.) Lyndsey and I decided to pass up another overpriced museum tour to explore the city. More shopping was done and the trip ended wonderfully. I wish I could finish this with something interesting, but alas I am out of words. Images will have to suffice.
3 comments:
It's damn near impossible to find a nice hotel in Amsterdam. I had one pretty much identical to that when I went years ago.
And I remember the Anne Frank Museum being very claustrophobic.
Did you see the Nemo Museum building? It's that giant green fortress/tanker looking building sitting in the harbor. It's tight.
Amsterdam is awesome.
i bet you smoked far too little weed and ate far too few psychedelic mushrooms for a tourist in amsterdam. c'est dommage
free hugs?? was jon weece there?? :) i LOVE LOVE LOVE the picture of you being snowed on!!
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