The Rest of the Trip - part IV (Amsterdam)

The beginning of the week was pretty uneventful but one cool thing was that during work my boss Anthea took me to St. Paul’s Cathedral and I took a tour and walked as far up as I could. The very top part was closed until February but I did get some pretty cool views of the city. During the week I just took it easy and got ready because on Thursday the 4th of December Emma, Becky, Kallie, Jim, Meredith and I went to Amsterdam. On Thursday I worked half a day then went to MTH and got my things then headed to Stansted Airport. We all met at the airport then made our way to Amsterdam, it was only about a 40 minute flight London to Amsterdam. I wish such cool places were in such easy ready around here. So we got to the airport and we were all so excited, the airport itself was really cool so we figure the city must be amazing. We got a train from the airport to Central Station and made the short walk to our hostel, the famous Flying Pig. We walked in to check in and it was like walking into another world. The check in is right in the bar which right next to it has a smoking room. So we got our room, which was in the basement down some narrow stairs – all the stairs are narrow in Amsterdam. We had booked a 20 person room which was cool because it had 5 sets of bunk beds but the beds were queen sized so you share a bed. Luckily there were 6 of us so no random sharing or being charged for the extra spot. So we got our stuff in the room and quickly headed out since it was around 11:00pm. We went to a nearby coffee shop that was recommended and hung out there for a bit then we just went back to the hostel and hung out until about 3:00am.

The next day we went on a New Europe free walking tour of the city. Our hostel was one of the places that they picked up people so we got ready and waited for the tour to begin. Then we made our way to Dam Square after some stops at other hostels. Our tour guide was a girl from Oregon who had been living in Amsterdam for only 3 months but she was really knowledgeable and enthusiastic, I thought she was quite good. We walked all around the city and saw some cool things and learned a bit of history. We walked through the red light district, went by the Jewish quarter, saw where they used to have a lot of public executions and autopsies (now there’s a restaurant there), the men’s prison and the women’s prison (where people used to go for fun and pay to taunt the prisoners and it was free to do on holidays), the spot of the ‘Miracle of Amsterdam’, were pointed out the best fries in Amsterdam, and saw the smallest house in Amsterdam – it’s only 5”9’ wide. After the tour we went to the famous coffee shop Grey Area - Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, Phish and many other famous people have come to this tiny little shop. So we hung out there for a while then just walked around not sure of where to go since we had a group of 6. Eventually after much walking we decided to go to the Marihuana and Hash Museum. There was some interesting stuff there and there was a grow room in the museum which was just kind of crazy. After that we went back to the hostel and got ready then headed out. We ended up just walking around a bit more and ended up going to a cool bar that I think was just called Rock Bar. They played decent music and had quite a few autographed guitars, including one by Willie Nelson – it was just Willie day, it made me think of my mom (I thought of her in a coffee shop and a bar – I’m sure she’s so proud).

Saturday morning we woke up and had to go to our new hostel, we could only get the Flying Pig for 2 nights so the last night we went to a place pretty far away. We go the tram there, checked in and got our stuff settled then headed out. On our way to the hostel we found the giant statue of the “I Amsterdam” letters so we took the necessary pictures then got to the hostel. We split up and Jim, Meredith and I ended up going to the Rijksmuseum. About 2/3 of the museum was closed down for remodeling/refurbishment but that was alright since we got more of a condensed best of tour. One cool thing that was there on temporary display was Damien Hirst’s work “For the Love of God”. It’s a platinum cast of an 18th century skull completely covered in diamonds with the original human teeth. It was on display in a case in a completely black room with multiple lights shining on it. It was a rather amazing thing to see. We also saw some other famous works such as Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch”. I was really glad that I went there. Then we headed to the Anne Frank House. On the way there we ran into an abortion protest in Dam Square. There were lots of protesters and signs and then of course lots of pro-choice people as well. One of my favorite signs said “get your rosaries out of my ovaries” which makes a nice point and is funny as well. Also on our walk over we saw a man dressed as Santa along with two people in blackface who were dressed as Santa’s helper Black Pete. Then we finally made it to the Anne Frank House.

While we were waiting in the queue the abortion protesters that we saw earlier were marching along so we got to see them again. We got in relatively quickly. One of the first things was a video just showing a brief history of WWII and the situation surrounding the Frank’s. Then there were various artifacts and a model of the annex as it looked with furniture in the time that the Frank’s lived there. Eventually we made our way up and went in the doorway behind the bookshelf. The bookshelf was there swung open but you weren’t supposed to take pictures inside so I didn’t. Very narrow and steep stairs led us up and we went through the various rooms. There wasn’t furniture in there because the furniture was taken out by the Nazi’s and it’s been kept in that state. It was quite a visit and hard to imagine what they went through but it brings the story more to life. It’s definitely a necessary visit when going to Amsterdam. Also in the museum downstairs was a video about human rights which I just popped in on for a minute but was very appropriate since the museum itself is a tribute to human rights. Also on display is the Oscar won by Shelly Winters for her performance in ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’.

After the Anne Frank House we went to De Damkring, a famous coffee shop where a scene from Oceans 12 was filmed. It was a pretty cool place but quite busy. Then I stopped and got some of the best fries in Amsterdam, and they were actually were really good, glad I made the stop. After that we had some time so we went to the Sex Museum. It was only a few Euros and pretty ridiculous. There was lots of funny stuff there including an animatronic flasher. Then after that Meredith and I met up with Emma and we went on a Red Light District walking tour. We learned a few new things about the district but a decent amount was repeated from the earlier walking tour but it was still fun. One thing I learned was that the way to tell which of the girls are transgendered (mtf) is that they have blue lights in the windows, good to know. Afterwards we went and hung out at cool little coffee shop then we met up with everyone else and went to a few bars then called it a night.

We got up early and checked out of the hostel then walked into the central part of the city since we had to catch a train from Central Station to the airport. We walked around and looked for food for a while but after a while people decided to go to McDonalds and so Meredith and I split off and we went to a nearby coffee shop then went to a bakery which wasn’t very good. Then we met up at McDonalds then just wandered around. We found some neat little musician statues on our walk. We also saw some people moving a washing machine from the second floor of a building. To get it out they had to use a pulley system and move it out through the window. Also we saw some street art by C215 who does really cool stencil work. Then we hopped the train and headed to the airport and made our way home. I was exhausted after a long and little sleep weekend so I called it a night early on.

Damien Hirst's "For the Love of God"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Love_of_God

Story of the politically incorrect Christmas tradition a.k.a. Black Pete
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,594674,00.html

C215
http://www.flickr.com/photos/c215/2703892651/in/set-72157606383580160/