While the rumors are true (there is a lot of weed), there is also a lot of culture to experience in Amsterdam. After leaving our smelly, damp, 12 person hostel room, which our group amazingly filled, our massive clan moved to many cultural destinations. My favorite was the Van Gogh museum. The museum was well laid out and cohesively charted Van Gogh's artistic journey until his mental breakdown and bloody death. Interestingly enough, the stories I heard in school were not true. Van Gogh did not chop off his ear to give to his love. He gave it to a prostitute. Though that romance was falsified, the one Van Gogh had with his brother was not. The artist's brother stood by him and supported him until the end. Their gravestones are even on the same plot. I found this relationship the most moving part of the museum.
We also visited the Anne Frank House. We waited in line for two hours before we entered the tiny house, which was essentially an extension of the line outside. The museum goers moved at a snail's pace in a twisting ribbon of tourists pressed front to back. The only survivor from Anne Frank's life was her father. Anne died shortly after her sister. A childhood friend of Anne's who was interviewed for the exhibit believes Anne might have fought through if she had known her father still lived. If Anne had survived one month more, she would have been freed.
We visited the Heineken experience, Pancake houses, other museums, and the Red Light District, which left me conflicted. When I looked at the women standing in the windows, beckoning to the passerby with a bed visible behind them, I felt uncomfortable and a little disgusted. Wasn't this just another example of women being sexualized and mistreated? But then I had a thought. These women were doing what they wanted with their bodies, which is just what we've been asking of governments: the right to decide what we do with our own bodies. Because prostitution is legalized in Amsterdam's Red Light District, there are regulated STI checks, mandated condom use, and young girls can't fall into the business unnoticed. It's safer. So I was left with mixed feelings. Were these women suppressed or liberated? I didn't like seeing women jiggling in windows with men browsing them like store wares, but what right do I have to tell those women what they should be doing with their bodies?
A highlight of my visit was a tour of the canals in a little open-air boat. We had the boat to ourselves since we had so many people in our group. We saw so much of the city and its beautiful architecture, which was perhaps my favorite part of the city. We also got up close and personal with the many houseboats there are along the canals. The city was vermiculated by the canals, which meant that you were never steps away from water. Our tour guide explained to us that the buildings in Amsterdam are tall and narrow, making it hard to get furniture to the higher floors. As a solution, the structures were built tilted slightly forward, with hook at the top, so that you could use a rope slung over the hook to hoist furniture through the top window. The buildings were tilted so that they could withstand such pressure. It gives the city a unique taste that I loved.
Bikes might as well be the mascot of the city. Forget cars, bikes are the way of the future. Everyone whizzed around Amsterdam on a bike. Little bits of metal jutted out from the back of bike seats so that an extra passenger could be accommodated. I saw a man riding a bike with a woman sidesaddle behind him with a cat on her lap. Enormous, open wooden crates were slapped on the front of bikes. I saw another man bike past with three kids bouncing around in such an attachment. It doesn't seem safe, but it sure seems convenient, and that's all that matters. Why would anyone have a car when they can transport four humans and a cat with one bike?
Now pictures!
