Amsterdam

Amsterdam – June 5th – June 8th



A good friend of mine from Minnesota, Tony, was coming to Amsterdam for work and told me to join him and stay with him for a couple of days. Decision to travel to Amsterdam was one of the easiest ones to make given that: a) the lodging was free; b) Cologne is only 3 hours away by train; and c) this was the weekend of my 29th birthday.
I arrived to Amsterdam Centraal around 11:30am on Thursday, June 5th. Tony was already in town and in meetings but he managed to leave a key for me at the reception desk of the Amsterdam Apollolaan Golden Tulip hotel. I took the tram to the hotel, which is situated a bit on the outskirts of downtown giving you a nice and quiet Amsterdam experience; yet close enough to the action thanks to the public transportation.

After having left my stuff in the room, I decided to head downtown and walk around a bit. I walked a while through various neighborhoods, going through several street markets filled with people from all over the world. I assume some people were local immigrants, while others were tourists. It was pretty entertaining, many different languages were being spoken, and in a sense it was a similar ambience one experiences while walking through the streets of Manhattan. I only saw a few areas when I decided to go back to the hotel and meet up with Tony.

We decided to go out and begin celebrating my birthday right when it turned midnight. The tram we took dropped us off at Dam, which is the main square in the city center. From there we proceeded to walk through the adjacent streets. We settled for a nice looking pub where we had a few drinks. The bar was filled with young Dutch professionals, who we presume were still there after a happy hour that might have started 5 hours earlier. After a few drinks, we decided to go the Rembrandtplein, a square in the center of the city named after Rembrandt. This part of the city is famous for the number of disco clubs. I really didn’t know what to expect on a Thursday night, but we went to a place called Escape. This club is one of the nicest dance venues I’ve been to. It is quite large and to my surprise it was packed even though it was a Thursday night. The music was loud and typical of Holland as most famous House/Trance music DJs come from here. We stayed till 4am and took a cab home. Poor Tony had lots of work to do the next day; I on the other hand could sleep in and then venture into touring the city sights.

I slept in of course. When Tony came back from work around 1pm, we decided to go to the city center for lunch. After walking around the many areas, we finally found an Italian restaurant on a side street. The food was good, but not great. The main attraction was the one coffee shop across the street. Now, as many of you have heard, the sale of Marijuana is legal in Amsterdam in these coffee shops. The government here apparently believes that by legalizing it, it will make it safer as prohibition will not stop people from smoking pot. At the entrance they have a counter with a menu. The menu lists the different types of cannabis and prices. The clerk is there to tell you what type of aroma, strength and occasion each type fits in, sort of like a wine rep selling you different type of wines. Pretty funny.

After lunch, I went to explore the rest of the city. I stumbled upon the Nemo Museum, which I believe is a science museum. The cool thing about it is the shape of the building which reminds one of a big ship. From there I walked through the various canal streets and enjoyed the scenery. Some people travel by little boats through the canals. This option is suitable for those who don’t have time constraints as it is illegal to create a wake with your boat and therefore navigation speed is very slow. The other preferred method of transportation is bicycle. Now there are bike paths on every street and people really respect cyclists as part of the traffic flow. For us foreigners (even though I should be used to it having lived in Cologne for 2 months now) it might seem strange and also dangerous. The danger comes from not being aware of the bikers and walking on the bike paths without paying attention. So one must really be careful crossing the street as one must look for trams, buses, cars, and yes, bikes.

One of the attractions in this city is Anne Frank’s house. It is located in the city center. It is nowadays a museum one can visit, which I did. It is a very interesting experience going through each floor of this house and learning about the secret Annex where Frank family took refuge from the Nazis. It is amazing to think that you’re standing in the room where Anne wrote her famous diary. A few old notebooks are on display showing Anne’s dad’s business records as well as Anne’s writings. It is a very sad story as the family’s hiding place was discovered by the Nazis and the entire family was deported to Auschwitz. Only Anne’s dad made it out alive, after which he found the diary (well it was saved by the family that gave the Franks the hiding place in their own home). He was very proud of his daughter and was really pleasantly surprised after reading Anne’s diary as her thought process was extremely mature for her young age.

After the Anne Frank house, I ventured back to Rembrandtplein and visit the statue built to commemorate Rembrandt. The monument is composed by a dozen sculptures. The biggest of all is Rembrandt and then in front of him is a mix of soldiers and musicians/artists.

Friday night Tony and I decided to walk through the Red Light District. Legalized cannabis and prostitution are the things that make Amsterdam, well, Amsterdam. I am not going to discuss the ethics here, but again, the government here decided way back, in the 18th or 19th century that prostitution was going to happen regardless of their involvement as many sailors were coming in and out of the city. So, they made the oldest profession a legal affair. It felt awkward to walk through the streets and see all these women promoting themselves in the windows. Along the streets there were many bachelor parties roaming around. Now, what kind of bride to be would be ok with her future hubby going to Amsterdam for his bachelor party is beyond me?

On Saturday, I decided to visit the Van Gogh museum. In Amsterdam there is a whole part of the city dedicated to various museums, and it is called Museumplein. This sight is best known by the “I am Amsterdam” sign displayed in the middle of the park. Van Gogh museum features several hundred artifacts this artist composed. The interesting story about him is that he had no formal training and began painting after he was fired from his job at the age of 26. He quickly became one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement, however he only had about 10 years worth of life to dedicate to art as he suffered from some sort of mental illness, which made him cut a piece of his earlobe off first and then in the end cost him his life (he shot himself). The paintings that he left behind are awesome.

So this is my Amsterdam experience. I am glad I went and saw it, but I am not sure it is my favorite place as the things that make Amsterdam famous are a bit too outrageous for my liking.

In other news, Euro 2008 has started and I am so happy to be here in Europe to watch the games. I am back in Cologne now and tonight Germany plays its first game, against Poland. There will be a huge public viewing in the center of the city and it should be a good experience. Tomorrow my Italian ragazzi take the field against the Netherlands. Forza Italia!!!

So that’s all for this post.

Aufwiedersehen