This weekend was
insane, and by “insane” I mean, “insanely freaking fun!” Oh my goodness,
Amsterdam is a weekend for the books and I loved it so much I may go back again
this summer. Never have I been so fascinated and culturally shocked before—what
an experience! Although a stressful start, I tackled my best friend when she
came to get me. Elizabeth is one of my best friends and roommates from college
and since she’s doing Camp in Baumholder, Germany, we decided to meet up in
Amsterdam. We’ve had this tripped planned for almost two months and it was
definitely worth the wait! So I spent the majority of the weekend with her and
her three friends from her campsite.
We woke up early
Saturday morning and walked over a half an hour to Heineken. Why take the train
and spend money when you can get some walking in, huh? :) We arrived at
Heineken with our tickets and waited in line until it opened at 10 a.m. on the
dot! The Heineken Experience definitely goes above and beyond its popular
reputation. Even if you aren’t a beer person, it is definitely worth it to go
because they show you how to brew beer, what ingredients go into it, how to use
the tap, etc. We had the best time! However, we did not expect to feel the beer
as strongly as we did. European beer has a higher alcohol content, and Heineken
is no exception. We are only allowed two free beers, so I obviously took
advantage of that. However, the bartender who showed us how to run a tap, gave
me one for free and one for being pretty hahaha. And the other bar didn’t even
check to see if we used our freebee chips, thus resulting in 5 beers and a very
tipsy Rachel by noon.
After lots of water and finding a coffee shop with
actual coffee to buy, we made our way to the “I AMSTERDAM” sign for a quick picture. Shortly after we
hit the Gay Pride Parade for a few hours, which was freaking fabulous and crazy
packed! But by this time we were exhausted and very very sleepy. So we headed
back to our hostel to freshen up until our bike tour at 4. Unfortunately, our
bike tour was cancelled because it started pouring buckets for about an hour.
We grabbed a very late lunch and poor Liz almost fell asleep in it. We seriously
couldn’t function after very few hours of sleep, lots of walking, and a good
amount of beer. It was a little rough. From there, we headed out around town
while her friends grabbed dinner somewhere else.
We hit the Red Light
District, where I witnessed the most impactful cultural shock I’ve ever
experienced. Now, I’ve always heard about it and knew what it was, but let me
tell you, it is a completely different experience and feel when you are in the
smack dab middle of it! I felt so much sadness and shock looking at these women
in the windows. I understand that everyone makes their own decisions, but I
cannot believe that these women willingly chose this “career.” I believe that
they were manipulated and believed they had no other options. How sad is that
you believe yourself to be of so little worth and have no other options?!
Everyone laughs at this and think it’s funny, but the fact that tourists like
myself, take the time to go see it, is quite disturbing and only reinforcing this
morally corrupt business. It was just so real and I was literally shocked. Elizabeth was too, but she is more emotionally mature than myself and held it together. I'm not saying I lost it in public, but the whole experience just hit me.
Needless to say, we
didn’t end up in the Red Light District for very long and instead, opted for a
more picturesque part of town. The Dam Square is the historic section of
Amsterdam that is conveniently located in the center of town. There are lots of
tourist-y shops, which I love and actual coffee shops. I just LOVE walking
around with a cup of coffee in my hand and exploring. I really don’t care for
clothes shopping, but souvenir shopping in a new city is quite exciting, as
well as taking in all the scenery. Also, almost everyone in Amsterdam speak
really good English, so that’s always a plus!
After exploring for a
bit, we grabbed a very late dinner and then Elizabeth, her friend Jessica, and
I went to the Ice Bar, which is literally a bar made of ice! Unfortunately, we
went around 11:30, which is at the height of the chaos that is the Pride Parade
After Party. Amsterdam even goes as far to have open urinals in the streets...gross!
Anywhoo! After 45 minutes, we finally found it! We arrived and got one cocktail
and then were instructed to wear parkas and gloves for the actual “ice bar.” We
walked inside a separate room and it was literally made of ice and freezing!!
We got two free drinks there and spent the time taking pictures and laughing
our butts off because of the ridiculousness of the whole thing. This will for
sure be a fond memory for many years to come. Who drinks at an Ice Bar? I mean,
c’mon! We planned on going out afterwards, but since had such a successful and
busy day, we decided to call it a night around 2.
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| My first cocktail |
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| Our really "cute" parkas that smelled horribly :/ |
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| Jessica posing with the polar bear |
We woke up around 7
a.m. to get in line early for the Anne Frank Museum. It was booked on Saturday,
so we knew it would be worth it to get an early start to see it. It is
difficult to find the words to express what I felt while walking through the
house that she and her family hid in for two years. You have a deeper
understanding of what it felt like to live in fear in this tight and dark house
for two years. Throughout the tour they had video excerpts, pages from her
diary, pictures of her family, etc. and it made you feel for these people. Anne
was just a young girl and yet she handled herself so well during this time with
so much eloquence and bravery shown between the lines in her diary. From what I
understood, Anne’s father’s work colleague and their secretary hid them for two
years until someone ratted them out to the SS on the streets of Amsterdam. Anne
and her family were taken to different concentration camps. Anne’s friend, a
German citizen, and therefore immune from Nazi persecution would throw food
over the fence to her when she was imprisoned. Devastatingly, neither Anne nor
her friend knew that Otto Frank (her father) was still alive, so Anne died of
typhus a month before liberation believing there was nothing left to
live for. Her father was the only survivor of their family and lived until his
90s. Shortly after the war ended, her father published her diary, which became
very popular of course. The one thing that struck me hard was when we saw a
interview with her dad and he said something along the lines of…after reading
her diary, he realized that you really don’t know your child as well as you thought
you did. And that to me is just so unbelievably poignant and honest. I
definitely recommend the tour of course, but I will go only once. It’s too much
for my emotional self to handle haha :)
After the museum, we
took a few more pictures and then Elizabeth had to leave to catch the train :(
but I had the best time this weekend and am so grateful for that! I waited for
my girls to finish up at the museum, so I ordered a small snack and a glass of
wine alongside the canal and enjoyed some alone time for a little bit :)
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| What a poignant collection of photographs |
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| Beautiful view from the museum |
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| Love you, Lizard! |
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| This is so cute and then there's the post right there.. |
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| Found my girls :) |
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| Dutch cheese is delicious! |
After the museum, we
took a few more pictures and then Elizabeth had to leave to catch the train :(
but I had the best time this weekend and am so grateful for that! I waited for
my girls to finish up at the museum, so I ordered a small snack and a glass of
wine alongside the canal and enjoyed some alone time for a little bit :)
Once my girls finished
up, we headed through town for a bit more exploring and to grab some lunch.
From there, we headed to catch an earlier train so we could get back in time
for curfew. They’re a lot of fun to travel with and it’s always a good time! We
all want to go again, so hopefully we can more of the countryside, which I’ve
heard is beautiful!
Until next time! Tot
zien! (“See you later” in Dutch)
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