AmsterDAYUM!

People live in that boat, true story.

Friday morning I awoke at the early hours of 4:30 to get myself ready for a trip to Amsterdam. I wouldn’t say I as much woke up as I popped out of bed in eager excitement for the weekend to come.  The airport was empty when I arrived and strolled through the security check.  Of course I forgot to empty out my re-useable water bottle and instead of being able to pour it out, I was forced to chug the water.  It was totally full but college has done me good and I powered through it, the last drip went down my throat and I was off to the gate. 

I've been working on manual settings on my camera and I'm gettin' pretty good!

After a layover in Munich, my plane set off for Amsterdam.  I tried to sleep as I did on the flight to Munich but my excitement was far to great to allow me that pleasure.  Instead, I chose to read a few short stories from the book, “The Elephant Vanishes,” until we landed.  When the flight attendant came over the loudspeaker announcing our landing, the anticipation on the plane was so great, I swear I felt a pressure change that could have ruptured the entire passenger cabin.  The second our plane landed and came to a slow taxi I heard the unclicking of seatbelts and people immediately began retrieving their bags from the overhead compartment.  This is before the seatbelt light even went off, people.  I had never seen anything quite like it in my life, but the feeling was contagious! All of a sudden, I started getting jittery with excitement and continuously asked myself when I would get off of the airplane! No matter how quick it took, it was not quick enough, that I know. 

But the benches and the brick match!?!

To get to from the airport to Amsterdam Central Station, I had to take a 15-minute train ride.  The anticipation was burning inside me, making my blood boil and my knees bounce.  But alas, I got to the station with no pick-pocketing or trouble.  Now all I had to do was find Alexa and Sam to get this party started.  This proved the most difficult leg of the trip.  Relying solely on BBM makes describing places and finding people nearly impossible.  Sam told me to walk outside and when I did I found no Sam even though he claimed to be there.  For nearly 20 minutes I was walking up and down and over through the train station contemplating giving up and staying in the station for the remainder of the weekend.  By some miracle, I found another outside entrance, opposite the side I arrived on, and lo and behold I saw the most wonderful sight in the world.  One of my dearest friend’s face peered from around a light pole.  Immediately Alexa ran and we embraced each other in the sort of movie-cliché reunion that makes you want to throw up it’s so cute.  Well friends, grab the puke bucket, because we are that cute. 

Sam led us back to the hotel – on a side note, I would have been lost in Amsterdam forever if Sam Hamburger did not exist – where I set my bags down and then set off for the city. The first thing I noticed was how interesting the buildings of Amsterdam were.  Built along the maze of canals, these narrow brick buildings really struck me for some reason.  Each one seemed to have a bit of different character about it even though the façades between the buildings differed only ever so slightly.

Our first stop for the day was Anne Frank’s House, Prinsengracht 267.  We somehow arrived at the perfect time, encountering no line or wait at all to enter.  When you set foot into the house you are immediately overcome with a somber feeling.  Once upon a time, a family walked along these floors and lived a regular life.  And once upon a time, that right was wrongfully revoked and the family was forced to live in fear and silence in a secret annex.  As you walk through the museum, diary quotes line the walls and video/audio recordings tell the story of the Franks, Van Peels, and Fritz Pfieffer struggles during Nazi persecution.  What I enjoyed about this museum is the humanity that seeing the rooms brings to the story told in Anne’s diary.  Sunday school has told me the story multiple times but to see the exact places where important events occurred and to imagine the family makes the story all the more real and tragic.

To bring our moods up, Sam, Alexa, and I decided to walk around town and check out the beautiful scenery around the city.  Since Sam and Alexa had been there for four days already, they knew a lot of interesting places to see and were more than happy to show me around.  With every street Sam took me down, I could have sworn we were walking down the same street as before.  The canals that flow through the city don’t allow you any landmarks to be able to distinguish one from another and to be frank, it’s just embarrassing to try to say street names like “Blauwburgal”. 

I soon met up with Nikki, Liv, Schulman, Larg, and their friend Sofia to go hang out at a coffeeshop and catch up since I haven’t seen them since leaving for abroad and it felt just like home to see their beautiful faces.  We sat and swapped stories of our semesters so far and soon parted for bed knowing tomorrow would start early in order to get a full day of Amsterdam in.

My cute friends

Magical...

Around 10 o’clock, Nikki and I woke up to get ready for the day.  I met up with Sam and Alexa and we headed over to Pancakes! to get some, yes you guessed it, pancakes.  We ordered a piece of apple cake to start the day off and then each ordered a pancake.  Mine came with goat cheese, sautéed spinach, pine nuts, salad pits (whatever those are), and drizzled in garlic oil.  My oh my this pancake was something else.  The Dutch REALLY know how to make a pancake.  This pancake was a wonderful light, thin canvas for the toppings.  If pancakes had academy awards, this bad boy would’ve won Best Supporting Role in a Meal.  Alexa even exclaimed at one point that it was the single best thing she had ever eaten.  Just to give you an idea…

We then headed out for the Van Gogh Museum.  I was super amped to see this because Van Gogh has been a favorite of mine since learning about him in middle school.  The museum is the largest collection of Van Goghs in the world with over 200 paintings.  The museum is broken into time periods of Vincent Van Gogh’s life, which allows you the ability to see him, progress as a painter, but also as a person.  Letters to Vincent’s brother Theo are painted on the walls, which open a window into his emotional states at particular moments in his life while the painting descriptions explain not only the painting but also his feelings about them.  The museum is wonderfully done in that you’re able to make a genuine connection with the paintings before you and I find that extremely rare since majority of the time I look at a painting I only see it for what it is a point blank rather than its meaning and motivations. The saddest part of Vincent’s life is that he was never appreciated for his paintings until after his death, so he died feeling worthless.  In a field, Vincent shot himself in the chest with a revolver and died two days later in a hospital.  His last words were, “the sadness will last forever.”  If only he had known how marvelous his talents were, how unique his style was, and how loved he is today.  The way Van Gogh paints is even more beautiful than photos of his works show.  His paintbrush leaves raised short strokes and the colors that he uses are so bright and colorful (in most paintings, though there are exceptions) yet so simple.  The shading on one of his self-portraits is done only in yellow and red strokes, no blending or smearing at all.  Just one color but a whole lotta dimension.  My trip here was the best part of the weekend for me and I say it is a MUST if you ever find yourself in Amsterdam. My favorite paintings housed inside are: Sunflowers, A Pair of Leather Clogs, The Potato Eaters, Skull of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette, Almond Blossom, Pieta, Wheatfield with Crows (the last before his death), A Pair of Shoes, a self portrait done, and Landscape at Twilight. I could stare at his works forever and not once would my eyes tire. 

I will live above that elephant one day.

To start the night off, we headed to a nearby bar to have a Heineken freshly brewed in Amsterdam.  On our way we heard a street performer singing “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman so we stopped to listen…that is until the smell of the public urinals became too awful.  It’s weird that they have that and American finally has one hand up on Europe. Congrats, it’s the only one you’ll be getting.  I like Heinekens, but I love Heinekens in Amsterdam.  Either it was the extreme dry mouth I had from not drinking all day or that Heineken really was a better thirst quencher than lemon-lime Gatorade after four days in the desert.

maybe the prettiest picture i've ever taken?

I went back to the hotel to take a quick shower and meet up with Nikki then the four of us went to go get dinner.  We tried a Tibetan restaurant called Snow Lion since none of us had ever had Tibetan food.  The only patrons in the restaurant left 5 minutes after we had sat down, leaving us in an extremely intimate setting.  I didn’t mind it at all, it was quite peaceful.  The menu was entirely vegetarian with a small “Non-Vegetarian Section,” which I found to be really cool.  I love vegetarian food and sometimes the meat consumption in Florence is too much to handle, so this was a nice break from the pattern.  We ordered spinach and goat cheese Momo (which were AMAZING!), a fennel and potato slaw, stir fried vegetables (one with tofu and one spicy without), and a super good vegetable dumpling soup.  Snow Lion, you truly made a fan of Tibetan food out of me.  I love your people and I love your food.

When the morning came, sorrow followed – why did I have to leave this wonderful city of arts and food? To make my morning brighter, Sam, Alexa, Nikki and I went to Barney’s Uptown for breakfast.  Here you can get the yummiest breakfast foods your heart can dream of – giant bagels, pancake roulades, omelettes, sandwiches, mimosas, anything.  I set my sights high and went with a pancake roulade with scrambled eggs inside topped with melted cheese and bacon.  A wonderful choice I must add.

And then it was off to the dreaded airport for my departure.  The trip had ended and my journey back to Florence has just begun.