Back to Europe-- Amsterdam

So after a few years away from Europe, the time has finally arrived for me to find my way back. I have a lot of friends over there that I have been waiting to see, and I am also excited to see a few places I have never been before. This trip will also be a little different because I will be traveling with someone for the first time, at least for the first few weeks, my cousin Tyler.

After a long day of flying, we finally arrived in Amsterdam, our first stop along the way.

It really is a bike city here. It seems like everyone is on a bike and that there are as many bike lanes as there are car lanes. You do have to really pay attention when walking around though, and the complex system of bike lanes seems to put pedestrians in the constant crossfire of schoolgirls riding by, middle-aged men bringing groceries home on the back of their bikes, and the leisurely recreationists just out enjoying the sun. Within our first few hours, both my cousin and I had narrowly missed being taken out by enthusiastic Dutch cyclists.

We visited Rijksmuseum, the National Museum, where we were treated to 15 or so paintings by the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt. His play with light and dark in his images is still very awesome to see and brings a realism to his paintings that I haven’t found in the works of too many other artists. After the museum, both Tyler and I felt as if we were about to collapse from exhaustion, having basically been awake for the last 27 hours, with only 3-4 hours of sleep separating us from 72 sleepless hours.

After a resuscitating 3-4 hour nap, we almost felt normal again and decided to head out to see Amsterdam at night, and that meant one thing—the Red Light District. Okay, so up until this point, Amsterdam seemed to be pretty typical of a lot of European cities—many old alleys and streets full of little shops and eateries, tons of people walking the streets all the time, and old buildings and fantastic architecture dominating the skyline. Well, the Red Light District definitely separated Amsterdam from the rest of the European cities I have visited, in one way or another. Nowhere else have I seen half-naked girls sitting and standing in shop windows, (illuminated by red lights of course) smiling at passersby and inviting them to come in for a visit. Sex was selling all over the place, with erotic shops and boutiques, as well as strip clubs and places advertising live peep shows lining both sides of the old canalways. In fact, there was even your typical Erotic Museum and Sex Museum, both of which were strictly for educating the public on the history of both eroticism and sex. I personally did not have the opportunity to sample these two museums, but I am sure that the displays were quite interesting, and the interactive movies were even more entertaining.

It was very surreal walking through these streets, and then realizing how different that it was from good old Utah! Well, I guess my cousin couldn’t ever have as much culture shock as he must have experienced there. It was very interesting even for me. The prevalence of cafes is also astounding, especially considering that every one also promotes itself as a “smoke club” where you can buy marijuana and smoke it there. I’m sure that if you are a pothead, Amsterdam would be close to Nirvana for you, but since I don’t think I exactly fall into that category, it was just very interesting to see and didn’t really affect me in any way. Oh, that is except for the ever-present smell of weed permeating every street and alley. At times, I almost felt that I was getting high just by being there. That feeling definitely started to wear on me after a day or two.

After a decent night’s sleep finally, we took a guided tour around the city, which ended up being very entertaining and informative at the same time. We learned about the history of the city, from its founding, to its development through the Dutch East Indies Company, and then the occupation of the city by Nazi forces during the second World War. Some of the most interesting things to see were how some of the buildings built around the canals were slouching into crooked positions because of the fact that their foundations were sinking in the swamp-like ground below them. The famous Febo chain of stores was something different. Here you can purchase on-the-spot hot snacks, sandwiches, and anything else that you might want when you have the munchies after passing the time in one of the cafés. However, the difference is that you buy them out of coin-operated vending machines. Neither my cousin nor myself dared to try the aforementioned snacks, for fear a good portion of our trip would be spent on the toilet. We also learned that one of the favorite pastimes of drunken Amsterdamers is to try to find bicycles that aren’t locked up (there are over 85,000 bicycles stolen within the city limits each year!) and to throw them into one of the several canals in the city, trying to see which ones create the biggest splashes. In fact, this is even occasionally done with those little Smartcars, since you can almost literally give them a heave and they will roll along, right down into the canal. Hmm, I know that wouldn’t be funny for the owner, but I would kind of like to see that.

It is still remarkable to me how many close encounters with cyclists I see daily. It seems like the locals on the bike are playing some game that rewards them for mowing down tourists. They are pretty good at at least scaring us with their kamikaze riding. And scooters being able to zoom down the bike lane? Horrible idea! Having someone cruising at 25 miles per hour basically along the sidewalk is just asking for trouble.

One highlight of our trip to Amsterdam was our visit to Ann Frank’s house. This was a little weird because the exterior is all surrounded by metal and glass, almost like it is in a cage. No pictures were allowed inside, unfortunately. The fact that the family hid in that space for 2 years is downright amazing and something I can’t even imagine. Perfectly covered by a bookcase, the hiding rooms were much bigger than I thought they would be, but still, a very crammed, little place that would drive anyone crazy. The experience was very cool, and I especially liked this large photo of Otto Frank, Ann’s father, looking back into the attic 5 or 6 years after Ann had died in Auschwitz. What a powerful photo, with his mind seemingly transformed back in time to the hardest difficulties he would ever face. The experience definitely sparked my interest to read Ann Frank’s Diary, which I learned is the second-most translated book in the world, just after the Holy Bible.

Another highlight of mine was seeing the incredible number of famous Dutch tulips present in the city. I love tulips and it was great being able to see bright red and gold tulips all over the place. I am sure that if I had a girlfriend here, she would be drowning in tulips every week, just because I couldn’t help myself.

So here are my final thoughts of Amsterdam, before heading off to Bruges on a train tomorrow. Amsterdam is unlike any other city I have been to before. The fact that prostitution and marijuana are legal here creates an environment I would almost compare to Las Vegas. If these were things I enjoyed, I would probably think that this place was amazing. However, I generally find that the types of people Amsterdam attracts are the kinds of people I would rather not mingle with too much. The canals and bike-friendly environment of Amsterdam are really cool and it would probably be a pretty cool place after you get out of the tourist areas, but we didn’t have enough time to really explore the city like I wanted. I think that Amsterdam is just so hyped up that you can’t help but to have very high expectations of this place. I know I did. However, when I compare it to many of the other cities I have visited throughout Europe, I find that there are several other cities in which I would rather spend my time. It was nice seeing the city that is so famous, or maybe infamous, around the world, but now it is time to go see another city that I suspect will be a little more to my liking- Bruges, Belgium.