The first destination on my list for this semester was the beautiful city of Amsterdam. My roommate Sara and I flew out of Denver, CO on Wednesday morning, had a layover in Philadelphia before taking an overnight flight to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. This was the longest flight that I have been on thus far in my life. What I thought was the most interesting about it was that we were served dinner and breakfast on the plane as a part of our ticket price. For someone who is going into the travel and tourism industry I really appreciated this service. I was able to get a couple hours of sleep on the way, but not enough to curb the effects of the inevitable jet lag.
Day 1
We landed in the Netherlands Thursday at around noon and began the task of decoding a foreign country. As this was my first time traveling out of the United States, I had never gone through customs before, But I am happy to report that they let us into the country with minimal convincing ;). After picking up our luggage from baggage claim, we walked around the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and finally decided to just call an UBER (thank God for Uber). As soon as we stepped outside of the airport, you could tell we weren’t in the US anymore. Taxis zoomed by and even worse there were bicyclists EVERYWHERE! Amsterdam is a very active city so there is a whole population that rely on bikes to transport them around the city! Finally, we found our Uber driver, Peter was a native and offered us lots of suggestions on where to eat and what activities to do during our stay.
He dropped us off in the Village of Halfweg which outside of Amsterdam “halfway” (Halfweg means halfway in Dutch) between Haarlem and Amsterdam. After some struggling with getting the front door of our Airbnb to unlock, we just went in the back door, LOL. Sara and I were soooo thankful to be able to store our bags somewhere and not have to carry them around with us anymore. Let me just say that four months worth of clothes and shoes is not light!! After checking into our room, we decided to go wonder the streets to find something to eat, during our walk around the sweet village of Halfweg we ran into a local girl about our age who recommended a lovely little place on the water for us to eat at! The restaurant was called Het Gemaal, we both had a burrito that was absolutely delicious! Full of flavor and so fresh! We hung out there for a while taking in the sights of the water and the layout of this adorable little village, while also just trying to keep our eyes open. We wanted to try to overcome our jet lag as soon as possible so we forced ourselves to stay up until 7:00pm. After a much needed shower and getting some comfy clothes on we laid our heads down for the night. I personally didn't sleep very well that first night, waking up about every three hours like I had only laid down for a nap. By 3:00 am I was ready to get up and start our second day of adventures in Amsterdam.
Day 2
Like I said above, our first full day in the Netherlands started pretty early in the morning which is very uncharacteristic for me. After wasting some time watching a movie and then getting ready for the day, Sara and I were ready to figure out their public transportation system so that we could make it into the city. After a short walk to the train station, some help from a couple of locals, and of course the GPS on our phones, we made it to Amsterdam. At 8:00 in the morning, I was surprised at the lack of people that were out and about going to work and walking around. It felt as if we had walked into a sleeping city. Restaurants were unloading shipments of food and supplies to start their days, local markets were setting up their booths to sell nick nacks, antiques, flowers, and so many other things!! The monuments and famous structures were empty from the buzzing tourists and school children that inhabited them later on that day. One thing that I especially loved about this city was all of the colors!! In the United states I feel like the colors of houses and business buildings are kept very neutral, but in Amsterdam a rainbow of colors are found down every canal.
Once we were in the city I laughed at the fact that I thought there were a lot of bike at the airport! HA! The city was a constant hustle and bustle of bikes zooming by us from all directions, and cars driving down narrow streets at 30+ mph with absolutely minimal caution for pedestrians. I should have started counting the number of times that I was almost hit by a cyclist, the number would not have been low. Being from Nebraska where everyone says “sorry” or “excuse me” or “ope”, it was a foreign concept to Sara and I that people of this city very much had a “get out of my way” mentality and never even acknowledged a shoulder check. On the other hand though, the people here were so helpful to us if we were every trying to find a specific place, or needed a recommendation on where to eat. The other key factor here was that almost everyone in Amsterdam that we encountered spoke English. Looking back now, spending our first days in a foreign country where the majority of the population spoke english was a Godsend. It really helped us find our bearings and made us feel at home.
We found it so funny that everywhere we went people instantly knew that we were Americans. People on the street, tour guides, and store owners would say to us “you’re from America right?”, for some reason I just found this so funny. So needless to say that we didn't fit in with the culture. One clue that might have given us away was how different the fashion of people here was then what we see in the United States, but I could also see many similarities in the evolving style of the US.
Our major activities of the day were a walking history tour through the city center and a tour of the Anne Frank Huis. The tour was super interesting, as we learned about the way that the city of Amsterdam is set up. The guide compared the layout like the rings on the stump of a tree. The middle of the city which is also referred to as the “Red Light District” is the oldest part of the city and then the further out you get from the city center gets younger and younger. It was very interesting to walk from the inside to the outside and see how the buildings and layout of town changed throughout the years. Amsterdam was a melting pot of people from all over, one of the major populations that settled here were the Jews. With the large population of Jews in Amsterdam you could guess that it was also highly impacted by the Holocaust or Shoah. (Side note: We learned in one of our classes that Holocaust actually means “the sacrifice” so Shoah is a more correct way to refer to the historical event because it actually means “disaster, tragic, or destruction.) One way that the impact is shown is through this dotted map of Amsterdam. This was a tool used by the nazi to keep track of the occupancy of jews. Each dot represents 10 jewish people who were living in that area of town.
The second way that the impact of the shoah can still be seen in Amsterdam today and all across Europe are stolpersteine more commonly referred to as “stumble blocks”. These are small golden blocks that are placed in front of the doors of those who lost their life during the Holocaust. The stone lists the persons name, birth date, exportation date, approximate death date, and which camp they were at. These stones not only act as a representation of the lives lost in each city, but also as a memorial or “grave” for the victims. It gives surviving family members somewhere to visit and pay their respects because many victims never received a proper burial. This tour was a fantastic lead into our tour at the Anne Frank Huis.
If the guide has not pointed out the Huis to us, I honestly probably would have missed it. The tour took us through the annex that Anne writes about in her diaries and see the rooms that 8 people hid in for two years. Of the many things that I learned during this tour, one very interesting piece of information was that Otto (Anne’s father) started planning and preparing for his family to go into hiding for two years. Little by little he would take food and essential living items to work with him as he traveled from their actual home across town to the business that he owned. These little every day preparations and planning is what allowed for the Frank family to hide out in the Annex for so long. I thought it was so interesting to actually be able to walk through the rooms that I have learned about in school for so many years. To see where Anne likely sat while writing in her diary and the small space that these two families were confined to. My favorite discovery of our visit was found on a document displayed showing the names of the Frank family. This document showed that Anne’s name was actually Annelise Frank, not having met very many people with the same name as me, I felt a special connection to Anne after this moment.
After we completed the tour of the Anne frank house we walked around to find somewhere to eat and settled at a little pizzeria to split a Hawaiian pizza (yes, pineapple belongs on pizza even in Europe)! We met some people from South Dakota who also right away knew that we were Americans! HA We ventured out of a little supermarket after an interesting interaction trying to check out and started to navigate towards our tram. As we walked across the street we had a very nice women ask us if we were lost and needed help, she also asked if we were from America. She pointed us in the right direction and even followed us across the street to make sure that we made it onto this tram. The streets here are difficult to cross as I have mentioned before so when she saw an opening in traffic that she felt was acceptable, she pushed us from behind out into the street and said, “GO”. Sara and I couldn't help but to laugh at the women and just how helpful the people in Amsterdam really are! Eventually we found our way back to Halfweg and our room at the Old Post Office. We tried to prepare for the continuation of our trip by getting all of our luggage packed and organized. To end our night we spent some time in one of the common spaces of our Airbnb writing, taking pictures, and speaking to one of the hosts.
Day 3
I started off day three in Amsterdam by re-packing my bags like 1857362 different times to
make everything fit again! (can you imagine when I pack to come back to the United States?! Lol yeah, I am worried too!) From our Hostel we drug all of our bags through the residential streets of Halfweg to get to the train station. When we got into the city we then had to figure out how to use the luggage storage lockers at Central Station. Throughout this whole little adventure I had a nice workout carrying two heavy suitcases up flights of stairs and on and off of trains. Who needs a gym while traveling, right? Fitting my luggage into these little lockers proved to be a bigger challenge than anticipated, so I got to unpack and repack my bags again right there in central station! Eventually I got everything to fit and we were on our way to a fantastic last day in Amsterdam! We started off with a great meal which included eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and beans?? Beans for breakfast was a different concept for Sara and I but we agreed that all in all it was pretty good! I made the smart decision this day to actually wear my long coat which proves to be such a blessing! However, I wore heeled boots so I was warm all day BUT my feet were killing me, so I guess I can’t win them all.
Saturday consisted of shopping, seeing Amsterdams’ famous flower market, a canal tour, a couple of museums, and of course the ever constant search for a free bathroom. As we were pursuing shops in a mall of one of the streets I came across these little boots that I loved! I decided to get them and decided that I was going to try to buy a pair of shoes in each country that I visit during this trip. For those of you that know me well, you know that this is the perfect souvenir for me! We then visited the flower market which was not what either of us were expecting it to be, however, it was still a really fun experience. The next item on our agenda for the day was a canal cruise which was absolutely fantastic! It was kinda a cold cloudy day so our boat had the cover on which helped keep us warm while we sailed through the city. The cruise had little snacks for us to eat plus wine and beer. It was a very relaxing experience and so much fun getting to see the streets of Amsterdam from a different point of view. One high point of the tour was when our captain actually ran the boat into a wall of one of the really skinny canals, haha!
The thing about the canals in Amsterdam is that locals truly use them as a sense of direction. When we would ask someone how to get somewhere canals were always used as a sense of measurement, for instance someone might have said to us, “go two canals down and then three canals to the right”. It was just such a crazy concept to a foreigner because there really isn't street signs to use to navigate the city. After our adventure on the water we had extra time to kill before our overnight bus ride, so we bought some tickets to some museums. The first one we visited was Body Worlds. Body worlds is a traveling exposition of dissected human bodies that have been donated to science. These bodies have been preserved through the process of plastination and are used to teach visitors the complexities and inner workings of the human body. This museum was 7 floors explaining each system of the body such as the skeletal, circulatory, nervous, and reproductive. The exhibit shared the message of how our daily choices affect our health which in turn affects our happiness as a human being. Secrets of the Red District was the last stop of our day. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this exhibit, we only booked it because it was a cheap add on to take up some time. However, it was quite interesting to be able to truly understand what the controversial Red Light District really was. I won’t share too many details on here but I encourage anyone who is curious about it to do more research and not listen to the rumors of what the middle of this city holds. the truth
After a wonderful dinner at a fancy burger restaurant our time in Amsterdam was complete. I had such a wonderful time exploring and learning about “The City of Freedom”. We managed to not get into any trouble and only accidentally walked into a “coffee shop” once (for those of you who don't know, there are two types of coffeeshops in Amsterdam, those who sell coffee and those who sell marijuana. WHOOPS!) We learned that water is not free in Europe and apparently neither are restrooms. These Europeans catch ya coming and going!! Haha!
Hugs and Blessings,
Annalise