I amsterdam

Landing in the Amsterdam airport was like landing in heaven. Essentially, the airport is a shopping mall, filled with every store imaginable, and a few terminals on the side in case you decide to fly somewhere (weird). I highly recommend a 3 to 24 hour layover in this airport if you find yourself traveling throughout Europe- not kidding this time.

A bus took us straight to our hostel, Hotel Van Gogh, which ended up being more of a hotel, hence the name. It was surprisingly beautiful and new because it had been renovated just months before. It was also located in the most perfect area of the city. Our neighbors included the Van Gogh Museum, Rijks Museum, and "I amsterdam" sign. Score!

After settling into the "hostel", we decided to grab dinner at a cute Italian restaurant and spent the rest of the night at The Bulldog, a well-known club with a "coffee shop" just under it. It was so bizarre to be in a club where ordering and smoking weed is legal. You would never find that anywhere outside of this city. I have never touched the stuff, but I certainly know a lot of people that do, and would have acted like kids in a candy shop in this place.

The next morning we paid a little visit to the Van Gogh Museum. It was an incredible 3-story exhibit organized chronologically throughout the rooms. It was so interesting to read about what he was going through in his life and see how it affected each painting. When he was in depression, you could evidently see it in his art. For instance, he painted the very dramatic Wheatfield with Crows soon before he commit suicide. 

Essentially his collection tells a story of his life, his ups and downs, trials and tribulations. After raving about the museum to my mama, she told me a cute story of when we were in Paris 10 years ago, making me a whopping 11-years old. I was looking at a Van Gogh piece with my dad. After staring at it for some time, I looked up at him with the most assured look on my face and said, "Eh...he's not that great." Shows how naive I was ;) I can now say that he is that great, and I love his work. There is so much more to art then what is on the surface. When you can see that- it makes the art much more powerful. With Van Gogh, that was his life.

One of my favorites

After the museum, we took a walk along the river to Albert Cuypmarkt, an outdoor market that sells anything and everything including (but not limited to): clothes, shoes, wooden clogs, inappropriately molded chocolates, mixed nuts (the food), jewelry, furniture, and very colorful flowers...quite the assortment, I know.

We kept it classy and picked up some chicken wings for dinner. As we ate half of them on our way back to the hostel, our focus was to not get run over by the hundreds of bikes that passed us. I swear, every single person rides a bike in this city and they give you no mercy. I didn't even bother playing chicken with them because it'd be me against a bike and I was most definitely going to lose. 

We awoke pretty early Friday morning to get a start on the day since we were departing for Paris later that night. After checking out of the hostel, we made our way to the Rijks Museum where we saw some pretty incredible Dutch paintings from Vermeer and  Rembrandt, amongst many others. From there, we made our way to the Jewish Historical Museum where we spent some time absorbing the history before making our way to the Anne Frank House. This was my favorite part of Amsterdam. It was so powerful and moving being able to walk the same hallways, stairs, and secret passages that the Frank family did during that terrible time. Reading the letters, seeing Anne's old room with her original posters and postcards still hanging, and listening to the stories was all very touching and sad. 

After the tour, we were wandering the streets and passed through a little book market last minute. Right on the corner of a table was the English version of The Diary of Anne Frank which I nabbed for the road. I'm in the midst of reading it to refresh my memory, and loving it even more now after touring the house. 

Before leaving Amsterdam, our next and last stop was inevitable. Yes boys, the Red Light District. Covering several blocks, it is most definitely a large and in charge section of Amsterdam...and so are some of the ladies. We awkwardly walked through the streets, not wanting to hysterically laugh at the girls prancing in the windows, but not wanting to "disrespect" them either. I am sorry to say I did not take any pictures. Aside from not wanting them on my camera, I didn't know if it was even legal to do so... but I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem because just about everything is. Just picture crowds of boys and men gawking at every window. This was just another part of Amsterdam that I could not wrap my head around. 

That evening we boarded a bus, and drove all night to our last destination: PARIS!

My concluding thoughts on this excursion? Amsterdam you are one hell of a liberal city, my friend.