Jammin in Amsterdam
We are in Amsterdam!
We finally found a decent flight to Amsterdam, we we are here for 3 days then we fly back to Istanbul, then back home.
Yes, it is totally backasswards to fly all the way here and then BACK to Istanbul, but since I used FF miles to buy my flights, I can’t change them at all!!
I actually slept for almost the ENTIRE 3 hr 45min flight!! I was amazed and so glad. When we arrived we found a guidebook and got a phone card and booked a room at a hostel, then we took the tram to the main train station and walked to the hostel. It is funny that I can write that in just 2-3 sentences when really, those actions took us a long time!!
The weather was yucky here too; light rain and wind. We found our hostel and the room is a letdown. We are paying the same amount as we did for a decent place in Istanbul, except here we have a shared bathroom and shower and the room is SOOOO tiny. At least it is clean. Europe is so expensive!!
Some pics of the canals
Jim hanging out in “The Night Watch” sculpture
The first thing we did was visit Anne Frank’s house. It’s pretty much just an empty house. The weirdest part is just actually being there and what struck me was that they needed to be very quiet, because if they made noise, it basically meant death. Can you imagine having to act a certain way, because if you didn’t, you’d be killed? One wrong step meant doom. Although the house was pretty empty, the museum was top-notch. One of the most distrubing pieces, IMO, was some type-written sheets of paper from the Nazis listing all the captured members of her family. After you left the main part of the house, there was a really cool interactive area called Free2choose. There were levels of seating with buttons at each seat you could press to vote on different issues concerning freedom of speech, right to privacy, and stuff like that.
The display would show various videos snippets of different issues then you got to vote. For example, in France, girls aren’t allowed to wear headscarves to school. Is that fair? Or, should rap music be allowed to say threatening things about gay people? Or, should neo-nazi groups be allowed to congregate outside of synagogues?? What about burning flags? We stayed for a long time and it was really interesting.
Next we went to the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum. We ate lunch then went to the Heineken Experience, which wasn’t a brewery tour but was really nicely done nonetheless. I would recommend it.
The feeling I get from Amsterdam is like a typical western european city. It is clean and the canals make it unique and picturesque. There are tons of people on bikes and lots of trams and it would be very easy to get hit by a biker, tram or car. You have to be careful. Amsterdam seems pretty diverse, and it was very noticeable after being in Istanbul. In Amsterdam you could find tons of different restaurants… Italian, Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Indian, Turkish, Paraguayan, Japanese, etc. In Istanbul, you pretty much have one choice: Turkish food. I only wish the weather had been nicer so it would have been easier to enjoy. But all in all, I found Amsterdam to be lovely and fun.
Back to the recap. . . .
One night we ventured out to look at the red light district. It was different than I thought – the women in some cases are only a few feet away from you, only separated by glass. You can look right into their eyes, or they can look into yours. I didn’t like that; it made it too real. Once in a while you would see a guy open the glass door and go in. You hear about the “red light district” in Amsterdam so much that it almost sounds like clean, cute tourist attraction, and it is easy to forget what it really is… but not when you are standing right there looking at it. I have seen prostitution in Thailand and it’s interesting to compare it with Amsterdam. Apparently the workers in Amsterdam get checked all the time for diseases and have healthcare and all sorts of stuff. Obviously that’s not the case in Thailand. Anyway……..we walked through there a little and I didn’t really want to see any more. I didn’t feel right gawking at the meat hanging in the cages… I mean, the women in their little enclosures.
We spent 3 nights total in Amsterdam and our last night we took the train to Rotterdam and stayed at our friends Dan and Louise’s apartment. Jim first met Dan in Buenos Aires years ago, then we met up with him in Brisbane in 2004 and now in Holland. He and his girlfriend Louise hope to come to NYC soon, and that would mean Jim’s hung out with Dan on FOUR continents, without even really trying. That’s pretty cool.
Early the next morning, Dan drove us to the train station and we took the hour train back to the airport where we flew BACK to Istanbul for the last night of our vacation.
Tags: amsterdam, netherlands, Turkey 2006
Kelly
Love reading your travel blog. It will be even better once you add the pictures. Hey, where are Carl’s comments?
Carl isn’t around any more! Last I heard months ago, he was moving.
I stayed in a floating Hotel, they call it Amstel Botel, beside the Amsterdam Central Station. It is very near the main street of the city quite near the main attractions in the area. I think I spent about Euro85.00 per day that time, March or April 2002?