Aprovecha El Día (Otra Vez): Second Star to the Right and Straight On to the Netherlands

After Belgium, we took a train to the Netherlands, to the lovely city of Amsterdam. We couchsurfed there, so we had arranged to meet our host at the train station. His name was Maarten (so Dutch) and he was super nice. When we got to his apartment, he made us all dinner and we hung out and all got to know each other.

Maarten had a copy of Despicable Me in his apartment - in Dutch! Verschrikkelijke ikke.

That night we went out with Maarten to see a bit of the city. We walked along the canals, and around a main plaza where there was tons of activity and tons of people. Then we went to the red light district, just to see it. I am so glad we didn’t try to go there by ourselves, because it was the sketchiest, scariest place ever. I didn’t expect to be as affected by seeing the red light district as I was – I was thoroughly shocked. We had walked through the red light district when we were in Paris because we had wanted to see the Moulin Rouge, so I figured the one in Amsterdam wouldn’t be that different. But I was totally wrong. The streets of the one in Amsterdam are lined with glass windows, and behind each one stands a prostitute, scantily clad and doing their best to attract customers. Each of the windows they stand behind are actually doors, so if they get a willing customer he enters right there. We didn’t spend much time there for obvious reasons, but even after we left I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It’s hard to wrap your head around that lifestyle, and the fact that it’s so public and accepted. It was upsetting, I just felt really sad for those women. It’s one of those moments where you get a harsh, glaring view of society, when you can’t believe some of the things we have created and some of the things that go on every day.

The next morning we took the tram (Amsterdam has the best public transportation. And yes, we made the Amster-tram/Tramsterdam joke every time we got on) to the Anne Frank house.

Welcome to Tramsterdam.

Just a few of the public transportation tickets I accummulated just in my ten days or so of traveling.

I was so glad we got to go, because I’ve always been really interested in WWII history and I’ve read so many books about that era, especially in relation to the Holocaust and Anne Frank (including her diary of course). So we went to the actual building where she and her family and others hid in the Secret Annex for so many months. We walked through the rooms (which didn’t have their original furnishings because they were taken when Anne and her family were discovered and taken away), and each one had a video to watch and things to look at under glass, like original letters and artifacts and things. They had a diary on display that is usually Anne’s actual diary too, but on the particular day we went it was elsewhere, and the one on display was just a replica. It was so interesting, but so tragic. We didn’t do a ton the rest of the day because spending a few hours in her house was emotionally exhausting.

After visiting the Anne Frank house, we got lunch and walked around the center of the city. There were some really cool plazas to hang out in, one of them with tons of crazy street performers. We also found out that ‘coffee shops’ in Amsterdam are not for coffee. If you actually want coffee, you go to a café, because coffee shops are more for selling marijuana, which is legal in the Netherlands. So THAT was weird, we could not get used to seeing people smoking weed in the streets – everything goes in Amsterdam. We also went to the “I AMsterdam” sign and took pictures, and we hung out in a beautiful little park after that – check out the gorgeous Dutch tulips!

I AMsterdam

Later we took an hour-long cruise on the canals, which was really pretty. Oh and another thing about Amsterdam is the BIKES. Everyone and their mother has a bike, they are everywhere. They have bike parking garages! Most bikes I’ve ever seen, ever.