Amsterdam!!

Yesterday, we left for Amsterdam at about 7:45am, and the first stop was Zaanse Schans.  It was a little old city (buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries) with some windmills, the oldest Albert Heijn (the grocery store here), a clog making workshop, a cheese factory, and some old houses. It was cute, but nothing special.

Then we drove to Amsterdam! Even driving around it was fun, it has some really pretty buildings, and a lot of random artwork.  For example, in one place, there were a bunch of painted snowmen  each dressed up differently.  For example, one was a pirate, and one was some kind of gangster and that "Thug Life" underneath it! I was expecting it to be a dirty city, but overall it's really nice.  Then we went on a Canal Tour.  We were in an enclosed boat (it was nice to get out of the wind) that had windows everywhere.  We rode around and heard a recording telling us about the different buildings we passed.  I don't remember most of what we saw. I do remember seeing where the Mayor lives, lots and lots of gables (something about the roofs of buildings... we never figured out exactly what it was though), a bunch of other canals, Central Station, and LOTS of bikes.

When that was over, we had 4 hours of free time, so we got lunch and headed over to the van Gogh museum.  It was interesting, and I learned a lot about van Gogh.  I never knew that he was so religious, so influenced by Japanese art, or that he committed suicide (he shot himself and died from the wound 2 days later).  You aren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I turned my flash off and managed to take a bunch without getting caught.  Unfortunately, we had taken a while to figure out how to get there, and we knew we needed a lot of time to figure out how to get back and get to the Anne Frank house, so we only actually got to spend an hour and a half or 2 hours there, and I only really got to see 2 of the 4 floors, and rushed through the other 2.

So we figured out how to get on the right bus to get back to the main part of Amsterdam, but when we got off, we asked someone for directions to the Anne Frank house, and the way she led us turned out to be in completely the opposite direction of where we needed to be.  When we asked someone else a few minutes later, he pointed us the same way!! Finally, after walking about 10 minutes in the wrong direction, we asked a third person who gave us specific directions to where it actually was.  We barely made it in time to get in, but luckily we got there.  I wish I could have taken pictures there, but it wasn't allowed (and I actually respected their wishes this time lol).  It was a lot bigger then I expected, I always imagined them to be practically living in a closet, but they basically had an entire 3-story house to themselves.  Granted, there were 8 people hiding there, and it's not like any of them could ever leave, so I'm sure it was still pretty cramped, but it was not nearly as small as I thought it would be.  Basically, it was the house, as she had lived in it (but unfurnished) with quotes on the walls from her diary written in Dutch and English, and some glass cases with objects and letters that had belonged to her or her family.  There were also some short video clips from those who had known her, including one by her childhood best friend, Hannah Goslar who was the Holocaust survivor who had spoken to my Birthright group when we visited Yad Vashem last summer.

Finally, we went to the Red Light District around 8:30.  Apparently, the Red Light District was built around someplace called the "Old Church."  I'm sure it was party because we were there so early, but it was WAY more tame than I expected.  First of all, I thought girls danced naked in the windows, but they were all in bras and panties.  And they didn't even dance or anything, they really just stood there (under a red light) looking out the window waiting for someone to come to them (and half the time, they stood there talking on their phones).  The most graphic things we saw were in the advertisements for places offering "live sex shows."  They didn't hold back at all on those.  You also can't take pictures in the Red Light District.  Supposedly, if people see you trying to take pictures of the girls, they might take your camera from you and throw it in the water.  After that, we headed back to Tilburg.

Other then that, there were a few miscellaneous things that happened this week.  On Monday, I went to an open roda in Eindhoven with the people from Tilburg.  After class on Tuesday, I left the building and there was a Camel outside that you could sit on!! They were promoting studying abroad in the Middle East, I think.  Later, Rocha picked me up and brought me back to Eindhoven so we could go to a class at Capoeira Interacao.  It was a really awesome class, but we got really lost on the way there and ended up getting there an hour late, so we kinda jumped in without warming up.  Between that, the cold weather, and the fact that I had exercised 5 days straight at that point, I had a LOT of trouble in class and probably looked like I suck.  I could barely breathe and basically had to stop every five minutes.  It was worse then the first time I took Scooby's class!! On Wednesday, I finally gave myself a break.  I just did my Environmental Econ homework all day... that class is REALLY hard :(. Thursday, capoeira class was taught by Mestre Paulao, one of the founders of Grupo Capoeira Brazil.  He used to be the main teacher in Tilburg, but he moved back to Brazil, and he's back in town for a little while. I really enjoyed his class, so hopefully I'll get to take another one before he leaves. Friday, I hung out with a friend at the city center, and he helped me understand how to read the train schedule, so hopefully I can start travelling now! After he got on his train, I went to the bathroom and found out you have to pay for that here. Wtf? And when I went back to my bike, I had apparently forgotten where I parked it and looked around for a good 15 minutes before I found it!! I think someone should invent bikes with car alarms on them for this place.  And I've learned not to bother trying to ride my bike on windy days.  The wind was so strong that even on 1st gear, I could barely pedal!