I AMsterdam.

Kristen, Suzanne, and I teamed up again this weekend to visit The Netherlands...Amsterdam in particular. We had an early flight, so we ended up staying at the Rome airport Thursday night. An Italian musician trying to catch a flight to Milan for some audition befriended us through the night. He was nice and helped keep us awake. As I get to the airport, I also realize that packing in a hurry made me forget two essential items for travel: my camera and iPod. I don't have any pictures, but hopefully I can get some from Kristen and Suzanne.

The day we got into Amsterdam, we went to put our stuff down at the hotel. Turns out, it was about 1 1/2 hours away from the city center. It was a nice hotel though...totally 70's style bachelor pad, which was awesome! Complete with a spiral staircase. After putting our bags down, we headed back into the city. That day we headed to the Van Gogh museum. It's situated in an area with a huge lawn where people were hanging out. The weather was relatively nice that first day. Randomly it would rain a bit, but nothing too serious.

The Van Gogh Museum is arranged with his works chronologically. I've never been a huge fan of Van Gogh's but after looking at his progression of work and learning the influences of the exact time and place was really really interesting. After Van Gogh, we met up with Kristen's friend and roommate from back home who is studying in Ireland this semester. With Emily on board, we grabbed a bite to eat and then went out for a bit. We decided to head home early because the trains & buses stop running around midnight. We picked up a few bottles of wine though to keep the party going back in our hotel room!

We stayed up pretty late Friday night, so naturally we got up late Saturday. A little background info on Amsterdam for those who are unaware...it's the bicycle capital of the world! I kid you not, people ride bikes everywhere! You watch and people ride by with other people sitting on the back, babies ride in seats on top of the handlebars, people chat on cell phones with one hand while dodging traffic. It's insane, but we knew we had to experience the bike riding atmosphere in Amsterdam. We rented them once we got into the train station. I was a bit nervous because I'm not quite sure I remember the last time I rode a bike. To make things even more interesting, I had to go way back in my muscle memory to remember how to ride one with footbrakes! Once on our bikes, we head out for a few hours before having to return them. At first, we're all doing alright...maneuvering around people and trying to stay in our little bike lane so cars don't hit us. It was all really enjoyable until I had a little accident.

Another fact I didn't know until I saw the city, but Amsterdam is a city full of canals. Not like Venice where people utilize the canals for everyday transportation, but in Amsterdam there were plenty of boats and boat houses. Anyway, the roads on either side of the canals are one-ways. I suppose to prevent parking, 2-feet tall posts are placed sporadically along either side of the road. As we're crossing over the canal and turning left to get to the right side of traffic, I see a man walking on the outside of the street. When I saw him, I had it made up in my mind that I was going to hit him. I didn't even try to get around him, and I froze. I could not move, nor did I think to backpedal to put on the brakes. As I'm heading his way I yell, "OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!" I manage to miss the poles, and instead run directly into the side of a building. I flew off my bike and tried to get up hastily to restore my pride. The bike wasn't damaged, and I only have a sore wrist and bruised knee. I didn't even tear my jeans!

It took a while to restore my breath and dignity enough to hop back on the bike. Once I did, we rode to the Anne Frank house. We locked up our bikes and looked at the line. It was too long for us to want to wait in it, and it was raining pretty heavily by this point, so we just decided to walk around and find a cafe or something. After the rain subsided we headed back to Anne Frank and to our bikes. We only had rented them for three hours, and we didn't want to miss the closing time by staying too long in Anne Frank, so we decided to return the bikes a little early. Again, I had to find the little bit of courage I had left to get back on that bike.

The entire ride back I kept singing songs to myself with the word 'back' in it to remind myself that in order to brake, I must go back. Singing to myself and riding a bike through a now, beautifully sunny day in Amsterdam, really made for a nice experience. Towards the end there I felt I was really getting the hang of it!

We had to take the tram to get back to Anne Frank. The line was much shorter this time around so we hoped on in it. The museum is the actual building of her father's office and their hiding place during the war. Each room you entered had a TV in it with an interview or facts about the room you were standing in. Having read Anne Frank's diary, it was really interesting to see in reality the things of which she spoke. She wasn't kidding about the stairwell either! That thing was really steep! Her room was amazing too. The decorations (mostly magazine cutouts) that she had put up originally were still there. Her original diary resides in her room there. It's a red-pinkish and green plaid with a gold lock. It's in really good shape and has pictures along with her entries. It was a sobering experience, but so completely worthwhile. It still amazes me how I feel the realities of WWII most when I'm in different countries. First this summer in Thailand with Hellfire Pass and now in Amsterdam with Anne Frank. Even with those experiences, it is still hard to fathom the breadth of the destruction that war caused to so many.

To add to the sobering experiences for one day, we decided to go to the Red Light District. I knew about it before coming to Amsterdam, but it's one of those things where I don't think you can really believe it until you see it. It's literally an area where you walk around with girls dancing behind glass doors. I walked around thinking about how these girls ended up there. What went wrong, and what can they possibly be thinking while dancing scantily clad in front of strangers? I know it was their decision to live this life, but what extenuating circumstances drove them to this extreme? I walked past and didn't know how to look at them. I can't give them a disappointed look because I don't know the person behind all the makeup. I don't know their past. I tried to smile and give them a look of hope, for maybe they won't have to endure that for much longer. I felt really naive too because I didn't think that kind of behavior actually went on in the world, but it does. I will never forget the drunken men opening the doors and asking, "How much?"

After seeing that, I have even more respect for my body and my possibilities for the future. I'm thankful for having such great parents and for having a fortunate upbringing. I will never forget that night.

The next day we had some troubles getting back into the city center...bus schedules + Sunday = chaos in Europe apparently. Once in, Emily had to leave us early. Suzanne, Kristen, and I got a bite to eat before heading to the airport to head home. It was a good weekend overall, but it was really long. We had to stay at the airport again Sunday night due to inefficient train schedules in Italy that don't let us get back to Perugia.

This next weekend, the trio will add Casey to the mix as we head to Barcelona. The four of us are looking forward to warm weather, beaches, tapas, Picasso, and sangria! If it rains, I just might cry.