Day 1:
Perhaps my favorite part of my time in Amsterdam was the very beginning. I pulled into the train station around 9:15 and made my way via tram (and the help of a lovely Dutch girl) to meet my friend Anne. Anne and I had spent the last few hours trying to sort out whether it would be best for me to meet her at work or home. And fortunately (for me) she couldn't escape work early enough and asked that I meet her there. FUN FACT: Anne manages a brewery/bar called Troost. So my immediate introduction to Amsterdam was walking into a bar, receiving a giant hug from a friend I hadn't seen in 2 years and then being offered 2 free locally brewed beers. BOOM. I see you Amsterdam. I see you.
After a couple drinks, we headed back to her place and almost immediately crashed. She'd been working most of the day and I'd been traveling--so hooray sleep! The next morning we got up and had a quick breakfast together (boiled eggs on buttered toast with a bit of ketchup--pretty great idea actually). And she gave me a quick lay of the land before I headed off to adventure the city! Apologies in advance for the large amount of canal photos--I've decided it's imperative that I live near water at some point in my life.
(Not a canal--but I loved that this woman turned around at EXACTLY the right moment.) What a perfect view of the quaint and crazy life that is Amsterdam.
My first ACTUAL stop of the day was...yup, you guessed it: The Tulip museum. Hello FLOWERS! Since obviously it's not actually Tulip season in Holland, I had to do the second best thing. So I spent an hour in a museum learning about how Holland came to be the number one exporter, where they came from, and how they're cultivated and distributed at the end of the season.
I won't bore you with all the details (unless you really want to know because it was actually super fascinating) BUT here are some general takeaways:
1. Tulips actually originated further East in the region of what is now Turkey.
2. Because of this a Turkish emperor took a great interest in their beauty, and began to breed them at his palace in what is present-day Istanbul. You may have seen the pictures of it on a previous blog--Topkapi Palace (check out the Istanbul trip obvs)
3. The tulip was considered to be such a beautiful flower, that the name tulip is actually derived from the Anglicized version of an Arabic word that is extremely similar to the spelling of Allah--Lalah.
4. Once the Dutch people discovered them, the various Tulip cultivars became extremely prized, leading to what came to be called Tulip Mania. At the height of the mania, highly coveted varieties of Tulip could go for over 10x the ANNUAL wage of a skilled worker. AKA these people were paying more for tulips than houses. It was nuts.
5. When the tulip exchange collapsed, Dutch started exporting them to other countries (who were eager to see the flower that caused an economic disaster) and that led them to be the world's leading exporter of Tulips--continuing to this day.
Okay, my bad. I got excited and told you a lot more than intended. But that's CRAZY, right?! Anyways, after that excitement I wandered over to the Dam, the town square of Amsterdam. It is home to the Royal Palace, the national monument and you know, like Madame Tussaud's.
After exploring a bit, I wandered around and happened to find myself by Rembrandt's house. Hurrah!
(Really going for the Dutch coloring here)
Finally I hit the flower market (which at the present time is a bulb market because cold weather and whatnot.
Ended my day by walking over to the Museumsplein and checking out the famous I Amsterdam sign, which happens to be right by a skating rink, and one of the most beautiful museum building I've ever seen, the Reijksmuseum!
Finally, I made the long walk home through Vondelpark, one of the biggest parks in Amsterdam. It was stunning. And while the pictures themselves don't do it justice, walking through Vondelpark was one of those lovely moments in life when you feel like you're just watching life happen. It was probably 25* out, and people of all ages were biking, running, walking their dogs and just going about life. So lovely.
Day 2:
This was official museum day for me. Amsterdam has a TON of wonderful museums, so picking out just two was rather difficult. Budgeting, people, budgeting. I ended up deciding to do the Rijksmuseum (the national museum) and the Anne Frank House. Okay, the second one wasn't negotiable if we're being honest.
So here's a quick look at some of the fun things I saw:
It SNOWED! So I took the tram this day--walking for hours in the freezing cold isn't quite my deal.
Tulip/Flower vases --each of those little tubes holds a single flower--as shown:
When Dutch people discovered Chinese porcelain...they loved it. And Delftware, as the Dutch version is known, is EVERYWHERE. And while generally I ignored it, some pieces truly were too beautiful to be looked over.
But like really. They were obsessed.
Also, they had WAY better doll houses than us.
Just so we're clear--these doll houses, if placed on the floor--we're taller than me. I'm 5'5".
Got to see some Van Gogh.
AND this guy, who really had a terrible life:
ROUGH.
After a few hours spent going through Dutch history, I made my way to the Anne Frank House. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside and the outside was too blocked by tourists to get a proper photo. But, if you ever end up in Amsterdam, I highly recommend it. Perhaps it's my interest in the atrocities of World War II, the insanity of the pain people could do one another, or maybe that God can use even the smallest of us to do great things; but whatever the reason, the museum, while small (and quite steep!) was really impactful. To walk through rooms where whole families slept and ate and snuck about for 2 years, was just heart wrenching. Beautifully done, and so inspiring to hear her father speak about his daughter and why he published her stories/diaries.
Finally, I made my way again to see the pretty lights of the city and then headed back for a final drink and hangout with Anne before heading off to Prague!
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