Amsterdam (October 22-24)

On my first day in Amsterdam I took my last free walking tour. It was good, but, understandable given that this is my seventh or eighth one of these things, all the "this king did that" and "some people did this" kinda just washed over my head a little bit. After, I met up with a friend (one of the girls I went to Versailles with, who happened to be here the same days as me) and we wandered all around the city, through some markets, and ended up at the giant Amsterdam letters, which were full of children.

This is a mall. Though possibly a king did something there once.

Even though it looks like I'm posing with them, I promise I do not actually know these children.

I didn't really partake in much of the (infamous?) Amsterdam nightlife while I was there, because my lingering illness from Rome took a turn for the worse after leaving Belgium (funny how that always seems to happen after you stay out till 3 am in clubs with strangers...) so a) I was already coughing like twelve times a minute, and b) I get really grouchy and kind of hate all humans when I'm sick, so socializing wasn't really my top priority.

But I did take a night tour of the Red Light District. And it was awesome. My tour guide was brilliant and knowledgeable and understanding, which I think makes all the difference, and I had a really great time. I like the Red Light District. I like how open everybody is about sex, that there's so much less taboo than most other places. I like how the legalization (tolerance) of prostitution really does make it safer for the ladies (at least, that seems to be the case here), and I like that the girls behind the doors are there because they want to be (or at least I hope they are, though I'm not so naive as to think that everything is totally perfect), that they make their own rules and choose who they'll let in and don't do anything they don't want to do. Feminism at work! 

This is what it looks like: a condom store.

 The next day, I got up early and went to the Anne Frank House. I got there about twenty minutes before it opened and was maybe the thirtieth person in line, and I"m glad I went then. It was literally around the block when I left not even two hours later. 

 It really is an amazing experience, and you should definitely, definitely go if you're ever in Amsterdam. It's always a powerful experience to think about standing in a place where other (important) people have been, and this was no exception. The first thing I was struck by was how small the Secret Annex really is. Like, seriously small, those little rooms all squished together. There were always people behind me, so I didn't have as much time to linger and let things sink as I would have liked, and they don't let you up into the attic.

But yeah, it's sad, and heavy, this stuff, this past, these lives. I definitely sniffle-cried a couple times near the end, especially at the point where there's a video of an interview with Hanneli Goslar, because, you know, I've read her book too. And, you know, I read these people's words, and I feel like I know what they went through, feel like I know them, but of course I don't. There's no way I could understand, not really. Parents don't know really their children, and I don't know Anne Frank. The whole thing left me sort of searching for the right words. I"m not sure I have them.

In the afternoon, I went to the Van Gogh Museum. It was nice, but ever so full of humans, and I was definitely in grumpy sick-person mode. But I like Van Gogh. I like his sad life story and I like the way things in his paintings seem like they want to slide away from you and toward you at the same time, like maybe there are holes in things. (This sentence brought to you by the Foundation to Remind You That I Don't Know How to Talk about Art.) But yeah, nice.

I had to go back to my hostel after that to check in for my flight and pack and be really sad about leaving Europe, but later I wandered around the city some more and had a celebratory/farewell drink (I'll miss you raspberry beer), just me, and reflected that this really has been such an amazing trip.