Amsterdam

I arrived in Amsterdam Friday and was struck by the abundance of bicycles and canals all around me. After sorting out somewhere to stay (not an easy feat!) I went on a free walking tour of the city which pointed out most of the major sites and offered a fair amount of history and explanations. After the tour I went to see the Anne Frank House. It truly was just as I had imagined it to be, small cramped rooms and all. It was fascinating to see that actual pages from the diary on display. Friday evening was "arts and crafts" night at the hostel so I got to paint little tiny wooden clogs. Found some people to walk around with at night and once it got dark we set out to explore the red light district. Both intruiging and sad to see the endless windows of women, glowing under the red lights. At one point I looked around and noticed a serious imbalance of males to females out walking on the streets. Is it that more men than women come to amsterdam? or the women just don't go to the red light district at night?

Saturday I went to the old Spanish Portuguese synagogue. Huge wooden building that happened to be celebrating their 332nd anniversary, which meant that the choir (in top hats!) was there, there were many congregants, there was a free lunch (sweet!), and I was invited along with the children to go to the Artis Zoo in the afternoon. I especially enjoyed the butterfly pavillion. So pretty. There seemed to be more sharing of zoo spaces among different types of animals that I am used to - we joked that even the animals take part in the famous Dutch tolerance. I slowly wandered my way back toward to the hostel and watched some beach soccer along the way. At night, I went out with some people from the hostel and as we were sitting at a bar along the canal, we saw a very stoned looking guy fall right into the canal! Luckily people came to his rescue and hauled him out. Given the lack of railings, I suspect this is not an unusual occurrence. Later that night, I saw an angry drunk guy trying to pull bikes from the bridge and throw them into the canal. He had only succeeded with one when another man intervened and started yelling at him. Those canals certainly get a lot of visitors!

Sunday I enjoyed a sleep in and then went to the see the Van Gogh museum. I wandered through the flower market and then attempted (unsuccessfully) to do some shopping in the afternoon. In the evening I hung out with some of the girls from the hostel and we were all happy to make it an early night.