Amsterdam: The city of Heineken and Bicycles (and well, the red light district and legal substances)

Abbey and I said (by now if you follow my blog I am assuming you know Abbey and it would be repetitive to repeat explanations, so hopefully you're not new - or catch up first ;)) that if there was one place we needed to get to together before she left, it was Amsterdam. We both had never ventured into the Netherlands, and we were quite excited to do so. The only sad thing about my trip was that I was supposed to see a friend from high school who is studying there, as well as a good friend I made during my exchange to the University of Sydney that is from the Netherlands, but due to cell phone problems on my part (for those of you who know me, this will not be a surprise; and yes I guess problems with technology do cross oceans, just my luck) and lack of internet. However, it was a lovely trip and I have promised my wonderful little sister that if she comes at an appropriate time, I will return for her. So hopefully there is still a chance for a reunion yet.

Anyways, to the good stuff! The amazing Abbey found us a ride to Venlo. This was a long weekend in France because of Remembrance Day. There was no school Friday and most people did not work, so most au pairs were also free. Abbey found an au pair who was driving to a city just on the border of the Netherlands, but in Germany. Two other au pairs from that city were going with her and then Abbey and I. It only cost us 20 euros each way, versus a couple hundred the train would have cost (it was hyped up due to the vacation). We slept most of the way, but when we were talking to the three German girls they were really friendly and nice. I was especially tired due to a run in with my host family parents the night before I left. I just realized tonight that I have not even written a blog about my actual experience as an au pair! So that will likely be my next blog because it has been a roller coaster of a ride. In fact, considering all that is happening, I think I could even make it into quite a comedy (despite the fact that when it actually happened it was not funny). But, as my mom has always told me "Better to laugh then cry, right?". I have definitely made my mom laugh retelling some of the stories, so maybe I will share. And in the end, I am learning a lot from all the craziness. But in general I am having a wonderful time, so don't take that the wrong way! Anyways, I am getting very off topic with my love to chat, so I will get back to the story at hand. Sorry to make this one a cliffhanger folks.

So we got to Venlo and it was only supposed to be a 1-2 hour train ride. Turns out, we had to switch at a place called Enhoven. We got there okay, but then we got on the train to go to Amsterdam and it was canceled! Sad thing is, this apparently happens a lot (so we were told by locals we were asking) We happened to make friend with this really nice Belgian girl who was also going to Amsterdam. Crazy thing was, she was going just for the evening and had already driven an hour or two and walked an hour or two and still had over an hour to go! Side note: we drove all the way across Belgium to get to the Netherlands. I think it took only an hour and a half.  It looked pretty at the parts I did not sleep through; lots of little rock cliffs. The Belgian girl also spoke six languages I believe. She had a Greek father and an Italian mother I believe (or vice versa). And she was very proud of the town she was from. She worked in a store in a mall that is apparently like a little village. She told me I had to go see it. I googled it because I had never heard of it, so here are two pictures.

Here it is! I think it would be quite lovely at night.

And a normal picture during the day. The only problem with it at night would be that, well, nothing would be open. Our Belgian friend described it as an outlet mall of expensive stores (ie. Louis Vuitton Style). But, she said prices are normally about 30 % off.

We finally got to our hostel, dropped off our bags and went for dinner. We managed to get a full pizza to split and a big plate of pasta to split for only 10 euros. We had Heineken with dinner of course! We then decided to take a stroll to see the Red Light District to fulfill our curiosity. I will stay away from details, as Amsterdam is full of some highly-debated issues. But, the Red Light district is pretty much exactly how it is described. Yet, somehow, it seemed very different than what I had imagined in my head. There are literally just windows with women standing in them in bikinis, but the windows are actually doors and can open up for inquiries (and/or entry to the back room). Oh and there are live sex shows you can pay to go see. But, I am going to avoid giving an opinion on this matter.

So Saturday we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which was very neat. To give a brief little history, Van Gogh was born in 1853 and died in 1890 and was from a town in the south of the Netherlands. I was also unaware before I went to the museum than Van Gogh just decided one day to become an artist and then he became one! It is quite inspiring, actually, that he got the idea in his mind and went for. Unfortunately for him, his works of art did not begin to become appreciated until near the time he died, when small groups of artists began to follow him. However, he was not seen as a modern art pioneer until after his death, so he never really knew that his work was so loved.

We ran into the famous "I amsterdam" sign on our way to the Van Gogh museum. It was surrounded by people the whole time though. It is definitely a touristy area.

I am whatever I say I am, if I wasn't, then why would I say I am... I had to do it haha

Pretty view of the sign fro mthe

We couldn't take pictures in the museum, so I figured I had to get at least a few outside of it!

Me outside the Van Gogh museum at a picture of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers".

I also learned that Van Gogh was very fascinated by Japanese art. This fascination stemmed from his feeling of calmness when surrounded by nature, and his intimidation by large cities. He used Japanese art as a resource to learn about abstract art, which showed him that nature could be depicted from a different point-of-view than the commonly used one at the time. For centuries, the basic principle of Western art was that reality was to be depicted as "true-to-life". The influence of Japanese art used by Van Gogh, and some other artists at the time, allowed for a combination of various vantage points instead of just one (Japanese prints used asymmetric truncations of images). He even had a large collection of these prints, which were displayed in the museum. He was also interested in Japanese colour woodcuts, which were known as 'Images of a fleeting world'. These pieces of art urged the viewers to "Surrendor to the pleasures of the present instead of worrying about the future.". These works were also of interest to Van Gogh because the artists did not strive to reproduce reality exactly, but wanted to get to the very heart of reality by zooming in on a specific point of reality.

Here is an example of a Japanese woodcut. This one is called 'Paulownia Plantation at Alaska in evening rain'. Weather is a recurring theme in woodcuts.

Van Gogh died by shooting himself, which I also actually did not know. He died a few days after the incident in the hospital. He was known to have obtained a disease before it occurred, which is believed to have been a form of epilepsy. Van Gogh's little brother, Theodor, died about 6 months after Vincent. Theodor was Vincent's lifelong friend and his biggest supporter. He offered him both financial and emotional support. As a result, many people believe that he died of a broken heart from the death of his brother.

Here are some of my favourite paintings of Van Gogh:

Almond Blossom. On January 31, 1890, Theo, Vincent Van Gogh little and much-loved little brother, wrote to Vincent of the birth of his son. Van Gogh, immediately set about making him a painting of his favorite subject: blossoming branches against a blue sky. The gift was meant to hang over the couple’s bed and symbolize this new life, Vincent chose an almond tree, which blooms early in southern regions and  announces the coming spring as early as February.

Sunflowers. I like this piece mainly becuase it reminds me of when my older brother painted it when we were little. He is very talented art, and I remember his rendition being very well-done. This painting, as well as the three others, were painted in August 1889 when the sunflowers were blooming. Van Gogh desperately wanted to capture them in a series of 12 pictures. He painted the series to decorate the room where Paul Gauguin, a friend of Van Gogh and a fellow-painter, would stay when he arrived in Arles. He chose this subject because his friend had previously admired his paintings of sunflowers run to seed. In the end, Vincent executed four sunflower still lifes; however, he felt only two were good enough to hang in Gauguin’s bedroom. He was later to paint three copies of them, one of which is the version in the Van Gogh Museum. Van Gogh desperately wanted to be respected and seen as an equal to Gauguin, but Gauguin did not see it this way due to his arrogance. This was believed to play a large role into the incident where Van Gogh cut off his ear, which happened shortly after Van Gogh went up to Gauguin with a razor, but then fled to a nearby brothel. In Van Gogh"s defense, he is known to have come down with some for of an illness, believed to have been a form of epilepsy. After the incident he self-admitted himself to Saint-Remy's asylum.

Irises. As mentioned above, Van Gogh stayed  in a psychiatric hospital in the southern French village of Saint-Rémy between 1889 and 1890 . He continued to paint and draw there, seeking the majority of his subjects in nature. After a period of illness that ended in April 1890, he threw himself into the production of a number of flower still lifes. Irises is an example.

Wheatfield with crows. This is one of Van Gogh's most known paintings and is probably the one subject to the most speculation. It is believed by many to be his last work of art, and is mythed that the threatening sky is a metaphor of his upcoming death.

After the museum we went on a tour of the Heineken brewery! I quite enjoyed it, and the brewery was SO big that the walking tour seemed to go on forever (in a good way). You don't have a guide, you just walk through it, but at many points there are people who explain things to you. I learned how Heineken is made, and how beer in general is made. First they take malted barley and water to form Wort, which is very sweet in flavour. At the brewery we were able to taste it, and surprisingly it just kind of tasted like a coconut juice sort of thing. Then this is heated and hops are added. Hops give the beer the bitter flavour we all know it has, and allows it to be preserved without additives. Then fermentation with yeast is used to form the alcohol and carbon dioxide, after which the mixture is placed in a large whirlpool to seprated the liquids from the solids. Et voila, one of my favourite alcohols -BEER. And if it wasn't clear enough, we got to experience how it was made by a 4D ride! That's right, we lived the adventure of beer making, by being the beer ourselves. The ride included movement, video, sound, and even being splashed with water and surrounded by bubbles, it was really neat. We also got to taste 3 free glasses of beer and learned that the annoying foam of beer is actually there for a reason (and I used to be a foam-hater). It is there because it keeps out the oxygen for as long as possible, as the oxygen negatively affects the taste and smell of the beer. Who knew!

Outside the brewery! I think my dad would like this little wagon! We have similar things at the farm (minus the Heineken bit)!

Abbey and I having some fun in the brewery!

The four beer ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast!

So much beer!!

Enjoying a little taste of course, and i approved.

All the beers out our table in the Heineken Bar at the end of the tour.

After the brewery we continued with a river cruise around Amsterdam. We caught it right around sunset, as we bought or tickets and then used an hour of wait time to wander through a market we found. The cruise was neat because Amsterdam is actually a series of islands as there are apparently over 160 canals. It was nice to see the city from the eyes of the canal. Believe it or not, the houses in Amsterdam seemed even higher than those in Paris; many so high and thin that they had the old-school hooks at the top to hoist up furniture (due to the steepness and narrowness of the stairs). It was a lovely way to spend the evening and learn a little bit about the city.

View of a canal from on the boat.

Here you can see the hook I described, right by the bright light at the top.

All the lights along the bridges were very pretty once it was darker.

A replica boat in the largest canal (biggest canal I have ever seen).

That night we went on an Amsterdam "Ultimate Pub Crawl" for which we paid 20 euros and got into 6 bars with a drink at each (plus shots, but they basically poured ts red liquid out of a sketchy bottle into your mouth so I avoided it as much as possible, though sometimes they basically forced it into your mouth as you entered the bar). It was a fun night and nice to get out and meet other travelers! Abbey and I befriended these two young doctors from London! They were only 23 and 24 I believe yet already working. In England, apparently, you can go into medical school from high school (like Ireland, Poland, and Australia). It will be a long time before I am a doctor yet, if it is even what I decide to do! It was crazy to meet people my age that area already at that stage!

Our first beers of the pub crawl.

Me and the beautiful Abbey, who is leaving me in a week which makes me want to cry. I have to try not to think about it! What will I do without my travel buddy :(

Abbey and I with our new pub crawl friends!

Due to the late night and the fact that we had to leave for Venlo around 2pm, we didn't do much Sunday. We wandered around to take a look at the downtown again and bought some souvenirs. Unfortunately for us, it was the Santa Parade, and we didn't even get to see it becuase it was after we left. BUT, because of it the trams weren't running. So we had to carry our bags 20-30 minutes to the train station! It was quite the adventure.

A dutch shoe we found wandering around Sunday!

I thought I would add a few last points about Amsterdam before I end my explanation of the weekend! I of course can not neglect the fact that marijuana is legal there. I will not give my opinion on the matter, but I want to explain what it was like to ease any curiosity! It was not like I had imagined in my head, so it may be the same case for you readers. I imagined it to be a little glamorous, though now I am not sure why. I thought the coffee shops (where they sell the marijuana) would be like little bakeries where the pot cookies and muffins and spacecakes would be nicely decorated and placed behind a little glass cover. I must have been high when I thought this (JOKING, but I was REALLY off). It was more like they were just bars, but a part of the bar was dedicated to a "professional pot dealer". There were menus there where you could choose the type of weed you wanted and how you wanted it - muffins, spacecakes, pre-rolled joints, in a bag and so forth. Then if you wanted you could sit in the pub and just smoke it there (though I believe you have to buy a drink to be able to do that). Some of the coffee shops looks like classy little bars, while others looked like hippy pubs; there seemed to be a wide range of coffee shops. Also, I had no idea about this, but you can buy mushrooms legally as well. There were separate stores on the streets with mushrooms in the windows!

Here is a picture of one of the "menus" I took so everyone could see what it's like!

And I wanted to mention quickly about chips (fries)! Chip shops were all over the place, with mounds of chips visible from the streets! You often buy them in these big cones there and get mayonnaise or a peanut sauce that Abbey quite liked. I ate a lot of fries that weekend (I chose to eat them with ketchup and mayonnaise), even though I'm usually not a big fan.

An example of a cone of fries!

And a mound of fries!

One last thing I almost forgot - bikes. There are bikes everywhere in Holland. It's hard to cross the streets because of bikers (Abbey and I never really figured out who has the right of way). And I saw the biggest bike park ever - I still can't believe how large it was. It would be an amazing city to live in to keep in shape!

The big bike park. Not sure if you can tell it's size from this, but it was HUGE.

I was back to my home in Marly-le-Roi by about 11:30 pm that night; tired from the long voyage, but quite content to have finally see Amsterdam, a city that has had me curious for quite some time. Hopefully I was able to ease some of your curiousity too; that is until you get a chance to go yourself!

A bientot!

Canny**