Amsterdam
Our host institution, ISEP, recently organized a school trip to Amsterdam for the weekend. I was quite fortunate because my language partner managed to save me a spot on the trip. 88 euros for transportation and lodging is a deal not easily beat by any American traveling abroad!
We left late Friday night (12:30 AM) so as to arrive around 8 AM Saturday morning. I didn’t manage to get much sleep on the bus (curse my long legs) so arrived in Amsterdam groggy and grumpy. The bus let us out at Central Station, a key location in the city of Amsterdam because the city, literally, revolves around it. Amsterdam is formed by layers of cocentric canals about which Central Station is the focus.
We walked along the water down to a set of docks. I was quite excited because we were to be staying boats for the night! Yet another novel experience on my European excursion. After having dropped our things off, Devin and I took to the city. I was adamant that I see the the two great museums of the city, yet because Devin had been to Amsterdam before, he opted to tour the Heineken Factory.
Amsterdam should be quite proud to boast both the Rijkmuseum and the Van Gogh museum. Situated just across a park square from each other on the south side of the city, both lat claim to an impressive collection of work. I must admit I was a little proud of myself for recognizing the styles of different painters (Vermeer, Jan Steen, Rembrandt) in the Rijkmuseum thanks to Professor Peponi and her class in the Louvre, but I was also pleasantly surprised by the various objects of art (i.e. armor, silver platters, weapons) on display. Just before leaving, the museum presents you with The Night Watch a huge masterpiece of Rembrandt. Truly beautiful, I highly suggest you check it out, though to appreciate its full beauty, imagine it covering a massive wall.
After my prolonged session in the Rijksmuseum, I crossed the square and headed over to Van Gogh’s museum. With over 200 of Van Gogh’s paintings as well as a multitude of letters, the Van Gogh museum has the largest collection of the painter’s works in the world. The museum itself is quite large, the main layout on the 1st (European, 2nd American) floor. Van Gogh’s paintings wind around the outer wall as text on said wall differentiate the different eras of his style and influences of his life. Exhibitions also included some works of his friends as well.
More so than the work of any artist I have been before, Van Gogh MUST be seen in person. This, I find, is due to his signature choppy brushstrokes. The mountains and valleys of paint that form give a sort of 3D perspective to each painting which are as just as crucial to the painting as the colors he uses or the subject he chooses to portray. Overall fascinating and informative, I highly suggest the museum to anyone in Amsterdam.
Famished, I was delighted to find a hot dog stand just outside of the museum. I wolfed down two loaded hotdogs (sourkraut, pickles, onions, mustard, ketchup, and fried onion bits) before meeting up again with Devin. We then got in contact with some of our other friends from Stanford who happened to pick that weekend to travel to Amsterdam on their own. Once together we saw:
- Tour of Costel Diamonds (guaranteed origins in non-conflict zones)
- Canal tour of Amsterdam
- Anne Frank’s house- haunting, saddening, sobering, and inspiring, this is a must-see for anyone in the city.
I split from the group at dinner so as to go watch a professional basketball game. Just before leaving Paris I was contacted by Torey Thomas, the former Holy Cross great, who is now playing professionally in the Netherlands. His team, he informed me, would be playing in Amsterdam that night, so I was excited to watch him play and hopefully see him after the game.
Unfortunately, basketball is apparently not a big deal in Amsterdam. People wearing sport jerseys, sports bars, hotels, and tourist information desks couldn’t tell me the name of the team, let alone where they play. The only lead I got took me 20 minutes outside the city to a massive soccer stadium… only to learn there was no basketball being played there. In the end I was quite upset, and missing the game put a damper on the rest of the night. The night, however, didn’t end up lasting very long. Exhausted and hoping to get some good sightseeing in the next day, I called it quits around midnight and headed back to the boat for some shut eye.
The next day I woke up, had a hazlenut spread that is infinitely better than Nutella (don’t shoot the messenger), and walked over to Central Station where I rented a bike. Amsterdam is quite proudly, and rightly so, the #1 European city for cyclists. Bike lanes are abundant and drivers are courteous to their two-wheeled companions. I spent the morning zooming up and down canals before heading south to the Vondelpark, a huge open area very near the museums I had visited the day before. I spent a good deal of time there, riding, walking, writing, reading, and reflecting before some ominous clouds forced me to seek shelter.
I headed back into the downtown area which was alive due to the Festival of St. Nicholas. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, returned my bike, and dove back into the city of foot. I just strolled, getting lost among the winding canals, admiring the city’s architecture, and stopping every now and then to shop. I managed to wander through the infamous Red Light District, a fact I didn’t realize until what I perceived to be a mannequin, out of the corner of my eye, proceeded to move. This was no mannequin! And let’s leave it at that.
The bus left at four and I was happy to be back on it and headed to Paris. Amsterdam, I found, was somewhat of a disappointment! Everyone had told me how great the city was, let I found it lacking for that it seemed to not have a cohesive sense that would draw the entire city together. New York is the city that never sleeps, San Francisco is the fun, hippie town on the Bay, London deals only in proper society, while Paris is both the City of Love and terribly chic! But Amsterdam? Things were going great in the 17th century (known as the Dutch Golden Age), but now I feel like they’re in a bit of a rut and trying to pull it out by one too many means. The art is magnificent, yet it didn’t seem to capture the imagination of the city; the history is vivid, yet it didn’t come alive to me; the canals are quite pleasing to the eye, but seemed a little cliche; the intellectual life is there; but you have to search long and hard to find a university. Frankly, the first thought that comes to my mind when you say Amsterdam is “marijuana”. I think that primary images of cities speak volumes, and that is mine.
I do think, though, that my rather negative perception of the city was influenced by the series of unfortunate circumstances that follow:
- Poor weather on Saturday- I found myself quite glum walking about the city on Saturday, yet as the weather got better on Sunday, I found myself enjoying the city much more!
- Lack of sleep- I was exhausted throughout the whole trip, the kind of tired where food doesn’t satisfy, jokes aren’t as funny, and sleep is almost always on your mind.
- Missing the basketball game- I spent three hours running around the city trying to find an arena or at least someone who had HEARD of their professional basketball team. I was really looking forward to seeing Torey and missing him put me in a foul mood.
Having voiced my opinion to others and received vicious retorts about how wonderful Amsterdam is, I feel almost as if I missed out of the city, and this saddens me. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to go back someday and try to appreciate it again, but this time with some better weather, good friends, and a map with a stadium on it!
