Amsterdam: Part I

If I told you to think of a place where pretty much everything is legal, I would tell you to think of Amsterdam. The city of bad decisions and bad intentions where everyone goes to have a good time and go crazy.

To cover the basics, Amsterdam is in the Netherlands, otherwise known as Holland, and is located in the northwestern region of Europe.

That being said, Amsterdam is the only city where prostitution and marijuana are legal because, ironically, the rest of the country is quite conservative.

After 21 hours of traveling, a group of 30 Penn State students and myself arrived in this X-rated playground on the first day of Spring Break.

Day 1, I visited the Anne Frank House. The museum was really well done. Built directly into the building in which she hid, the whole thing is redone to be really modern. So, you walk through the first parts of the museum where everything is glass and stainless steel, and then suddenly you find yourself in a really narrow stairwell leading up to the annex itself, which is musty and antique.

They didn’t allow cell-phones, cameras, or picture taking, which made the whole experience more powerful. They also made me put my backpack on in the front  for “security reasons,” so I looked like a dork the whole time.

I learned a lot of things about her, though. For instance, her diary wasn’t a “secret” like I was taught to believe in grade school. Her family actually had the idea that she write an account of her war experiences in both Dutch and German for publication when they were liberated. This is also why friends of the family saved the diary after she was arrested, because they intended to give it to her at a later time.

This is her building, then vs. now. 

Photo Attribution

We also went to the Rembrandt museum, which was cool...and too long. I have an extremely short attention span, so I skimmed a lot of art to get to the real masterpiece, “Nightwatch,” which I studied so much in high school.

Again, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, so this is my blurry little secret.

Anyway, I’m sure you want to hear about the un-kosher stuff, so here goes.

First off, the Red Light District is freaky. It’s a total tourist attraction, but I was blushing badly and kept my eyes on the sidewalk as I walked through. Basically, women stand in windows in bikinis and stare you down as you walk by... If you translate the picture from French, you'll understand why it's relevant. 

Also, Marijuana is EVERYWHERE. Seed banks, Head Shops, and “Coffee houses” are just about the only business establishments the eye can see in Amsterdam Central.  

Coming from the U.S., where there are laws prohibiting most things, Amsterdam is a surreal place. The people, the history, and the traffic are crazy, but it’s definitely a great city.