Amsterdam: Venice of northern Europe

stedelijk museum

shopping mall

(a part of) van gogh museum



raw herrings! (Jordaan area)

beautiful canals

entrance of Jordaan area

dutch wooden shoes

rembrandt house

entrance of vondel park

rijksmuseum (currently closed under construction)

"I amsterdam"

red light district at night

???

cool recycling bins around the city. I like the color and type on it.

colorful pulic art

amsterdam makes a good model for post-card pictures. b-e-a-utiful

red light district art gallery. we never got to go inside, but what kind of art would they have? hmmm I'm curious

red light district by day

So I got a short break from school for an Easter week, so I decided to travel Amsterdam, Berlin, Weimar(eventually switched to Dessau), Prague, and Munich. My budget was to spend under 560 Euros for 10 days, but as always, I went over-budgeted a little bit. One tip to travel cheap is to use hostels (there are pretty decent hostels that might even be better than hotels for cheaper price), and to use supermakets! Eating warm meals everyday costs A LOT. I would just go for grocery shopping everyday and that would cover me for the whole day. That way you can also take a look at what local people eat at a glance.

So, when I got to Amsterdam for the first time, I was amazed how beautiful the city was. Of course where I stayed was the old part of Amsterdam, and the city was very well kept. Here is the list of places I've been to...

1. Van Gogh Museum
2. Rembrandt House
3. Red Light district
4. Jordaan
5. Anne Frank's house (I didn't go inside)
6. ... basically the whold city

When you go to Amsterdam, you MUST bike around. The city is very bike-friendly- there are streets for bikers, and bikes are the type of transportation that is used the most in Amsterdam. Also, try raw herrings! It's called Harring in Dutch, and you can get a little plate of herrings with diced onions and pickles for 2.50 Euros. We got them in Jordaan area, so it was extra delicious since Jordaan area is a beautiful district where small galleries are. (By the way, herrings are fish)

Bikes come in handy in Amsterdam because the city is not too big and it's so much easier to go to places than learning which public transportation at where. My only pair of jeans I brought eventually ripped (in a very embarrassing spot) from biking all day long.

Also about red light district... I don't know how to start this. Well first of all, red light district is a neighborhood in amsterdam where prostitution can take place legally. This district is lit with red lights at night to make brothels look even more sensual. Also this district is deeply connected to sex industry such as sex shops, adult theaters, and strip clubs. In the beginning, it was definitely a big cultural shock for me to be walking down in that street and watching almost naked women seducing customers. But at the same time, it was a wake-up call for me to realize that "I AM IN AMSTERDAM!", because otherwise, where would I ever see these prostitutes hailing with their tiny underwear?

So enough about prostitutes and brothels talk... let's get educational! Van Gogh Museum at the time was having a temporary show called "Van Gogh and the colors of the night" ("Van Gogh en de kleuren van de nacht"). The show had Van Gogh's hand written letters to his brother Theo, and I just wanted to be able to read it! Also, the show had a very romantic quote of Van Gogh extracted from his letters to Theo.

"Perhaps death is not the hardest thing in a painter's life. . . Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."

It was such a romantic interpretation of death, and I just sat in the corner of van gogh museum gazing at van gogh's starry night and pondering at the same time about death.