I'm on spring break right now and the first 5 days were spent in Amsterdam, Poland, and Barcelona. It was craziness. But Kelsey and I had a blast!
This was a big trip. We went to the Anne Frank house and Stutthof concentration camp, so it was heavy stuff. I am going to put all of the concentration camp on another tab, just because it's pretty graphic and I think you should choose to view it. It was a powerful experience and I'm so amazed that I could do all of this!
We started by flying out of Malaga to Eindhoven, Holland. Then we took a bus to Amsterdam. Let's just say Amsterdam pretty much fulfilled every stereotype I've ever had. I loved the city by day!
We started at Central Station. This is where the flash mob to Do Re Mi took place, youtube it because it's pretty cool! I wish something like that would have happened to us! Every day about 300,000 travelers go through here.
We had about 24 hours here so we started walking around the city. It's so beautiful!
I'm convinced the city is actually just floating. There was a canal on every street! There are more than 100 kilometers of canals, 90 islands, and 1,500 bridges. The city was originally built with serious city planning- there are 4 main canals which form half circles. The 3 closest to the city center were for residential development and the last one was for defense and water management.
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| These are the 4 main canals that form the system of the city. |
Otherwise, the architecture in general is breathtaking. Amsterdam has buildings from the 1300s! The oldest building in Amsterdam is the Oude Kerk. It's a chapel built by fishermen when the canal in their area met the main body of water, in honor of St. Nicholas the patron saint of sailors. What started out as a simple building turned into an imposing monument and one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. It was named Oude Kerk (old church) because as the city grew another church was built and was named Nieuwe Kerk (new church) so this was named the Old Church. Another fun fact, Rembrandt registered his intention to marry there.
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| Oude Kerk |
Some views of the canals-
There is a Heineken factory there too! The Amsterdamians (?) were very proud of that.
Check Holland off the list! We were really hoping to get to Haarlem to see the Corrie tenBoom house, but we didn't have time.
That afternoon we went to the Anne Frank house. Holy smokes.
We couldn't take pictures inside but I'll explain all I can from the booklet we got on our tour.
Brief recap of the Frank story- Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. When Hitler came to power, the Frank family moved to Amsterdam where Otto Frank started a business (Anne was about 4 at this time). 7 years later, the Nazi regime invades the Netherlands and the anti Jewish acts begin there- Jews can't go into public pools, they can't use public transportation, they can't own businesses, they can't use restaurants, and they attend different schools, ect. So the Frank family goes into hiding. Their hiding place is in the building where Otto's business was, and 3 of his employees/coworkers agree to help the family. They were there for 2 years until an anonymous tip comes in and they are taken. Anne dies in Bergen-Belsen one month before the liberation. Her father Otto is the only survivor of the 8 in hiding.
We saw pictures of all 8 people in hiding, the 3 helpers, and the fates of Anne's classmates- which was actually one of the more powerful parts of the tour. They took us on a tour of the house- we started in the warehouse, offices, and storeroom for the spices. Then we moved to the Hiding Place where we walked through the actual bookcase. It had all of the original books and everything! I had many life moments on this trip and this was one- I walked though the secret door that hid Anne Frank. I was literally walking in her footsteps. Then we moved to the bedrooms, where we saw the original wallpaper and all of the magazine cut outs that Anne had decorated her room with. We saw where Anne and her sister Margot were measured on the wall (I'm taller than both of them) and the same toilet and cooking stove that the families used. Then they had another part that was more museum which had Anne's diary and other papers from the families.
At the end of the museum is a room that has an interactive part. It gives a situation and asks you to give your opinion about it. One of the videos that stood out to me was about youtube videos saying that the Holocaust never happened. It brought up the right for freedom of speech vs how offensive this is to the people and families that experienced the effects of the Holocaust. I can't believe people actually think this didn't happen!
Now, here are some of my thoughts.
- I was claustrophobic just being there for a couple hours with all of the people in our tour group! All of the windows were blacked out, the stairs were so narrow my shoulders could pretty much touch both sides, but we could at least talk- the families in hiding couldn't make any noise! I don't know how they did it.
- Also, notice how all of my description is about Anne. Otto actually survived Auschwitz death camp. I'm sure there have been interviews with him, but I don't know anything about his experience. Otto's entire identity turned into his daughter's memory. I just wish we knew more about him, I mean he could give a first hand account of what it was like.
- These memorials will forever be in Europe. I don't understand how someone can think this didn't happen. It's a pretty hurtful thing to say.
That night we just walked around the city. It was so cold that we actually got on a couple random trams and saw the city that way. You can laugh, I know it's pitiful, but it was way faster and way warmer! We walked through the red light district too. I gotta say, Amsterdam by day is charming but Amsterdam by night is not my thing. It's like the sun goes down and everything just goes downhill. It's so contradicting that the Anne Frank house and the oldest chapel in town is down the street from the red light district. It doesn't make sense to me.
Actually, the city presents a pretty facade. They preach tolerance and acceptance and the city is 50% immigrants, which make it very diverse and should be a great environment for all that tolerance. However, the non-western cultures like islamic minorities, turkish, and arabic cultures are feeling the negative attitude changes toward them. Turkish and Moroccan channels have been dropped from the basic cable TV packages, and during the last election the mayor was criticized for distributing election leaflets to minorities.
Our CouchSurfing host was very offended that people call Amsterdam "Sin City" but what could we say? I mean, churches are just cool empty buildings to look at while prostitution houses are overflowing; this is the first county where gay marriage was legalized while guns and hunting are illegal and severely punished; and they preach tolerance but any non-western culture is shunned. You may label some of these good and others bad and this is just my opinion, but I just think there's a problem with priorities.
Then we went to Poland.
I think I'm in love. Poland was the most magical trip I think I've been on. We went to Gdansk, which is this super small city in northern Poland. Our hostel was fabulous and we walked through the city in pretty much one day. The buildings in the old city (which was pretty much the entire city) were from the 1300's! I still can't grasp how old that is!
Here are some of the buildings from the Royal Route-
This is where we started. Dluga and Dlugi Targ streets are known as the most beautiful streets in Gdansk, they are actually compared to the Old Town in Warsaw and the Market Square in Kraków, some would say they are more attractive and more important as historical monuments.
There are 4 lions outside the Royal Chapel in the courtyard.
The Artur Court was built in the middle ages XIV c for the brotherhood Artur. They actually got the idea for their brotherhood from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the name of their court (Artur) also comes from them. Our guidebook said this building is one of the most beautiful of its kind in Europe, and it used to be used by wealthy citizens for business meetings, festivities, and the exchange of news.
Just some of the buildings lining the streets. This is what the entire city looked like! The houses were all different colors so in the sun the pastels, gold, silver, and deep colors were amazing. I have never seen anything like it!
Our hostel was right next to the river so we walked along it into town. Gdansk used to be a huge port for shipping goods so there was a lot of history on this walk.
We found a little restaurant near our hostel and got Kielbasa! I'm just gonna throw this out there- everything I've ever known about polish sausage in the states is a lie! This was the best real Polish polish sausage ever. It was like buttery, salty, strong flavor... there is no description that will get it right, sorry. We got sauerkraut too, which I'm not usually a fan of, but this was sweet and sour and crunchy. Probably one of my favorite dishes in all of my travels.
The next day we went to Stutthof concentration camp. It's on another tab so you may look if you'd like. Here's the main parts- everything was left as it was, and very few parts of this camp were destroyed. Everything we saw was the actual place where people lived and worked and died. We walked through Death Gate to see the bunkers and work houses. We saw all the guard towers and the barbed wire that ran around the entire camp. We saw the pile of shoes that had been taken from prisoners, where they slept, ate, lived, and worked. We walked into the crematorium- that was the hardest part, we saw the real thing. It was pretty explicit as to what was done.
Another life moment: I was walking where thousands of Jews had walked and died. I walked into the building where they burned human bodies.
Then we went to Barcelona, but I've already been there and this is long enough so I won't post more pictures.
So, overall it was an amazing trip. Awesome and horrific at times, but it was a trip I wouldn't change for the world.
I have to say, this trip was the best one travel wise because we didn't have a single problem! I obsessed over every detail- distance from airport to city center, directions to hostel, best method of travel in the city- literally everything. We knew exactly what transportation would cost. It was a beautiful thing.
I have a few weekends at home now so I'll be posting about Semana Santa!
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