Hello again everyone :)
I'm back with another post about a little trip I have just arrived back from! This time I traveled to Amsterdam with a few friends and it was incredible. The sun was beaming, everybody seemed lovely and there was an incredible amount of choice for food to eat!
We only went for three days in total but we managed to pack a lot in! My feet are killing me after the amount of walking around we did! As you can see from the pictures above, we did all of the tourist 'must-do's' whilst in Amsterdam such as visiting the Anne Frank house, the Red Light District, Vondelpark and walking along all of the canals. Also, our hostel was very close to the 'I AMSTERDAM' sign but we didn't manage to get a good picture by it because it was so busy all of the time!
I've been to the Anne Frank house once before but it was when I was very young so I don't remember much of it at all and I'm pretty sure I didn't understand the weight of the experience I was having either. However, this time when we went I couldn't help but have such an eerie sense of just some of the emotions that would have filled the house when the Frank family and others were living there.
When walking through the house you could look at all of the things that Anne and her family would have seen on a daily basis and you can't help but wonder how they were feeling when they saw the same things I was then seeing but 50-odd years ago. The bookcase was still in it's famous position, hiding the secret opening to the annex and all of the original folders that lived in the bookcase were available to quickly browse at as you walked past that infamous bookcase into the tiny opening behind. In the spooky silence of the house, it felt as if you could still hear the echos of terrified whispers that once would have belonged behind those walls. We also got to see Anne's room which she shared with an older man whilst in hiding. All of the pictures she had stuck on the walls with her father's glue were still in good condition on the walls but were protected by glass. We got to see everything in the house and it was quite a spooky experience but really hit home on the history of Holland and I learnt a lot more about the lives of people that should have been still be alive today.
We also visited the Red Light District, which again was a very surreal experience. Beautiful, slim girls would be standing in windows with a harsh red light beaming down onto them as they would try to entice passing men to enter into their little cubicle with a window. It was very strange to see so many women all fighting for one thing and again, it made me feel a bit sad inside and made me think a lot about life in general.
However, it wasn't all surreal and doom and gloom! I loved walking along the pretty canals and seeing couples and friends lazing around in the boats. It was great to go to the flower market and see all of the bulbs and lovely flowers and plants. We also went to Vondelpark a few times and I was amazed at how vast it was and how much work had obviously gone into building the park to be ast beautiful as it is and how great the upkeep it has. Actually, the whole of Amsterdam is very lovely and tidy all the time. My friends and I kept on noticing how Amsterdam is really just a tidier and quieter version of London! Which was another thing I found quite strange about Amsterdam - exactly how quiet it really was! Obviously it's a large city with an immense about of tourists traveling through it on a daily basis, however it felt as if we were in a library all the time because of how very quiet it is! We felt like whispering to each other sometimes!
All in all, I loved Amsterdam and was so sad we had only booked a few days to visit. I would really love to go back soon!
Has anyone else been? What did you like about it?
xxx
