Adventures in Amsterdam

So here is part II of my weekend. Of the two cities which I visited this past weekend I definetely liked Den Haag more, as a city as a whole, However, I also had an extremely good time in Amsterdam, and perhaps the things I did were more exciting.
We met at 10:45 am hoping to catch a train that would take us straight to Amsterdam from Rotterdam but it seems there was construction on the line so we had to transfer at Utrech. This was the beginning of us having to run repeatedly to make our connections through out the day but it was all in good fun. On the first train, I can say that I officially met my first Dutch person who I hadn't met through someone else. There was a boy sitting with us in our group of four seats on the train to Utrech who seemed to be quite interested in what I was talking about to my friends, and kept laughing at my jokes. So we started talking to him and the boy was 17, but quite excited to meet other young people from Rotterdam as he had just moved there from Utrecht (he was going home for the weekend). He was from Nigeria and we talked at great length about the politics and the way of life in Nigeria, which was really quite interesting. So, only an hour into the trip I had already made a new friend.
In Utrecht we transfered on to a train to get to Amsterdam (we had to run of course) and that train ride was 45 minutes. Once in Amsterdam we started wandering around the city, seeing the old city hall and a church, as well as many of the ornate houses which line the canals. Amsterdam is defintely a very old city.
After some time and some Patat (french fries, I got mine with ketchup this time) we came upon the Anne Frank house, which the organizer of our trip very much wanted to see. Most of the others were hesitant because they didn't want to spend the 7.50 Euro, so I said I'd go because I was interested and I didn't mind spending that money. So we waited in a seemingly long line that moved very quickly and we went to the Anne Frank House while the others wandered the city.
The Anne Frank house was very moving. On many of the walls you can find pieces of her writing written, and the house has been very well preserved. In addition you can see many of the artifacts left in the house after World War II ended. The inside of the house was for the most part astonishingly quiet, as many people, including myself, could not find words to speak about what they were observing. At the end of the tour we came upon an exhibition called Freedom to Choose which was a very interesting interactive survey where participants watched a screen where various questions were asked about Freedom of Speech and the Freedom to Protest etc. People were able to come and go as they pleased and after every survey a screen displayed the results from that particular group and everyone who had taken the survey combined.
Afterwards we returned to the city center to meet up with the others who had by that point met up with two of the Dutch friends of one of the girls who then took us on a tour of the Red Light district. I really didn't want to do this but one of the girls was quite adament about going so Insisted that we go while it was still daylight to reduce the risk of being attacked. If you know me well enough to be reading this you probably can guess how uncomfortable I was walking through the red light district because I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that many of those women were likely illegally trafficked into the sex trade, and I couldn't help but wonder why the women who weren't would put themselves through that. The obvious answer would of course be to make ends meat but I don't think that says much for social welfare in Holland or the rest of the World.
After the red light district we went and had Pancakes for dinner. This was the first time that I had pancakes in Holland, and as you may have guessed they are quite different from Canadian Pancakes. They are thinly battered with some kind of food in the middle of it. You can get sweet ones (which I think are supposed to be for breakfast or dessert) or ones that have meat and vegetables in the middle. Mine was a pancake with ham, cheese and pineapple in it and was quite good, and rather filling.
After dinner we went to the museum district. On the way we happened upon this store with very interesting household furnishing and appliances in it among other things and we discovered this room with padded walls and a crazy looking chair and rug in it so naturally we took pictures (see picture) It was wild. So on we went to the Museum district where we stopped and had a rest by a canal. It was very beautfiul with the sun setting. Two Canadian Boys happened upon us and took our picture which was very nice of them. Also while we were sitting I discovered a really neat musical instrument which is basically 9 squares in a box shape flat on the ground which you can step on and it plays a note. So of course I jumped around on it for a good 15 minutes making beautiful melodies.
Following this (see I didn't say after again) (Damn it I just did) The two Dutch boys showed us a building which belongs to their student association (student associations are a huge big deal here) and then we went out for a drink. Then we rushed to make the 11:17 train and arrived back in Rotterdam at about 1 a.m. Being on the train really made me miss home because I though of VIA and how much more comfortable it is (the trains here are like go trains).
All in all I had a very good weekend.
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