July 10, 2013
If we had been a second later we would have missed our bus.
It was about a 3 hour ride to Amsterdam. It was a bit jerky of a ride but I slept the entire way.
Ended up sitting in Burger King for about an hour planning out our day.
We took a public bus to central station which was close to our hotel. It was the worst. There were so many people crammed on the bus and Tim, Tom, and I were standing and struggling (at least I was). I had just bought a coffee so I had my backpack on my back, my little pack on the front, my purse, and a coffee. I lost my balance and tipped over onto people and spilled a little coffee. It was crazy hot and hectic.
The hotel here is in the best location out of all of our hotels! We were in a prime location.
We were so lucky we could check in to our hotel right away so we could all take a much neede nap.
We just started walking around town with a few destinations in mind.
We ended up at this square with this big statue that we have no clue what it is and a large crowd.
We headed towards the crowd and a big group had gathered to watch a street performer. We got hooked and we ended up watching him for about an hour. He performed three magic tricks. First, he lit a cigarette and put it through his fist to make it "disappear". Second, he "turned" a 5 euro into a 10 euro. Lastly, he was put in a straight jacket with chains wrapped around him and he get himself out of it all. He did all this but at the same time was hilarious.
We ate lunch at an Irish pub and it felt like we were home. I ordered a water and a panini. It was nice to have familiarity.
Our next stop was the Anne Frank museum.
I am so so so so glad that we did this. It was the office building that Anne Frank's dad worked in and the place they hid for 2 years. It was incredibley informational and really kind of eerie. It was the exact place that her family hid, except there was no furniting. The annexe was emptied by order of the Nazis and Otto Frank wanted the rooms to remain empty. The emptiness symbolizes the void left behind by the millions of people who were deported and never returned.
Here our two quotes from the museum that struck home to me.
"I know what I want, I have a goal, I have opinions, and religion and love."
-Anne Frank (April 1944)
"We cannot change what happened anymore. The only thing we can do is to learn from the past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people means. I believe that it is everyone's responsibility to fight prejudice."
-Otto Frank (1970)
We walked around Amsterdam just experiencing the culture if the city. It was pretty wild and very beautiful!
In the evening we went to the ice museum. It was very odd but really actually pretty fun!
We explored the city a little more. It is a pretty crazy city.
Paris smelled like pee. Brussels smelled like trash. Amsterdam smelled like... I am sure you all can guess.
It was a great day!
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