Museum Day June 11th 2008

Wallet: Day 5
No sweatshirt today but still wearing jeans

For those who I may not have explained it to before, the wallet count above is part of an experiment I am conducting on this trip. I am carrying an empty wallet in my back pocket and waiting to see how long it takes for it to get stolen. Should be interesting...

So this morning I woke up feeling rested. I am finally relaxing and beginning my vacation. I took a look into Rick Steve's book have been lugging around with us and not using. In that book he completely ignores Brussels and instead guides through another city in Belgium. So, so far he has not been much help. Today, however, he was amazing. Turns out the Van Gogh museum stays late on Fridays until 10 PM. Most people are completely unaware of this so the lines in the evening should be slim to none. So the plan is to head there tonight and check it out.

So before we headed to the Van Gogh museum tonight we decided to check out the Anne Frank house. The walk there was filled with crossing the remarkable canals that line Amsterdam. The city is set up like a half-onion. Each layer of the city is built up around the Central Station. It is a really interesting set up.

As we arrived at the house, the line seemed not too long so we jumped right into it. 10 minutes later, we were in. Right away, the striking blank walls set the tone. On the first floor there were only a few quotes etched into the walls. I took a sample of them throughout the tour, hoping to capture the best ones. I will provide them at the end of this post.

As the tour begins and you ascend to the secret section of the house, you immediately realize how small of a space this living area was. The stairs are incredible steep and creaky. The people hiding in this house must have avoided them at all costs. A sign informs visitors that when Otto (Anne's father) returned to the house after the Holocaust, and seeing that everything had been taken out, he chose it leave it as it was. The affect the empty area gives is incredibly powerful.

We wandered in and out of the rooms and read every plaque and watched every movie clip with as much care as possible. I was trying to absorb every second that I was there. As we walked out of the house, I was near tears. Her house was just feet from a large church. A thought ran through my head - had Anne Frank not been Jewish she may have never had to hide. It tripped me out. I kept wondering how the people of Amsterdam could have sat watched its own residents be abducted and taken away? Also, there is a tree outside Anne's house which they named Anne's tree. In one of the audio clips in the museum Anne refers to this tree as the only way she knew what season it was. The concept of living in fear 24/7 is so beyond me.

All in all, they job done on the Anne Frank House is incredible.

We headed home from the Anne Frank House with our heads a little lower than on our way there. We were both in our own worlds for much of the walk. We did spot an Apple store along the way and stepped in for a quick look. We ended up spending 2 hours using their free internet access to write some more up to this blog.

We decided to head back tyo our hostel to relax before we trekked over to the Van Gogh museum, which was on the other side of the city from where we were staying. Our new roomate Kate had just moved in as we arrived. She had a punk outfit on with pink strands painted into her MxPx style girl hair (Tam will get that reference). Kate was full of awesome tips and tricks for us to use on our trip. I wrote down nearly a page of things she recommended. I asked if she was interested in seeing the Van Gogh museum but she already had plans to go on a red-light district tour...only in Amsterdam!

On our way to the Van Gogh museum we ran into the Northeastern kid we met on the train before and his older brother. They told us that there was a cool "I amsterdam" statue nearby. That slogan is posted in nearly every corner of this city so we had to check it out. We got some sweet pictures on and around it, including ones jumping from one letter to the other.

Once we arrived at the Van Gogh museum there was no line whatsoever to get in. Without a doubt, this was the one location I felt that I had to visit on this trip. I have always had a connection with the works of Van Gogh and have been fascinated by them since youth (the fact that we share birthdays is also part of it).

The tour of the museum begins with an introduction to the man Vincent Van Gogh was. Most of the history I was aware of other than the fact he became an artist even though he didn't believe he had any talent. It seems odd considering he is considered one of the pioneers of art during his time. His first few works on display were all in the same dark green colors. I mentioned to Loyd that he must have been so poor that he couldn't have afforded other colors. Also, throughout his career he indicated his current mood through the usage of colors.

Most of my favorite pieces were on display: the Potato Eaters, one of his sunflowers renditions, his bedroom and the Almond Blossom. A few of his self-portraits were up as well. I was a little disappointed by the fact that two of my absolute favorites, Starry Night and the Self-portrait after he cut his ear off were not in the collection.

We headed home after a few hours at the museum and then out to Leipzenplain, a young hip part of town. Its full of fun bars and cafes, we found finished the night off walking around the city streets and absorbing all that Amsterdam is. What a place.

Here are few quotes I captured from the Anne Frank Museum, as you read these imagine a young girl scared for her life writing this profound words:
-"During the day our curtain can't be opened, not even an inch"
-"I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know I am free"
-"The english radio says they're being gassed"
-"I can shake of everything if I write, my sorrow disappear and my courage is reborn" (my personal favorite)
-"Some of us read Anne Frank's diary on Rubben Island and derived much encouragement of it" - Nelson Mandela