´Eello ´Eello Amsterdam!

So I finally made it to Amsterdam.....if only for a day. I intended to stay over night there but ended up staying with the policeman instead. We went to the seaside on Saturday and then Sunday I went off to Amsterdam by train.

The train ride was much like other train rides with beautful scenry until I saw a windmill, got completely excited and then saw another!!! Giant beautifully sterotypical windmills....YAY....what more could you ask for! The girl across from saw how excited I saw so we started to chat. She was from Belgium lives in Amsterdam and her boyfriend sitting next to her is a DJ who sells hash in cafes to make money! The after that we pulled into the main station and I saw the most amount of bikes concentreated in one place on the planet I am sure. It was a multi level parking structure....FOR BIKES! Crazy wonderful Idea! I saw the main tourist attractions purely becasue they interested me the most. I saw the Van Gogh museum and finally got to meet ´The Bedroom` which I studied in Lyon. When I asked the women at the information desk where ´The Bedroom` was she gave me this blank look as if to say ´There are no bedrooms here only galleries of Art` then she giggled...oh different languages.

After that it was to the Anne Frank house which was pretty sobering. Anne Frank is the daughter of Otto Frank, a jewish business owner. Otto Frank put his business in the name of his second in command when the Nazi´s banned Jewish people from owing bussiness. When the Germans invaded The Netherlands he took his family into hiding in his office at work along with another Jewish couple. His loyal staff cared for them and brought them provisions. They converted the upper levels of the office into a small house and Anne kept a diary which has been published in just about every language. The famillies hid for 2 years until someone informed on them and they were taken to concentration camps. The only survivor was Otto, Annes´s father. He said at the house that he imagined that he and his wife would not survive but never thought that the children would not. What a wonderfully talented writer and so young. It is more then a shame that the world did not benefit from her writings for years and years to come. We lost.

So on that happy note....after Amsterdam that it was off to Berlin, Germany by air! I slept in the airport for my 6:50am flight because it wasnt really worth getting accmodation. By the time I wasted a whole bunch of time finding something (something which I am extremely tired of doing by now) and then I stayed out in Amsterdam until midnight seeing the place with new friends and then if I planned to get an early train to be at the airport I would leave at like 3am or 4am to make sure I didnt miss the 4am train....needeless to say 3 or 4 hourse sleep in a hostel for 20 plus Euros (they are expensive in Amsterdam on the weekends) was not worth it.