My Tax Return: Part II of III

The second installment of my Tax Return saga is back with bigger and better action-packed entertainment! Not really, but it's fairly exciting.  So I got back from Rome 2 weeks ago and got serious about studying for exams that week.  By Thursday I had 2 "A"s under my belt so I was ready to depart on my next adventure: The Netherlands.

Amsterdam for Queen's Day

I'd been wanting to check out Amsterdam ever since I took several Northern Baroque Art classes at UT and studied everything from Dutch portraiture to still life, Rembrandt to Rubens.  A friend of mine from school wanted to go for the last weekend of classes and I thought it sounded like as good a reason as ever to visit one of the most important Northern European ports.  Of course when we made the flight reservation we had no idea we'd booked a crazy holiday weekend in Amsterdam.  April 30 is Queen's Day in the Netherlands - a celebration of the previous Queen's birthday that results in public debauchery that could only be rivaled by Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Luckily I managed to secure us a place to stay via CouchSurfing, though it was a bit outside the city.

quiet corner of Amsterdam with cute Dutch houses

We arrived Thursday night and our host, Elektra, picked us up from the station.  She's a 45-year-old divorced Dutch woman with 2 grown kids my age.  She was kind enough to offer us a room in her house for 4 nights, so we brought her some delicious chocolate from Torino which she enjoyed.  When we got to her house, she made us each a cup of tea and set out a large spread of cheese, meat, bread and other accoutrements.  We talked for a few hours and found out she is packing up her house and planning a year-long trip around the East: China, Mongolia, Nepal, India, Cambodia.  She said she'd lost her job a year ago in the crisis and she realized that her kids are finally grown and she can take some time to do something she's waited her whole life to do.  How amazing is that?

bikes, canals, and the New Church.

Our first day we took a free tour around Amsterdam, the same company I utilized in Berlin.  We saw the Old Church, Dam Square, The Red Light District, coffee shops, The Anne Frank House, Rembrandt's house, lots of canals and even more bicycles.  What I like most about Amsterdam is that it's known as the city of tolerance.  It's incredibly international, all types of people from completely different walks of life, and everyone's embracing their differences.  Gay, straight, black, white, old, young, Christian, Muslim, Asian, European - there's an incomparable sense of coexistence in Amsterdam.  The Netherlands in general just lets people be who they want to be, do what they want to do.  It hasn't always been that way, as evident from the museum at the Anne Frank house.  But from all that hatred was born one of the most warm and welcoming cities this world has ever known.

Dutch Tulips, not just an OPI nail polish color.

We went to see the Van Gogh museum on Friday night and oddly it seemed like the place to be for locals.  There was a fancy bar in the middle of the museum, great music, the lighting was dimmed and focused perfectly on the artworks.  I remember thinking, this is the first time I've felt like I could describe a museum as sexy.  Only in Amsterdam, I suppose.

On Saturday, Queen's Day, we put on our orange and headed to the city center with Elektra.  Everyone celebrates the House of Orange (thus the color) but it's much like everyone wearing green on St. Patty's.  Imagine now, if you can, the craziest crowd you've ever seen in your life.  A monster truck rally?  Mardi Gras in New Orleans?  Times Square on NYE?  This was crazier.  Think Austin's Sixth Street on Halloween but in EVERY street.  There was a ridiculous party throughout the entire city of Amsterdam - even the canals were filled to capacity with party boats.  After walking through a bit of it and hoping I could make it out without a nasty bruise or glass permanently lodged into my foot, we found a quiet bar near the canal and camped out by the water, waving at passersby on boats.  The only way I can describe the level of debauchery is to tell you that walking through the streets the next day was like wading through a post-apocalyptic wasteland of miscellaneous orange items, trash, beer cans, champagne bottles, and broken bicycles.

craziness on the canals.

Our last day we went to the Rijksmuseum, one of the most renowned museums in the world (you can peruse it here thanks to the Google Art Project).  I was able to see The Night Watch, arguably the most famous work in Rembrandt's oeuvre, and an invaluable piece of Dutch patrimony.  I saw other works that I remember writing papers on and I could still recite their symbolism and significance.  Moments like those, when you can stand in front of a work of art and really experience its power, its meaning, its emotion, that's priceless.  Even my precious tax return couldn't pay for seeing works in person by the old Dutch masters.

After the museum we jumped on the ferris wheel in Dam Square and got a look at Amsterdam from above.  It was a great way to end an unforgettable trip to North Holland.  The only souvenir I bought for myself while I was this 5 euro ring I found at a market; it reminds me of all the cute Dutch houses we saw along the canals:

adorable, right?

Stay tuned for part III of My Tax Return, which promises to be full of intrigue.  I ship out tomorrow evening, if all goes as planned.  Though trouble in Libya may prove to be bothersome for travel (if that's a good enough clue for you).