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Our save-money-plan for Europe is going to be taking night trains. It sounds good on paper but it is very difficult to sleep on the train and the price of a couchette is more than a nice hotel. We departed from Berlin en route to Amsterdam with a scheduled 6:00 AM arrival. I didn't get any sleep on the train and all I wanted to do was check into a hotel and go to sleep. Karen and I were both excited about our visit to Amsterdam the city of unrestrained freedoms. We have friends from the US that take a two week vacation every year in Europe and they either start or finish in Amsterdam. We couldn't wait to find out what all the fuss was about.
It is 6:59AM cold, dark and peeking outside the train station, the whole city looks closed. I am grouchy because I had to sleep in a chair and Karen is grouchy because it's cold. Nonetheless, we are glad to be in Amsterdam. We have done our lodging homework with our selection ranging from a 90 guilder youth hostel to a 125 guilder hotel ($62.50-74.00) and these are the budget places! We are definitely feeling the high cost of travel combined with trying to experience the best each city has to offer by day and by night.
We walked from the train station hoping to find a hotel that would let us check in at 7:00 AM. No such luck, we even had to wait until 8:00 AM for McDonald's to open. The exchange rate for Holland wasn't any better than Germany and a room at the Youth Hostel cost $50. We checked in at the Youth Hostel paid our money and then they informed us check-in was not until 2:00 PM. I was tired needed a shower and somehow had to figure out how to kill six hours. Karen was energized and raring to go. She kept hammering on me about going to some museum called The Rijks to see the 17th century Dutch artists. I haven't slept or taken a shower in 36 hours and I am being forced to go see Rembrandt's Night Watch and The Van Gogh collection, which is being housed in the Rijks while the Van Gogh museum is being renovated.
After our dose of culture we went to an Internet 'Coffee House' to check E-mail but mainly we wanted to experience a Coffee House. The term 'Coffee House' in Amsterdam is not used to describe a place that sells coffee but a place that sells marijuana. There seems to be a coffee house on every corner in Amsterdam. We had never been to a coffee house and didn't know what to expect. I pictured a dark seedy place with a rough crowd as the clientele. Well, what do you know it was like walking into any other bar that serves alcohol. They had tables for outside seating, a nice long marble bar, a well stocked selection of liquor and coffee. This coffee house had a unique feature which made it of particularly interesting to me. In the back they had six computers and a T-1 connection for high speed Internet access. I felt like I was 18 years old and in a bar for the first time trying to figure out how to order a drink. The process is actually very simple they have a menu with terms like Jamaican, Maui etc. to help you make a selection. You can buy it by the joint or purchase a small bag. The entire thing was very weird but philosophically liberating because the place was empty. I found it hard to believe that the place was not full of customers all partaking in marijuana. Part of the argument against legalizing marijuana is that if it was legal everybody would be doing it. Yet I was sitting in a bar were it was legal and nobody was here. I wanted to take pictures but I figured that wouldn't be cool.
Holland has been often criticized by the international community for its tolerance when it comes to soft drugs such as marijuana and its open sex trade. The people of Holland maintain a live and let live attitude and simply don't see the need to legislate activities that are so easily enjoyed. This has presented a bigger problem for the new European Union that is without customs borders. Paris is a short distance from Amsterdam and it is reported that a fair number of French make the drive to Amsterdam and purchase recreational drugs then transport them back to France. With the open borders the French police are powerless to stop the drug trafficking. For the French the solution is for Holland to enforce drug laws thus cutting off the supply of drugs to the French citizens. Drugs are illegal in Holland but the laws are not enforced. The Dutch are quick to respond that this is not their problem and they are not about to change their way of life. Being part of the European Union will definitely change all countries involved.
It is interesting to see a country like Holland that has low unemployment, the flower capital of the world, a high standard of living, a leading foreign investor and is not fighting a war on drugs. I will be the first to admit that drugs cause more harm than good and they are a terrible problem in our modern self-aware society. I am not sure if the legalization of drugs is a worthwhile solution but as long as alcohol and cigarettes are legal in the United States it is hypocritical to fight the war on drugs. I am against the legalization of addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin because of the physical dependency created by these hard drugs. But I do place marijuana in the same category as alcohol and cigarettes. We are all keenly aware of the problems created by alcohol. The countless number of deaths and tragic injuries from drunk driving alone is a reason enough to ban the sale of alcohol. The tobacco industry is responsible for creating an addictive product which causes lung cancer and is one of our nations leading killers. Yet I have no problem with an individual making an informed decision and becoming a life long smoker. I do object to the financial burden placed on our society when cancer sets in and the cost of prolonging life far exceeds a lifetime of health insurance premiums. I think it is a great idea that the states are collecting the smoking related health care costs from the bank accounts of the tobacco companies. Marijuana has its share of negative side effects but for the most part it gives the user a sense of laughter, a craving for pizza and most importantly no hangover. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Generation X crowd is given the responsibility of running the US, Holland may end up having an ally on its approach to drugs.
We headed back to the Youth Hostel totally exhausted and ready for a shower or two. Our room was nicer than we expected and well worth the money and the late check-in. The effects of the all- night train ride and lack of sleep meant I was done for the evening. I am not sure where Karen got the energy but I was woken from a long nap and ordered to get out of bed. It seems we would be going to Boom Chicago for some improv comedy. Boom Chicago was started a few years ago by some transplanted Americans looking for work. They started out in a small one room theater and today have sell out shows in a much larger dinner theater. The show was extremely entertaining as the topic of most jokes were loud Americans tourists, marijuana, Amsterdam trolleys and the 80,000 bicycles ridden daily in downtown Amsterdam. It was only 1:00 AM and the town was just waking up but I was ready for bed.
The winter weather decided to show up today. So far we had nice sunny weather but when it is rainy and cold we have no problem just hanging out. It would have been nice to watch a couple of movies in our room but for $50 a night what do you expect. Being cooped up all day did give us the energy to plan a night on the town which is one of Amsterdam's main attractions. We called Jan, a friend of ours from the South Africa overland trip, who is working in Amsterdam as a radiology technician and hoped she would be able to meet up with us. Do you think the sex museum and the red light district count for sightseeing? Our first stop was the Sex Museum and again we didn't know what to expect. They had a wide range of exhibits which did a nice job of presenting sex from a historical and social perspective. Everything was tastefully done considering the subject but the section on bestiality was a little rough. I am still haunted by a few of the pictures and description of what was going on. It is now 8:00 PM and we figured would get started on a red bull and vodka night.
We finally reached Jan and she was very excited about meeting us especially since she had tomorrow off. When we told her the part of town we were in she responded, "Oh you have picked a lovely place to hang out." She of course was kidding but agreed to meet us anyway. In the meantime we decided to stroll over to the red light district. When prostitution is legal it kind of takes all the fun out of watching the girls look for business on the street corner. The setup in Amsterdam takes the flesh-for-cash business to a window shopping experience. You are strolling along and walk into a shopping district that has a long row of tightly framed glass windows. Inside each window is a young lady sitting in a chair waiting for a potential customer. Each little room behind the window has a small bed, a sink and in some cases a toilet. It appears you make a selection, enter through a nondescript door and the curtain is closed while business is conducted. From the number of windows in the area and along numerous side streets I could only imagine it was a buyers market. However, at the early hour of 9:00 PM the best merchandise was not on display. The ladies were rather large and it was a little difficult to imagine the type of clientele who would take part in the services offered. We should have returned at a later hour for a better understanding of how all of this worked but we were meeting Jan and the entire thing was making me ill. It was great to see Jan and as her guest she quickly escorted us out of the seedy side of town to a bar that knows how to serve a pint with a proper head. Jan is English and they are a bit fussy about their beer. The number of bars and watering holes in Amsterdam would make for an impressive pub crawl. We must be getting old or wiser because our night on the town turned into a low key affair talking with a friend. Jan has a case of computer phobia which has prevented her from getting e-mail and following along on the WorldWander web site. We took it upon ourselves to set Jan up with an e-mail address at the Internet Coffee house and ended the evening with a little pizza.
I figured out where Karen got all of her energy from the day before. She woke up the next morning and admitted she was sick. For those of you who don't know Karen she never gets sick. Well, she actually does but never lets it slow her down. She kicks into a higher gear with a huge burst of energy and totally ignores her symptoms. This meant that yesterday she was probably miserable with a cold and her only defense was to make me go to an art museum. Her tune had changed this morning which meant she was really under the weather. I turned into the caring nurturing type and told her to get up because we had to go to the Anne Frank house. I was actually very concerned and suggested to Karen that she needed to get a malaria test. I was shocked when she agreed. I consulted with the front desk of the hostel and they directed us to the local hospital. We called ahead and the nurse told us just to come on down.
It would seem odd that we would be concerned about malaria but our travels had made us quite aware of the dangers of a little female mosquito. Our twenty day overland through southern Africa had taken us into a couple malaria zones. Malaria is a deadly disease and is not widely understood. The first misconception to straighten out is that taking malaria medication does not prevent malaria. It only masks the symptoms by making the fever and flu like symptoms less severe. Most people die when they return home because malaria takes four weeks to incubate. A simple blood test would rule out malaria but most doctors tell their patient that it is just a cold. Malaria is curable and only requires the recognition of the symptoms so treatment can begin. It had been about four weeks since we had been in a malaria zone and Karen had developed a cold. It would be stupid if we did not get a malaria test and Karen agreed. The hospital was quick, efficient and I don't think we were inside for more than fifteen minutes. The doctor asked a couple of questions and a lab technician took a blood sample. We would call in an hour for the test results. In and out in fifteen minutes and it was free. I wonder what they know that the hospitals in the United States don't.
The Anne Frank house is the biggest tourist destination in Amsterdam and they recommend getting there early to avoid the long line. We don't like to do anything early and at 1:00 PM we arrived to find of course an extremely long line. Anne Frank and her family had the misfortune of being Jewish and trapped in Amsterdam during Hitler's rule. The people of Holland were sympathetic to the persecuted Jewish families and hid many of them from the Germans. Anne Frank and her family hid in the attic of a local trading business. They had to maintain absolute secrecy and could make no noise during the day in fear that they would be discovered. At night after the trading company closed the families tried to live a normal life but this was an impossible task. Ann Frank shared her thoughts and gave a unique insight to their struggle by writing in her diary daily. After a couple of years of hiding the family was discovered and shipped to concentration camps. The people who secretly hid the Frank family found the diary and hid it from the Germans. Anne Frank died of illness in the concentration camp a young girl of 16, only weeks before it was liberated by allied troops. Anne's father who was placed in a separate concentration camp was the only surviving member of the Frank family. After he left the concentration camp he returned to Amsterdam where he was given his daughter's diary. He saw to it that the diary was published and it helped the world personalize the crimes of Hitler. It was worth the wait in line to see Anne Frank's house and the exhibits within. I hope that the line remains long for many years to come because Anne Frank's story is a reminder of the way things were and what should never be again.
Karen's malaria test was negative which meant I just had traveler with the flu to deal with. We would be leaving Amsterdam in a couple hours heading toward Spain to meet up with some friends from the US. We had a long way to go and planned a couple of brief two hour stopovers in Antwerp and Geneva. After two consecutive night trains we planned on spending the night in Avignon, France. The next couple of days should be fun!
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| This page last changed on 19-Apr-2006 22:14:30 EDT by 70.171.24.221. |
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