DAY 60: Anne Frank House, Canal Cruise, and the Red Light District by LIZZY!

Going behind the Bookcase into the Frank family hiding space

This post is written by the classiest girl I'll ever know, Elizabeth Laura Appleby: 

October 18^th: Amsterdam 

After the night out, we allowed ourselves to “sleep in”. We woke up around 8 and made our way to the (free) breakfast. You may have picked out that we look for 2 things when it comes to hostels: cheap and free. This one provided free wifi and free breakfast… we were sold. We waited in a decent line for a breakfast that included sandwich meats, rolls, different kinds of fruit, cereal, NORMAL!!!! milk, and coffee. We ate as much as we could and went to rent bikes, which was on our checklist of must-dos in Amsterdam. The bikes were bright orange with interesting baskets to fasten our belongings onto. We got on the bikes and followed the canals to the Anne Frank house. We parked the bikes right in front of the house, and then saw the line… We walked to what we though the end was, and found that it continued for 2 more blocks. 

The Diary of Anne Frank

I had just finished reading The Diary of a Young Girl, and visiting the house was another thing on our checklist. So, after finding the end of the line, we began our 2-hour wait. We have gotten really good at waiting in lines… but at this point we had played Harry Potter character 20 questions so many times that we couldn’t possibly think of any characters we hadn’t done (and we know a disgusting amount… that’s what listening to the books-on-tape for 15 years will do to ya), so we have moved on to 20 Questions-Anyone-You-Can-Think-Of. I grabbed us some hot chocolate and we played for the next few hours… it really does make the time fly! We made friends with two girls behind us, and chatted until we reached the door. 

The pasted photographs Anne put up in her bedroom

The Annex was amazing, almost exactly as I had pictured it. It was surreal to be in a place where such an incredible story took place. The size of the rooms, the darkness, and the steep staircases took me by surprise. We winded our way through the rooms for about an hour and then stepped back into the Amsterdam light. Right next-door was a bagel shop (which is a big deal for us, considering our favorite restaurant is Burlington Bagel and you can’t find a freaking bagel in Spain). We sat on the edge of the canal and happily ate our mediocre bagels. 

As we were finishing, we saw that a canal boat tour was about to leave. We decided to take a tour, and got tickets at a nearby convenient story. It was a sunny day, so we hopped on the boat and listened to the audio guide speak almost every language you can think of. We traveled through the canals until we reached the Amsterdam harbor. The boat began making a really loud beeping sound and we realized that we were in trouble. The driver made his way to a dock, and tied us to a large metal pipe. He didn’t bother telling us what was going on, so Dee and I took a nap in the sun. After an hour of sitting there, people began to get pretty angry. Some carefully scooted along the tube, climbed up the deck and left, others hopped on another boat. Although frustrated, we were not in any hurry, so we waited another 20 minutes for the boat to be fixed, finished the tour, and hopped off.

Stuck on the canal cruise in the Amsterdam harbor

View of the canal in the opposite direction of the Red Light District

 At this point it was pretty late in the afternoon. We ditched other plans, and decided to go see the Red Light District. Another must see in Amsterdam. We navigated our bikes through the streets, and found our way there. Many people told us that we would be scared and lose our appetite by what we would see, so we were ready for anything. I have to say that it wasn’t as bad as I expected… although it was disturbing seeing the girls “at work”, there weren’t as many as I expected… maybe they were busy? We saw a woman sitting on a stool in a small room waving and winking at us. Behind her was another door, presumably to lead her customers to a more private area. Next to this woman's booth were many other booths- except they were all empty. (I wonder why??) Dee and I considered sitting around and timing how long each "session" took in one of these booths, but decided that might be a bit rude. 

Everything in this area seemed to have a theme (I’m sure you can imagine…) including postcards, t-shirts, posters, aprons and condoms. Other than the women behind the windows, the street and canal were actually really beautiful. We didn’t stay long, but we saw enough. 

At this point, the sun was starting to set and we were getting hungry. After stopping for some wine, we made our way towards our hostel, where we had seen an Italian restaurant that had caught our interest. We have made it a goal that we eat at an Italian restaurant in every European city that we go to… and this seemed to fit that goal. We (by accidentally) cut a couple waiting for a table and sat down. Apparently ordering just tap water is not an option, you HAVE to pay for a drink, so we opted for diet cokes and quickly ordered a pizza and a piece lasagna to share. Both were good, the lasagna definitely beat Paris’s, and we headed back home to get ready for another night out. 

After some wifi time, somehow one of our bottles of wine shattered all over the lobby floor... slightly embarrassing, especially since the sign on the door reads “no food or drinks allowed”. After

Us and our drunken friend....

showering, changing, listening to our favorite Britney Spears songs, and drinking some wine, we set off for the bars. We sat back and people watched as we enjoyed some drinks. The night was pretty uneventful besides making friends with some Dutch guys and watching a drunken older man hit on everything that moves, including us, multiple times. He even paid for a polaroid to be take of us, as long as he got to be in the picture! As you can see, he was a bit smashed. It was a pretty funny night, and although we did not get to dance, we had a good night enjoying Amsterdam’s night scene.