Waves waves waves...
The infamous day is here. I have signed off the ship and I'm now sitting along the inlet to Amsterdam as the Prinsendam prepares itself for sail away. It was a wave of emotions as I left the ship today. I woke up for an early breakfast hoping to catch some friends and prepare myself for the process that is disembarkation. It wasn't a normal disembarkation for me. Right now as I type, my life is in 3 different places. I have my two large suitcases being stored on board as I go off into Europe and I will meet the ship back in Amsterdam on September 8, my other bag of clothes is sitting on my top bunk at the hostel with my French roomie and my Swedish roomie, and I sit here with all my electronic valuables. I digress as I return from my tangent. I finished my large breakfast not knowing what the day would bring me as far as food and returned to my cabin. I told my friend that I would help him with his luggage situation by shipping a box of music books home for him today while he made his way to the airport. He gave me €50 and I gave him a huge hug and started to get teary. This friend of mine has become not only a good friend, but someone special in my heart and I hope he finds what he needs to experience life to its fullest. I had a wonderful time getting to know him and I look forward to hearing from him in the future. One thing about working on ships or in this industry is that you make really good friends and then the bulk of your friendship with them is via letters and the occasional phone call. He was off and I was sad. Step one finished. With bags all set to go I made my way to the various offices to get paid out, pick up my passports, and etc. Around 10:00am I woke another really good friend of mine up and gave her my goodbyes. Oh the goodbyes. I hate them the most. With bags in tow I was off the ship. The anxiety began to pile up and my mind was going everywhere thinking what I had to do next. I suddenly didn't know what day of the week it was and I needed to find a post office. I asked a bus driver and he led me there and assured me it was open. Well, it wasn't Sunday then. I got there and shipped off my friend's box. Next order of business was getting to the hostel and just finding it. I now began to realize that backpacking this trip is going to be an athletic one. I have about two bags weighing in around 30lbs on my back or just on me in general as I walk around the city. It was mild weather today and I was sweating big time. I finally found the hostel, but check-in wasn't until 3:00pm and I had to change into Euros. I found an exchange that took about $900 of my money and converted it to €655. Ouch!! I went back and paid my difference so I could make sure the room was on hold. I was free to go and my other duffle bag was being stored in a closet.
I decided to head over to the Anne Frank house and see how the line was. It wasn't as bad as I had heard so I waited and it only took 20 minutes to get to the ticket window. This place is just fascinating.
This is when another wave of emotions hit me. The fear that these people lived in and the way they were treated made me sick. This was a warehouse with offices on the second floor. The back part of the house (the secret part) was converted to a two-story apartment for the Franks and for the other family living there and a few others. I was familiar with the story and the events that happened with their hiding, but to be walking in the same house where all this happened laid heavy with me. Her stories were told as you went through the house. Various quotes and testimonials were written on the wall or in a presentation on the TV or projected. There were artifacts left behind and images of what the rooms looked like before the Nazis came in and took it all away. It was a real clever set up with the two-bedroom apartment completely hidden by all the buildings around it. I couldn't even get a view from the streets. The actual entrance was covered by a bookshelf that was re-created to show how they came and went when no one was around. The men in the warehouse below them had no idea that they were hiding up there so the families couldn't use the toilets, water, or even make noises during business hours. With all the old wood I found it so hard to imagine creeping around as gingerly as possible so as not to make the boards creek and raising suspicion. Also they had to whisper or write to communicate to each other. Anne Frank was an inspiration to me because she seemed so positive through all this. She wrote her thoughts and emotions down with hopes to publish them later to tell everyone about the secret apartment. With all her writings she even made up stories to parallel the things that had already happened in her life also with the hope of being an accomplished writer and getting them published. Eventually someone ratted them out and the Nazis raided the apartment. The people were sent to concentration camps and some were executed by gas. Her thoughts on why people just can't see them as Dutch, English, or German instead of Jews were so touching and I had to do everything in my power to hold back the tears. It's pretty much the same things that are happening today with races and sexuality. You're identified as your race (if you're not pale-skinned) or by your sexuality and not where you are from. People hate you if you show them you are different and some can't even accept who you are. I spent a good hour in their taking it all in before I finally left because hunger took a hold of me. I had my snack of a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich before I was off again.
I took advantage of every sight I could take in. If there's one thing my musician friend taught me it was to appreciate the beauty in everything I see. Especially the colors. He saw so many ways to capture a photo with the way the light was hitting it and found new beauty in things he was seeing. He loved "old shit" as he would say so Europe was full of it. I checked into my hostel where I met my roomies. I don't know how this is going to go over with me. We all share one key. So it involves knocking on the door if I don't have the key and someone else is in the room. I changed clothes and went out again feeling the awkward energy from my foreign roomies. Now I can see my ship sailing past and it is so surreal. One thing that our Cruise Director said was right. It sure does make an awesome picture when you see your ship sail away from the pier. It was always meant as a joke when talking about missing the ship, but now I see the reality in it. My adventure truly begins now. I don't know what to do with myself tonight. I figured this first day in Amsterdam would be a wash, but I got a lot of sightseeing in already. I walked A LOT today. Wow. Tonight may be a wash though and I totally expected that. I started to inquire about hotels and hostels for when I'm back here to meet the ship September 8. Evidently there is a huge GLOBAL conference happening for 14 days starting September 1.
It's the International Broadcasters Conference. Woops. Didn't read about that one. All hotels and hostels seem to be booked solid. I have a hotel for the last night. I'm just missing 2 days from September 7 & 8. Yikes!! Looks like I may have to re-route. I'm crossing my fingers. Things seem to be going smoothly right now. The trip has just begun. Tomorrow I train to Paris. I plan to leave early to make the most of my time. I have a single room there so the extent of my socializing will be in the common rooms and not so much in my bedroom. So far the two people I met seem fine. It's just that awkward first meet and I feel a little out of place seeing this is my first time with this kind of travel. So far I met the Swedish girl and the French guy. Do I remember their names? No. It's only one night though and I doubt I'll see a lot of them. Well, I'm starting to get a chill now as I sit here by the water watching the ship sail away into the distance. The waves keep coming in as I think about all the wonderful memories of the last 8 months as my previous home sails away. If I could pick a song for today it would be "Amsterdam" by Joshua Kadison. This melancholic song kind of describes some of the feelings I'd been experiencing today and he's one of my influences in music. I feel he's a great writer and storyteller.
So after leaving the pier I went and satiated my hunger. I forgot which café I had dinner, but there was a Greek café caddy corner to me, an Italian place across the street and a pizzeria to my right. There was a party of some sort going on the in the Greek café. It was definitely a manly beer party of some sort. The bicycles here will kill you as well as the trams and the bicycles in this square were totally busy. Often enough you'd here the ding of the bell as a cyclist went by trying to dodge the over stimulated tourists. This was great people watching and I was even checked out a few times. I think so at least. The food was good I had a kebab and some French fries. It came with a little salad too and it was more than enough to fill me up along with my Strombough Cider. The sun setting over various parts of Amsterdam is definitely a sight to see. Everything is lit picture perfect. I'm sure there are a lot of cities you can say that about, but just because I'm here and there are so many canals running through the city, it's amazing to me. As I walked through the many neighborhoods, I noticed the rooftops all had a beam jutting out with a metal hook of some sort dangling. I assume that because the houses are so thin and so close together, this is to pull up furniture through the various windows into the apartments. It's just so uniquely Scandinavian. All the countries up here have this feature. At least along the Baltic Sea. I'm in the room now. I was just told there was not a wireless signal and I don't feel like lugging my broken computer around the city to fetch one. These entries may come in huge pieces. I tried to call out a few times to talk for a bit to home, but no one was there. It's probably for the best. I think I'm going to try and take a shower while no one is in the room. One odd feature about the bathroom is the lack of shower curtain. Thank God you can lock the bathroom door. It still makes for an interesting shower experience though.
I decided to head over to the Anne Frank house and see how the line was. It wasn't as bad as I had heard so I waited and it only took 20 minutes to get to the ticket window. This place is just fascinating.
This is when another wave of emotions hit me. The fear that these people lived in and the way they were treated made me sick. This was a warehouse with offices on the second floor. The back part of the house (the secret part) was converted to a two-story apartment for the Franks and for the other family living there and a few others. I was familiar with the story and the events that happened with their hiding, but to be walking in the same house where all this happened laid heavy with me. Her stories were told as you went through the house. Various quotes and testimonials were written on the wall or in a presentation on the TV or projected. There were artifacts left behind and images of what the rooms looked like before the Nazis came in and took it all away. It was a real clever set up with the two-bedroom apartment completely hidden by all the buildings around it. I couldn't even get a view from the streets. The actual entrance was covered by a bookshelf that was re-created to show how they came and went when no one was around. The men in the warehouse below them had no idea that they were hiding up there so the families couldn't use the toilets, water, or even make noises during business hours. With all the old wood I found it so hard to imagine creeping around as gingerly as possible so as not to make the boards creek and raising suspicion. Also they had to whisper or write to communicate to each other. Anne Frank was an inspiration to me because she seemed so positive through all this. She wrote her thoughts and emotions down with hopes to publish them later to tell everyone about the secret apartment. With all her writings she even made up stories to parallel the things that had already happened in her life also with the hope of being an accomplished writer and getting them published. Eventually someone ratted them out and the Nazis raided the apartment. The people were sent to concentration camps and some were executed by gas. Her thoughts on why people just can't see them as Dutch, English, or German instead of Jews were so touching and I had to do everything in my power to hold back the tears. It's pretty much the same things that are happening today with races and sexuality. You're identified as your race (if you're not pale-skinned) or by your sexuality and not where you are from. People hate you if you show them you are different and some can't even accept who you are. I spent a good hour in their taking it all in before I finally left because hunger took a hold of me. I had my snack of a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich before I was off again. I took advantage of every sight I could take in. If there's one thing my musician friend taught me it was to appreciate the beauty in everything I see. Especially the colors. He saw so many ways to capture a photo with the way the light was hitting it and found new beauty in things he was seeing. He loved "old shit" as he would say so Europe was full of it. I checked into my hostel where I met my roomies. I don't know how this is going to go over with me. We all share one key. So it involves knocking on the door if I don't have the key and someone else is in the room. I changed clothes and went out again feeling the awkward energy from my foreign roomies. Now I can see my ship sailing past and it is so surreal. One thing that our Cruise Director said was right. It sure does make an awesome picture when you see your ship sail away from the pier. It was always meant as a joke when talking about missing the ship, but now I see the reality in it. My adventure truly begins now. I don't know what to do with myself tonight. I figured this first day in Amsterdam would be a wash, but I got a lot of sightseeing in already. I walked A LOT today. Wow. Tonight may be a wash though and I totally expected that. I started to inquire about hotels and hostels for when I'm back here to meet the ship September 8. Evidently there is a huge GLOBAL conference happening for 14 days starting September 1.
It's the International Broadcasters Conference. Woops. Didn't read about that one. All hotels and hostels seem to be booked solid. I have a hotel for the last night. I'm just missing 2 days from September 7 & 8. Yikes!! Looks like I may have to re-route. I'm crossing my fingers. Things seem to be going smoothly right now. The trip has just begun. Tomorrow I train to Paris. I plan to leave early to make the most of my time. I have a single room there so the extent of my socializing will be in the common rooms and not so much in my bedroom. So far the two people I met seem fine. It's just that awkward first meet and I feel a little out of place seeing this is my first time with this kind of travel. So far I met the Swedish girl and the French guy. Do I remember their names? No. It's only one night though and I doubt I'll see a lot of them. Well, I'm starting to get a chill now as I sit here by the water watching the ship sail away into the distance. The waves keep coming in as I think about all the wonderful memories of the last 8 months as my previous home sails away. If I could pick a song for today it would be "Amsterdam" by Joshua Kadison. This melancholic song kind of describes some of the feelings I'd been experiencing today and he's one of my influences in music. I feel he's a great writer and storyteller.So after leaving the pier I went and satiated my hunger. I forgot which café I had dinner, but there was a Greek café caddy corner to me, an Italian place across the street and a pizzeria to my right. There was a party of some sort going on the in the Greek café. It was definitely a manly beer party of some sort. The bicycles here will kill you as well as the trams and the bicycles in this square were totally busy. Often enough you'd here the ding of the bell as a cyclist went by trying to dodge the over stimulated tourists. This was great people watching and I was even checked out a few times. I think so at least. The food was good I had a kebab and some French fries. It came with a little salad too and it was more than enough to fill me up along with my Strombough Cider. The sun setting over various parts of Amsterdam is definitely a sight to see. Everything is lit picture perfect. I'm sure there are a lot of cities you can say that about, but just because I'm here and there are so many canals running through the city, it's amazing to me. As I walked through the many neighborhoods, I noticed the rooftops all had a beam jutting out with a metal hook of some sort dangling. I assume that because the houses are so thin and so close together, this is to pull up furniture through the various windows into the apartments. It's just so uniquely Scandinavian. All the countries up here have this feature. At least along the Baltic Sea. I'm in the room now. I was just told there was not a wireless signal and I don't feel like lugging my broken computer around the city to fetch one. These entries may come in huge pieces. I tried to call out a few times to talk for a bit to home, but no one was there. It's probably for the best. I think I'm going to try and take a shower while no one is in the room. One odd feature about the bathroom is the lack of shower curtain. Thank God you can lock the bathroom door. It still makes for an interesting shower experience though.
posted by Chris | 7:04 PM
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