Amsterdam

I left London the morning of July 31st. I had the sense to book my ticket in advance this time, and had no problems whatsoever with my ticket and seat.
The difference with this trip was that somehow, during my stay in London, my backpack had managed to grow exponentially in both size and weight. I had given Chad a duffle bag full of my stuff to bring home less than a week earlier to lighten my load. But somehow my backpack leaving London was so large and overweight that it was the first time I was unable to put it on my back without help!  I had managed to completely fill up my entire 95 liter backpack, and I would estimate it weighed at least 24 kilos. I have this miraculous ability to accumulate ¨stuff¨, when I travel, and even in my own home in Toronto/Hamilton (as anyone who has travelled with me or helped me pack while moving can attest to).
Lucky for me, there were many kind gentlemen who were willing to help me with my backpack, and when I didn´t have help, I would either drag it or kick it across the floor (it´s smooth, so it doesn´t provide much friction when dragging). If I was walking a long distance I would ask  someone to help lift it up so I could get it onto my back. Once it was on my back it wasn´t too bad.
To make matters a little more amusing was the fact that I didn´t pack my backpack straight, so it was lopsided, and looked a bit funny when viewed from the front.
I do believe that the photo doesn´t do the backpack justice, as the photo makes it appear smaller than it really is! Believe me when I tell you that I have never seen my bag so large (and heavy) in my 6 weeks on the road!
I arrived in Amsterdam after a 6 hour journey to find Fieke waiting for me on the platform! Fieke lives in Amsterdam and we met by spending 1 month traveling together through Japan last summer. I was thrilled to see her! (on a side note: she immediately burst out laughing at the sight at my oversized lopsided backpack).
She brought me by metro to her apartment. She lives in a refurbished sea container (yes the kind that they use to transport goods across the ocean in large transport ships…), in a sea container village, right next to the Amsterdam prison. The sea containers are stacked up one on top of the other, and each one houses one person. Each unit has its own bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and balcony. They are so cool! When she described them to me I couldn´t really picture them in my head, so I have provided some photos below to help visualize this idea:

Inside the apartment/sea container:

After dropping off my enormous backpack at her container we set out to see the city!
Amsterdam is a beautiful small city with lots of canals! It reminded me a bit of Venice, except that in Amsterdam you can drive OR boat around town, while in the city center of Venice you can´t drive as there are no roads, only canals and walking streets.
Amsterdam was very busy with people! This was because a) it was a Friday night, and b) the following day was the Gay Pride Parade and the whole town was pre-partying in preparation. 

Like my shoes?
We thought we would walk around and check out the Red Light District.  I´m not sure what I was expecting, I had heard so much about it over the years, but I didn´t have a clear vision of what it would actually look like.
Imagine a street, all lit up with lights and signs of different colours, lined with stores. All the stores have windows, and in the store windows, instead of displaying the merchandise, women in small bikinis or lingerie would stand. If you looked closer into the ¨stores¨ you could see that each woman had their own small room, with a bed in it, and curtains could be drawn so the people on the street couldn´t see into the room when the woman was ¨busy¨ with a client. In addition to the ¨stores¨ of woman, there were many sex shops, where one could buy toys, creams, costumes and many other objects to fulfill different unique fetishes, as well as small theatres when one could watch live performances.
I was unable to take a photo of the stores, and I wouldn´t have wanted to, as I felt really sad for the women in the windows. I can´t even imagine what it would feel like to be them, standing there, while horny tourists walk by, or even worse, actually go in and take part in the ¨services¨offered. We did not stay long, only long enough to do a quick walk through of the area.
We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and catching up with each other.
The following morning we made a trip to the Anne Frank house. Anne Frank and her family were Jews, originally living in Germany. They fled to the Netherlands when Hitler came into power, but when the Germans occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, the Frank family went into hiding. They occupied the two upper floors of the annex of Otto Frank´s (Anne´s father) company warehouse and offices, in a very small space accessible only by a small doorway and very steep stairs, concealed behind a bookcase.
They lived in this small area, which they called the Secret Annex, for over 2 years, in almost complete darkness and silence, as any movement or noise could reveal them. During these 2 years, Anne wrote diaries about her daily life, her feelings, her family, and the terror of the idea of being discovered. The office personnel working for Otto Frank helped them by bringing them food and supplies daily. After spending over 2 years in hiding, on August 4, 1944, they were betrayed by an anonymous phone call to the German police, and everyone in hiding as well as the non-Jewish helpers were imprisoned. Anne died after contracting typhus in March 1945, only one month before everyone was freed. Otto Frank was the sole survivor from the Frank family, and had Anne´s diaries published when he returned to Amsterdam. He also helped turn the Secret Annex into a museum.
While walking through the museum Fieke and I felt a sadness come over us. It reminded us of how we felt while looking through the museum in Hiroshima (Japan). It was so sad to see how they lived and suffered.
After the Anne Frank House we went to Amsterdam´s Royal Palace, built in the 17th century as Amsterdam´s city hall. During that time Amsterdam was one of the world´s most important trade center. In 1808 it was turned into a royal palace by Louis Napoleon (King of Holland and brother of Napoleon Bonaparte).
It was beautiful, with so many sculptures, chandeliers, paintings and decorated furniture.


From there we did some walking and found this enormous shoe!
After our photo with the shoe we made our way over to the Gay Pride Parade. We were so excited about it, so we thought we would be festive for the occasion by buying pink and purple scarves.
This would be my 5th Gay Pride Parade worldwide, as I´ve been to pride parades in Paris, Milan, Boston and Toronto. But this one was unique because the whole parade was on boats! 


¨Everybody Should be Free to Celebrate¨



There were people everywhere!! (on land and in boats!)


We had such a great time!! There was so much energy, music and happiness in the air!
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out at Fieke´s container before going out at night. The city was still energized and full of people through the whole night!
The following day, and my last day in Amsterdam, we slept in, relaxed, did some shopping, and other low key activities. I also had a chance to repack my bag. After my struggles getting from London to Amsterdam I knew I needed to make some changes!! I removed a small backpack (used for day trips) from my large one and filled it with stuff. I spent quite some time reorganizing my backpacks and finally was able to balance out some weight in preparation for my journey to Berlin the next morning (August 3rd).
I had a wonderful time in Amsterdam with Fieke, and I was very sad to leave her, but she promised me she will come see me in Canada very soon!