Amsterdam

July 2016

I'm in Amsterdam! I have been so busy, but wanted to check in and say that this was absolutely the best decision. Sadly it's my last day in Amsterdam, and I'm already planning my trip to come back again and get to do all of the things I didn't get to do. I think this is my favorite place so far...it's beautiful and there's so much to do, they have fantastic food places, tons of markets, bikes rule the road, and the houses along the canals are the most precious homes. I wish I lived in one! I haven't gotten the chance to say this yet, but I prefer to do my travels like a local, instead of a tourist, so I haven't done that many touristy things. I've wandered around the streets, gone into stores, sought out great restaurants with local ingredients, been to a music festival, made friends with locals, gone out for coffee in the morning, etc. I did get the chance to go to the Van Gogh Museum and the Moco Museum, which was holding a Banksy and Warhol Exhibit. I highly recommend both of them! I spent 3 hours in the Van Gogh Museum alone. Also- the way they pronounced Gogh was not what I expected, I can't even mimic it. But what I found really amazing was that you look at all this outstanding work and realize that even though you couldn't create it yourself, they are created off of the simplest notion, that by simply realizing it and sticking to it, they became famous for it- like, it's all in the brush strokes and contrasting colors and dark outlining for Van Gogh. And it's about cultural paradoxes and the representation of anonymity for Banksy. Maybe you have to see the works to understand what I mean, but I just remember walking through the museum thinking, "wow, all he did was this. That's it. It's genius and yet so simple".

The music festival I went to was Pitch, and yes, I went alone! Truthfully it was kind of a transcending experience...opened up a door for all these possibilities the fact that I could do that. Now I know I can. I was SO nervous to. But going alone somehow made it more of a moving experience. Instead of going to a festival with friends and talking and then deciding who you were going to see and talking about what you thought of the person...you're just kind of there for the ride, thinking, I'm here right now, I'm at a music festival in Amsterdam where I know one and this music is fantastic and it's raining and I don't care that it's raining. I could navigate easily through the crowds to the front row, I tried out all of the different stages, the music I liked and the music I found weird. Since I didn't care about the rain I took those opportunities to skip out on the bathroom lines. I ended up getting to go on stage with all of the other people in the front row for Santigold. I finally got to see what a silent disco was like. I could dance like an idiot with nobody watching! I guess it just made me more in the moment and aware of what I was doing and grateful that I was getting to do it. This does kind of tie into one thing that I've realized on this trip - travelling alone makes a huge difference, and if you ever have the chance to do it, do. It's awesome travelling with someone and having a person to share everything with, but it doesn't ask as much of you as you're capable of. When I'm alone, I can't trust that my friend knows the way and just blindly follow her, I can't go with the flow on which attractions we're going to go to, I can't rely on her to tell me when she's hungry and what dinner place she found for us to eat, I can't find comfort in her company. Instead, I have to look up all the directions, get lost and find my way again, I have to ask strangers for help, I have to plan my days out ahead of time, or just decide I want to wander, I have to find a restaurant even when I'm already so hungry I can't think and just want to eat or collapse, I have to entertain myself when I'm alone at meals, I have to sit alone at the bar. All of these things make me interact with people in ways I would never do if I wasn't alone. And honestly, for me, none of it is that scary. Though I will say my first experience sitting alone at a bar was awkward...It was at a hostel actually, one that was strangely unwelcoming, and I was intentionally not on my phone so that I could be open to meeting people, and it just wasn't happening - until one guy came over and said to the bartender in his New Zealand accent "I'll have a skinny bitch". I laughed, said something, I don't remember what, and next thing I knew we spent half an hour talking about the Game of Thrones Finale. Classic.

Anyway, off to Prague tomorrow for a week! Hope everyone has an amazing 4th of July weekend! Can't believe I won't be there to celebrate. HAPPY 4TH and God Bless America :)