Like you all, I find myself in the middle of the hump week. This week is the last week of class, which is sad because time has gone by so fast. It's the happy times that I remember that make it so much fun!
This week has been rainy and cold- something i've never experience before during the summer. The only day of sunshine I've gotten so far was when I went to Amsterdam this past weekend.
I went with two other people from the USAC group to Amsterdam. We left early in the morning, maybe around 5am. The good thing about getting up so early was that the bread from the bakery for breakfast was incredibly warm and fresh. It's so tempting to get up that early...but I don't think it's possible for me to do that, haha.
Anyway, after traveling for 6 hours on trains, we arrived in Amsterdam. To my surprise, it was much like Lüneburg in terms of weather. While the three of us were figuring out where our hostel was, there was heavy downpour for about 20 min, followed by sunshine for most of the day. We walked throughout most of the weekend, I was incredibly tired by the end of the trip.
Most of the buildings in Amsterdam looked like the buildings in Lüneburg. I got the impression that the city was relatively new compared to others. There were a lot of canals, everywhere. If we ever got lost, we just followed a canal to a familiar street. We visited the Van Gogh Museum which had a lot of...you guessed it, Van Gogh paintings. They were all really marvelous to look at. It's one thing to look at a poster, but it's different looking at the brush strokes that Van Gogh made onto the canvas, often thick and carefully.
The next site we went to was to the Anne Frank House- the building where she hid for two years (and also wrote her diary). It was a humbling experience, to be where she had been. The windows of the house had to be closed during the day, so no one would find out they were there. It drove me crazy just being in a dark room, unable to see the sunlight. I can only imagine what the people in hiding must have felt. The rooms themselves were so small, I couldn't imagine living in such small living quarters with 7 other people. I would recommend seeing it, the museum also has some authentic documents belonging to the Franks (they house the diary as well, although there was a facsimile instead of the real diary on display).
 |
| from the canal |
Amsterdam is very touristy, regardless it had a lot of culture (and everyone spoke english!) One thing I refused to try (again) was herring. Not my cup of tea!
 |
| typical shoe |
Well, that's it for me. I'm currently planning my next adventure: Poland! I will hopefully be there next week.
One thing to reflect on: I have been reading a lot of articles about the Holocaust, because one of the main reasons i'm going is to visit Poland is to see Auschwitz-Birkenau. The more I read about the thousands of people that were murdered ie, the mentally ill/disabled in order to save costs (this was the first group to be exterminated, in order to save thousands of dollars. They were also used for experimentations...no, I won't go on about this. Anyway, the only time Hitler received a negative public demonstration was because those who had loved ones in mental institutions were outraged- they knew what would happen to them. He "stopped"the exterminations and went on to his plan of the "final solution.") to people that didn't fit a genealogical type. I can't comprehend why someone would do this, or even think of doing this. It take someone with absolutely no moral or ethical remorse to do this.
Sorry to end on a sad note, but it's a truth I'll have to face when I go to Auschwitz-Birkenau next week. This weekend is the Hansetag day! Lüneburg used to be a prominent Hanseatic League city, so now they're throwing a bash to remember the old times.
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment