Amsterdam

Christmas break couldn't come soon enough. I was ready to hit the road again and this time I'd be joined by my BFF, Lauren!!! Our plan was as follows; Lauren would arrive in Montpellier, we would hang out in the south of france for a couple of days then fly over to Amsterdam for Christmas, take a bus to Hamburg to meet up with one of my old roommates from Australia and then take a train through Denmark into Stockholm for NYE and see my cousins!!! It was an action packed two weeks and we couldn't wait to get started!

I had always wanted to go to Amsterdam but I had no idea that when I finally got a chance, that I would fall madly in love with this city. The minute we arrived the entire city was decked out with festive lights and decor. We got in pretty late in the evening so we decided to grab a bite to eat, walk around for a bit and then call it an early night. We were a little lost as to where to eat, we asked at our hostel but when we told them we wanted to try some Dutch specialties they were pretty quick in telling us that dutch food consisted of nothing more than mashed potatoes with piece of meat on top. We took to the streets and started looking around. We found ourselves in Nieumarkt, a square with a large house (I will get to that later) thats surrounded by bars. Because it was so late most of the bars had stopped serving food. Starving and fed up with walking around aimlessly we decided to ask a very good looking bar tender where he recommends we go... or I think he may have offered to help, either way his eyes were beautiful and I was very happy to continue the conversation. We told him we were looking for somewhere with vegetarian options... Oh! did I mention I'm a vegetarian and my friend is a vegan which makes it hell to find somewhere to eat in Europe, anyways the bartender heard our cry and he suggested we go to a Thai restaurant called Bird. With no other option we headed straight there! Success!! cause the food was great and the price was good!

After dinner we decided to walk around town for an hour. It was now that I would be introduced to the infamous red light district. We were casually walking and as I had momentarily forgotten about the fact that Amsterdam has a very unique red light district, I was quickly reminded as a young lady walked up to a window beside me in her panties and bra. I was a little startled at first but you get used to it quite quickly. It was very different to see this and quite interesting. While looking around, seeing all the different woman, their different ages and their different styles, the shopaholic in me started to wonder... Which one would I go for?

The red light district in Amsterdam is completely legal, the girls are all registered and pay their taxes. The way it works is that each girl pays about 180 euros to rent a window for 8 hours and can make upwards of f 50 euros for 15 minutes of work. I was pretty happy almost... proud? of these woman for making a living and making good money for something which is uniquely a woman's gift but then you get this sad feeling when you see all the guys gawking at them, I then took a moment and thought... I work at Starbucks for $10.50 an hour and I get yelled at, called useless and stupid, and on occasion have had things thrown at me and at those moments I would much prefer men gawking at me than old ladies belittling me. I must hand it to Amsterdam for supporting these woman and giving them a safe environment to do their job.

This statue is called "Belle" and is statue that commemorates the women of the night across the world. This statue features a woman standing outside a doorway atop a staircase wearing high heel shoes. It sits in the heart of the red light district just outside the oldest church in Amsterdam. It is a constant reminder that along with tolerance comes respect. 

The next day was was Christmas and most of the town was closed down so we decided to go on a New Europe free walking tour. Walking tours are definitely the best way to get an in depth understanding of the city. Everything has so much more meaning when you know some of the history.

Amsterdam is a huge port town, intercepted with canals and bridges. It's a city that caters to cyclists and that is not a joke. The amount of bikes you see sprawled around the city is incredible. There a parking lots filled with hundreds and hundreds of bikes, there are bikes randomly on the grown tipped over by the wind, bikes locked up... bikes not locked up.
 BIKES. ARE. EVERYWHERE.

One of the best parts about Amsterdam are their unique buildings. The entire town it made up of these narrow tall buildings, each crowned with it's unique design. The dangerous thing about these buildings is that each one if built into the other which means if you remove one of them the rest go toppling over. Another not so fun fact about these buildings is that because all of the Netherlands is built on a swamp and because the ground underneath the ground is not stable Amsterdam is slowly sinking. So if you look straight at the buildings you can see that they are starting to tilt one way or another. I found it very interesting that the Netherlands is built on a swamp. They say

"God Created the World But the Dutch Created the Netherlands" 

The Amsterdam flag which you see everywhere is a black and red flag sporting three big white Xs. They stand for the three dangers of the city, flood, fire and the plague. Flood because the country is built on a swamp and Amsterdam is covered in canals. Fire because as I mentioned before the building are all built into each other and made of wood and for that a fire for one is a fire for all and finally the plague because it wiped out one third of Amsterdam's population. We were taught another set of Xs which was business, tolerance and discretion. A more modern understanding of the city of Amsterdam.

The thing that made me really fall in love with Amsterdam is the amount of tolerance that the city possesses. At every corner you are reminded of how tolerant the dutch people are. It was interesting to learn that all of this came from their love for money and business which is something I don't often associate with tolerance.

Amsterdam used to be one of the major port cities in the world and because of this Amsterdam was flowing with business men, trades men, sea men and wo men. They believed that as long as you were able to do business, make money and pay your taxes you were welcome to try your luck in Amsterdam. This is why Jewish Europeans through out the centuries could find refuge in the city of Amsterdam. No one cared what you did in your home as long as you were doing your job... and paying your taxes. In addition to welcoming Jews from all over Europe with open arms they were also, along with the Danish, the only people in Europe to openly oppose the Nazi's deportation of their Jewish people. The February strike was strike held by the Dutch Unions where the dutch people refused to go to work in support of their Jewish brothers and sisters. They took to the streets and chanted "Hide the Jews in your homes" The strike ended after one day. All the members of the union were executed. Following this strike, the Dutch struck four more times against the their German occupiers. No other country showed such overt refusal to cooperate with the Germans. Way to go Holland!!!!!!

Holland is also the first country in the world to give limited rights to same sex marriage leading the way for Denmark to later be the first country to recognize same sex partnerships. Holland was then the fourth country to recognized same sex marriage following Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

 And just when I think Holland can impress no more I learn that the Fair Trade Movement was created by none other than a Dutch. Eduard Douwes Dekker a.k.a. Multatuli (look up what this word means in Finnish) is an Amsterdam born Dutch who worked in administration and was transferred to Indonesia to work within the colonies. While there he started to learn about all the injustices that were occurring by the Dutch in Indonesia. He began to openly protest this and eventually was fired. To respond he decided to write a fictional novel, Max Havelaar, based on his experiences in Indonesia, publicly outing the Dutch. It drew clear correlations between Dutch prosperity and suffering of the indonesian people, which only mirrors other European colonial powers.

The next day my friend and I did what any good tourist in Amsterdam would do, we went to visit the Anne Frank house or should I say huis? Anne Frank is arguably the most famous Dutch in the world. I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank when I was about 14 years old and to finally see where it all happened was unreal. To be standing where Anne Frank stood was unbelievable. Even though Anne Frank dies in the end it's definitely a story of hope and having the will to dream. While there, I turned to my friend and told her how crazy it is that after the Frank family was caught, and they were all deported, until her father returned, that someone found and kept her diary. Definitely a miracle that reinstils that the universe works in amazing positive ways. The building in which Anne Frank hid is just that, a building, and without reading her story and without understanding and learning from the holocaust then there is really nothing to visit. Her story helped the world understand how devastating that period in our world's history was, it helped non Jewish youth world wide to connect to the oppression that Jewish people experienced and for that as a Jewish girl I thank Anne Frank for keeping a journal and her father for respecting her wishes and publishing it.

Our final major stop in Amsterdam was the Amsterdam museum. This Museum is highly interactive and very engaging, although much of it were paintings of old rich white men, there were quite a few note worthy paintings. The first was a painting by Rembrandt. Although I did not get to go to Rembrandt's huis I was very happy that I got to see one of his most famous paintings. This painting was originally put up in the Nieumarkt huis, and is a painting of the head of the surgeon's union.

Nieumarkt huis

I didn't know much about Amsterdam and Holland before I actually went. I didn't know a word of Dutch and like most other people my three Xs were Bikes, Pot, and Window Shopping (the naughty kind) but there is so much more to this amazing city. I truly fell more and more in love with Amsterdam at every step. Their forward thinking, their tolerance and their activism is inspiring. The Dutch are the true definition of citizens. They are active in their communities and they are in control of what happens to their country. The people of Amsterdam let their voices be heard and for that they will always have more power than their government, and isn't that the way it should be? I am now more eager than ever to discover more of the Netherlands. 

Amsterdam you stole my heart!!! 

Mokum is yiddish for Safe Haven

Lyon

About a month ago I headed out to Lyon for a weekend to meet up and party with my good friends, Eleni and Lisa. Eleni is doing the same thing as me in Lyon, and Lisa is doing the same thing as us in Madrid. We were lucky cause the weekend we had decided to go to Lyon was the weekend of Le Fete Des Lumieres.

During this weekend the entire city if Lyon is packed with tourists, people from far and wide who come to see the spectacular light shows that are put on by the city. I didn't know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised! The light shows were unbelievable but I will continue with that later on in the post. 

So I left Montpellier on Thursday, I took a two hour train ride into the city of Lyon, when I got out of the train station in Lyon, it was already very clear that the city was busy and alive. The subways already had huge lines to enter, there were so many people out and about everywhere. 

When I finally met up with Eleni and made our way back to her apartment it was go go go. Eleni's lovely friend Emma had prepared a quiche for us all, we ate up, got our drink on and headed out to see the some of the light shows and hit the clubs. The very best in my opinion are the light shows that are projected onto the cities old buildings. They are mesmerizing and highly emphasized under the influence of alcohol. The streets were bumpin' with crowds of people at every corner. 

As you walked through the city there were more and more  exhibits to see. It reminded me a lot of Nuit Blanche except without all the pretentious art and many more cool and fun light shows. One cool instillation (bottom right) was where people would ride stationary bikes which made the colors and lights on this cube spin. The cities carousel was also lit up, but I'm sure that happens every weekend evening and is not unique to this weekend. 

The next morning we all woke up ready to sieze the day... well not really. We were so exhausted from the night before that my friends and I decided to throw the day away by going out for some baked potato goodness and then come back to get under the covers and watch some good old "Who's Line is it Anyways".

We decided to go to the Christmas Market as I have become obsessed with Christmas Markets. At the Christmas Market there was a booth that sold Patatouilles! These are baked potatoes stuffed with ratatouille and then topped with cheese! It was so delicious and I was so happy to get the chance to have one! At the Christmas Market we came across a few Canadian booths! Felt like I was home again (not really)!

The next morning we were much more energized and ready to take the city by storm. We took to the streets of lyon and decided to get some beautiful views from a top the highest point in lyon. The climb up was exhausting but the view was priceless. Without the strong winds and the intense cold  I could have stayed up there for hours just looking down at the city. Being from a city like Toronto with all the tall skyscrapers you really come to appreciate how beautiful it is to have a clear view of the entire city, seems so much more welcoming than those giant intimidating monstrous buildings that we get  in modern city centers. I really love all the low level buildings, it's subtle beauty and modest appearance leaves a feeling of ease and comfort in my heart.

After the beautiful view we went to see an unbelievable basilica just around the corner which was also atop the mountain and had a beautiful view. The entire area had a very Sacre Coeur feel to it.

The Notre Dame Fourviere is a huge basilica that over looks all of Lyon, much like Sacre Coeur. It is said that both these Basilicas were built with private funds to thank god for victory over the French socialists and to atone for the sins of modern France. As I have said before I just love Church architecture. Definitely the things that excite me the most in Europe. Got to hand it to the Catholics for building some of the craziest buildings out there. I guess god likes the glitz and glamour just as much as we do.

I can't remember if visited the Roman ruins before or after the Basilica but either way we did visit them. Always so much fun to see ancient ruins. It's amazing what they could accomplish with such minimal technology. I have so much at my disposal and I can hardly build a table from Ikea. I don't really know much about these ruins... if they are even Roman, I think they probably put on plays? I believe that to this day there are still plays that are put on in these theatres. Definitely something I would like to do if I find myself in Lyon again.

The picture you see on the bottom left is a picture of the oldest balconies in Lyon. The picture to the right of that is of a building I really liked... I have no idea what it is but it's beautiful don't you think? 

That evening we decided to catch some more light shows in the city, before hitting up the clubs again. We caught another beautiful light show that was displayed on the Cathedral Saint-Jean-Baptist de Lyon. The light show was outstanding, crowds of people stood mesmerized by all the visual effects. Luckily for you guys, I took a wonderful video which will help you comprehend the beauty that is the Lyon Light Festival. 

   

Over all I had an amazing time in Lyon, with friends and beautiful scenery, who could ask for more? I plan on returning again because the nightlife there is like no other. I would suggest Lyon to anyone visiting France. Although you can't replace Paris with any other city, Lyon definitely comes in as a close close second for me.