Friday, February 10, 2006
Netherlands Trip 09/02/2006 – Amsterdam Finale
Today was the last day in the Netherlands. Time for more museums.
I started with the Anne Frank Hus. Quite expensive entry of EU7 but definitely worth the money. The house of Anne Frank was the hiding place of her family and some other business associates of her father. But the hiding place was betrayed and everyone was sent to the concentration camp. She didn’t survive. But Anne’s flair for writing left her legacy and the history of Nazi’s occupation through the eye of a girl. The house has been preserved and the emotions when I was in the house are overwhelming. I could literally feel Anne Frank’s presence by watching the videos and actual room decorations. At the end of the tour through the house, there is a video room which plays controversy scenes depicting contradiction to the human rights to religion, speech, press and privacy. We, the tourist, of the Hus is to vote for whether a scene is right/wrong in our opinion. And that are some really tough decisions. I remember that was a clip on Afro-Americans singer singing some anti-homosexuality lyrics and they were slammed by the homosexuals. Why? Don’t we say we have the right to speech? Why are the singers being slammed? This museum really made me reflect on the issue of discrimination, our human rights and democracy.
The next two museums are the Allard Pierson Archaeological Museum and the Amsterdam Historisch Museum. Very hard-core historical relics and exhibits. I got kind of sick of the Historich Museum after walking around the complex for 45 min. The archaelogical museum was more interesting. It exhibited relics from Egypt, Cyprus and the Greece. Very the like the British Museum: nothing Dutch just like the British Museum is nothing British.
The final museum is the Electric Ladyland – Museum of Fluorescent Art. Very psychedelic and it fits the druggy nature of Amsterdam perfectly. I was the only visitor there and was given a private 30 min tour of the small gallery. That’s a lot of time for a small room of artifacts. But, this is the most elaborated tour I have ever had. Almost every item was described by the museum director, Nick. Photography would have been impossible as exposure time would range from 10s of minutes up to an hour. So I just took of picture of the director. The website of the museum has got very cool pictures of the place and art work.
I made a visit to the red-light district and decided to risk it to take back some pictures (photography is definitely not welcomed in that alley). It started raining once more and it sucks totally. I was wet, hungry, lugging my backpack and hiding in some corner with my 12X zoom camera to take some shots of the place. Not a pleasant experience.
The next place to take some night shots was the street leading to the Amsterdam Centraal Station. This is not an easy task. The rain was hitting down and the wind is super strong, again (the light-weight tripod cannot stand steady in the wind!). I had to hold down the tripod with my hand. But alas, I got a decent shot of the place. Perfect!
Nothing interesting all the way to Malmo Centraal Train Station. I met Chris (known also as Bonus) who happened to be traveling from Hamburg to Lund. He lives in Delphi Block E. So happy lah! We arrived at the station at 0000 and the train to Lund wouldn’t leave till 0100, we decided to take a bus back to Lund but darn, we saw 171 zip by us. We thought the bus would come at 0050 and waited till 0115… still no bus. We flagged down a cab instead. That set us back by SEK125 (~SGD 30) each. Chris introduced me to Rock music and I must say Rock sounds good. Maybe I should try it. Chris is an interesting person. He told me he wanted to set up a radio station in Hamburg, Germany and I could feel his emotion for Rock music.
Nothing beats a cab. We reached Delphi at 0145 very comfortably.
I started with the Anne Frank Hus. Quite expensive entry of EU7 but definitely worth the money. The house of Anne Frank was the hiding place of her family and some other business associates of her father. But the hiding place was betrayed and everyone was sent to the concentration camp. She didn’t survive. But Anne’s flair for writing left her legacy and the history of Nazi’s occupation through the eye of a girl. The house has been preserved and the emotions when I was in the house are overwhelming. I could literally feel Anne Frank’s presence by watching the videos and actual room decorations. At the end of the tour through the house, there is a video room which plays controversy scenes depicting contradiction to the human rights to religion, speech, press and privacy. We, the tourist, of the Hus is to vote for whether a scene is right/wrong in our opinion. And that are some really tough decisions. I remember that was a clip on Afro-Americans singer singing some anti-homosexuality lyrics and they were slammed by the homosexuals. Why? Don’t we say we have the right to speech? Why are the singers being slammed? This museum really made me reflect on the issue of discrimination, our human rights and democracy.
The next two museums are the Allard Pierson Archaeological Museum and the Amsterdam Historisch Museum. Very hard-core historical relics and exhibits. I got kind of sick of the Historich Museum after walking around the complex for 45 min. The archaelogical museum was more interesting. It exhibited relics from Egypt, Cyprus and the Greece. Very the like the British Museum: nothing Dutch just like the British Museum is nothing British.
The final museum is the Electric Ladyland – Museum of Fluorescent Art. Very psychedelic and it fits the druggy nature of Amsterdam perfectly. I was the only visitor there and was given a private 30 min tour of the small gallery. That’s a lot of time for a small room of artifacts. But, this is the most elaborated tour I have ever had. Almost every item was described by the museum director, Nick. Photography would have been impossible as exposure time would range from 10s of minutes up to an hour. So I just took of picture of the director. The website of the museum has got very cool pictures of the place and art work.
I made a visit to the red-light district and decided to risk it to take back some pictures (photography is definitely not welcomed in that alley). It started raining once more and it sucks totally. I was wet, hungry, lugging my backpack and hiding in some corner with my 12X zoom camera to take some shots of the place. Not a pleasant experience.
The next place to take some night shots was the street leading to the Amsterdam Centraal Station. This is not an easy task. The rain was hitting down and the wind is super strong, again (the light-weight tripod cannot stand steady in the wind!). I had to hold down the tripod with my hand. But alas, I got a decent shot of the place. Perfect!
Nothing interesting all the way to Malmo Centraal Train Station. I met Chris (known also as Bonus) who happened to be traveling from Hamburg to Lund. He lives in Delphi Block E. So happy lah! We arrived at the station at 0000 and the train to Lund wouldn’t leave till 0100, we decided to take a bus back to Lund but darn, we saw 171 zip by us. We thought the bus would come at 0050 and waited till 0115… still no bus. We flagged down a cab instead. That set us back by SEK125 (~SGD 30) each. Chris introduced me to Rock music and I must say Rock sounds good. Maybe I should try it. Chris is an interesting person. He told me he wanted to set up a radio station in Hamburg, Germany and I could feel his emotion for Rock music.
Nothing beats a cab. We reached Delphi at 0145 very comfortably.
# posted by William : 10:24 PM
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Hi Nat. Yah I will update my posts on the Netherlands trip with more pictures. Laboration has started; and my time in the day are mostly spent in the laboratories. Give me some time.
o man, my ISM experiment kinda suck too. contamination after contamination and repeating the same thing over again. yah, enjoy yourself in sweden and make the most out of everything and how come no one tag ur blog? that's why i resorted to commenting here instead!
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