Last week, I spent 4 days in Amsterdam, one of my favorite cities in the world.
I used to live in Amsterdam in 2011-2012 as I did my MA at UvA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. It remains one of my favorite cities in the world because it just so beautiful (even if the weather isn't great!).
This trip was pretty solitary as Luke couldn't come with me and only one of my friends still lives there. I ended up seeing her and having lunch at a lovely little cafe near our old house--but the rest of the time I spent by myself or doing research for my PhD.
Sadly, it became very apparent how long it is going to take me to truly recover from all of the health issues I had last fall. All of the walking really did me in and I was very tired afterward and had a lot of trouble walking too far. I am still experiencing some weird side pain (that is not excruciating since my appendix was removed but still not comfortable) that made it difficult to walk long distances. It was pretty depressing, but I was still able to enjoy a little bit of my time there.
Of course I did a little shopping (haul to come later!), but mostly spent my time researching.
Firstly, I went to the Anne Frank House, where I worked in their archives for a few hours. As many of you know, I am doing my PhD on Anne Frank and her story has always been special to me.
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| Anne Frank House (Photo by Wikimedia Commons) |
I didn't have a chance to go inside and tour her house again, but I have done it so many times that I could probably give a tour of my own at this point!
That evening, I was treated to the production of Anne, which is the newest official Anne Frank play. There has been a ton of controversy surrounding it for various reasons (which I won't go into but you can read my thesis if you want haha), but I thought it was amazing. They built a whole new theater in the west of Amsterdam for the production and the sets were particularly amazing. Everything was full-scale and the Secret Annex itself rotated to show different perspectives of the house (though I'm not sure how this didn't make the actors sick). The play was performed in Dutch, but I watched it with a subtitle system and it worked well...though I would like to see it again in English if that's ever possible.
Here are a few pictures (courtesy of Theater Amsterdam):
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Anne Frank House set...one of four life sized locations.  |
There is a trailer for the play here in Dutch, but it showcases some of the amazing sets.
I wish my time there weren't so short, but hopefully I can make it back sometime soon. Amsterdam, I do love you!
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| Treat yo'self. Tartlette from a pastry shop around the corner from my hotel. |
You can also see my video of my time in Amsterdam here. I didn't get to film a lot, so I apologize in advance, but here are some moving highlights of my time. xx
Beautiful photos! The tartlette looks yummy!
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