I still remember that cool air touching my face while passing through the waters of various canals crisscrossing the beautiful city of Amsterdam. It was autumn 2009 (to be precise in the month of October). A bustling city where one can see people from all over the world living in harmony with each other. I stayed in a youth hostel named 'Shelter Christian hostel'. I chose this place for the only reason that it is the only youth hostel where I could get accomodation in single sex dormitories.
I started feeling a little apprehensive after coming to know that this place is right in the corner of the famous 'red light district'. Coming from a place like India where prostitution is illegal and a social taboo, I was slightly but definitely shaken up by the mere fact of staying two nights in such a place. But what I saw...it is very safe and secure even for single woman passengers like me with security personnel gaurding every inch of the place. Infact, I was told that this particular place is much safer than the rest of the city due to this heavy security presence...
Coming back to the hostel, I would like to mention that this particular hostel is very youth friendly. One can see people from different parts of the world sharing the same dormitories, yet there is an air of togetherness among them. It so happened that my room-mates were very lively and both were in their mid to late thirties. I came to know that one is an Argentinian and another a Canadian (As you will see this would not be the only time I would encounter a Canadian and an Argentinian in my travels).
The central railway station of Amsterdam is a very impressive building as you may see below (the brick structure):
Here is another view:
I reached there in the afternoon and rushed to the hostel to keep my luggage. I wanted to visit the famous Van Gogh museum and Rijks (pronouned as 'ryks') museum that day.
I was a great fan of Vincent VanGogh's paintings from my childhood. I happened to see his paintings in Reader's Digest magazine, which I used to religiously read during my school vacations in Kakinada (a town in South India, where we used to go for vacations to my Grand parents place). His paintings had left a strong impression on me, mainly his portrayal of still life: The vase with sunflowers (my most favourite), Starry night, Wheat field with crows, and some other paintings I dont remember now clearly.
As soon as I left my luggage in the hostel, had a quick lunch in some Indian food outlet on the way. Here I met some Indian sailors who came to Amsterdam by sea. They said they are on their way to US and here I was on my way to the VanGogh museum. I spent one long hour cherishing those lovely paintings and relishing my child hood memories (I remembered how I tried to mimic the Sunflowers painting in my pencil sketches and obviously failed miserably in doing so :)) .
