The Fault in Our Stars Bench--Hazel Was Here!

I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about The Fault in Our Stars after last summer’s obsession with it, so here let me talk about it some more.

If you know anything about The Fault in Our Stars you know that part of the movie, arguably the best part, takes place in Amsterdam. Whenever I told people that I was using our long weekend to go to Amsterdam, the natural question was You going there to smoke pot? No, I was going there to see one of my favorite book places. I’m fortunate that Amsterdam exists, because I can never go to Hogwarts or Narnia. Some people take pilgrimages to religious centers, but in a way this was my pilgrimage to a place I’d fallen in love with thanks to John Green (author of TFIOS if you didn’t know).

One of the many canals seen on our tour

We arrived on a Wednesday night, and got settled in at Hostel Van Gogh. I’d never stayed in a hostel before, but I was pleasantly surprised with how modern and clean it was. It was better than most of the budget hotels I’d stayed in. We were lucky that we were a group of 6, because this meant that we were able to book a private 6-person room. Travel tip: travel in even numbers if possible. It makes hostels much more comfortable.

On Thursday when we woke up, we immediately sought out the pancakes the Dutch are famous for. But it seemed like pancakes were more of a lunch meal because all the pancake restaurants were closed. Instead, we opted for crêpes. If there was one thing I’d learn on this trip it’s that if I’m not careful I will eat some combination of sugar and bread for every meal.

To orient ourselves in the city, we took a free tour through Sandeman’s. A tip to the tour guide is highly recommended, but even with the tip it’s cheaper than your average tour. They have them in most major European cities. Plus our tour guide was a cheeky Irishman. He led us around the canals stopping at St. Nicholas’s Cathedral, De Oude Kerk (The Old Church), the Red Light District, and more. A quick aside about the Red Light District: for some reason I thought that I knew what that would be like. But when I actually walked through and saw women presenting themselves in storefronts I was more surprised and turned off than I thought I would be. I’ve never been against prostitution. In fact, I don’t see why a woman shouldn’t be in control of her body that way, but something about seeing it up close felt jarring.

Me being serenaded by Peter–there’s some chemistry happening there

That night we went to the traditional Dutch, hole-in-the-wall restaurant La Falote near Museumplein. If you get a chance to go to the Netherlands, I recommend trying out Dutch food, because it’s absolutely delicious. It’s your comfort food. At La Falote I had a beef stew over mashed potatoes and speculoos (speculoos is a Dutch spiced biscuit) mousse. This place was so not touristy, that at one point our friend was called into the kitchen to taste test the special, and I was serenaded by the chef and owner, Peter, with traditional Dutch songs on the accordion.

Eventually, we went to find what I really came there for: The Fault in Our Stars bench. It was surprisingly centrally located, and when we got there there wasn’t a line to take pictures like I had expected. Maybe visiting the bench wasn’t some evangelical experience for everyone else like it was for me.

The Fault in Our Stars bench that really just looks like a regular bench from afar

I’ve always found John Green’s books to be insightful, and I’ve read and reread them several times. But never have I found his books more comforting than in the days after my father died. I reviewed old passages that had brought me particular solace memorizing them like some people memorize passages of the Bible. I even quoted him in my father’s eulogy, “We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.”

So for me, visiting that bench wasn’t about Instagramming the picture later. It was about connecting to a place that some of my favorite characters had connected, and really isn’t that what we’re doing when we visit the Anne Frank House?

When we visited the Anne Frank House on Friday, the line wrapped around the building, and the museum had to let people in on a time delay to prevent crowding. Everyone wanted to see this place that so many people had connected with through her diary. I certainly felt closer to Anne (it feels strange to call her by just her first name, but she was a person too after all) seeing the actual bookcase that enclosed her in her hiding space with the Van Pels and the place where she had her first kiss with Peter Van Pels. I’m sure some of the line for the Van Gogh museum was people trying to connect with an artist they’d fallen in love with at some point in their lives too. Sometimes being closer to a place can make you closer to a person or an idea.