AmsterDam Good Times...

Oh come on, everybody loves a cheesy pun!

Amsterdam is fantastic - its a gorgeous city with so much to do, the people are laid back and friendly, and the local cyclists seem to regard traffic lights as an assault on their freedom of movement.
The cafe's are suitably alternative and cozy. My favourite was a place called Bagels & Beans.
My first bagel in four months was sesame seed with goat cheese, honey, walnuts and thyme, i.e. perfecton on a plate.

One of the things that kept astonishing me was how quiet Amsterdam is. I hardly ever heard any shouting or even overly-loud laughing, and the trams just glide by like a blue-streaked hallucination.

It was actually really weird, but wonderful!


The tree-lined street canals provide perpetual shade and fresh breezes, and the variety of houseboats in amazing, from shabby-chic to downright posh.




The center is mazed with alleyways, where most of the coffee shops can be found, along with some quiet little stores and the strangest signs, like this HELP sign that looks like its floating:


There were entire squares converted to terraces for the surrounding bars and restaurants, all of them in really nice areas.


The toppled/slanted look of the buildings gave the streets a quirky kind of character that I was fascinated with for brief but recurring periods (look at the gap between those two buildings).

Check out this duck-thing! It had the weirdest feet! I'm gonna feel like a moron if everyone else has known what this is since grade 4 or something but I've never seen one before. I first spotted it in a park where I was relaxing near the water, and at the time I was totally captivated with this new-to-me species (you can imagine why... :)


On a historical note, this castle at Nieuwmarkt has a pretty gory past - they used to hang the bodies of executed people on the side wall, and it's been the site of a few violent riots. But you'd never know - it's now a bar.

Good thing the bloodstains are gone ... nothing deters patio-goers like evidence of executions.


The Van Gogh Museum was my institutionalized-culture-of-choice for Amsterdam. I realize now that I didn't take any pictures. It just didn't occur to me, I guess because I was way too fascinated with reading everything and staring at his work. And I do mean staring (again, you can imagine why I was so ... let's say, entranced).

The other very cool thing I came cross was Homomonument (yes that's what it's called, I took a picture for proof), which is the first monument to persecuted gays and lesbians on the planet. Go Holland.


So, the famed red light district. Walking around in the early afternoon is quite a surreal experience. People out for a stroll, Moms with kids in tow, and prostitutes in every third window. With half a seconds glance at the first scantily-clad lady I passed, she resembled a lingerie mannequin. She moved and gave me a bit a start. Gotta watch out for those prostitutes man, they jump right out at'cha.

At night...it's quite different. All the same stuff is open in the daytime but it's so much more prominent all lit up in neon. And the vibe is much more whooo-let's-party.


Of course, even the fluorescent lights were naughty (tee-hee).


These gentleman, in front of the Moulin Rouge, have executive manners and filthy mouths - a racy combination indeed!


It has to be done. I'm sitting on the T in this picture to give you an idea of how huge this sign is. And I have no idea why it's there ha.


Nick and I biked into Abcoude (near the hostel) one night for dinner, where a certain Dutchman took a liking to the many pockets on Nick's cycling jacket, and invited himself to our table.

This guy was hilarious.

His English was such that he couldn't always find the words for what he wanted to say but his vocabulary was fantastically random. He described his drinking and 'chaotic' and referred to my purse as a 'cesspool of excitement'! Hilarious.

The hostel is a campsite with caravans and little bungalow dorm rooms, and since there's a lake close by, there were ducklings everywhere. Fuzzy-adorableness every day.

The early morning vibe of the hostel was quiet, a little dazed, and certainly bent on recovery. This 9:30 am candid shot perfectly captures it:



So Amsterdam is a wicked city. My only complaint is the hoards of yankee frat boys that descend on the city center starting around late afternoon. It's like the Borg - indistinguishable drones and total hive behaviour.

Aside from that, it was very mellow (or maybe that was just me...). I loved just strolling down the canals, in and out of cafes and bookshops, sitting in parks...

Oh, and the live sex show was pretty cool too ;)