| What's So Great About Amsterdam? |
There's something exciting about traveling to a country where you don't know a single word of the language spoken there. You expect to be faced with all sorts of funny and stressful situations resulting from the communication breakdown between you and the guy making your lunch or the lady selling you your train ticket. But since we've arrived in Amsterdam, I feel hard pressed to remember a single time when one of the local people didn't speak to us in English. The guy making my lunch ended up understanding me just fine, and the lady selling train tickets even knew enough English to make fun of me for asking for a student discount (I didn't think it would hurt to inquire). I have to admit that it takes some of the fun away, but at the same time I feel like I'll get plenty of language barrier fun in places like Hungary and Poland later in the trip, and for now I should be enjoying the simplicity afforded by being able to communicate vocally and not by drawing pictures and using hand gestures.
So as you might have guessed, we made it to Amsterdam yesterday. On no less than one airplane, four trains, and two trams, we arrived at our hostel, the Flying Pig, in late afternoon. First, a few things about Amsterdam. It's cold here! In the fifties mostly, and cloudy with some rain. My head is so cold without all the curly locks. But it is a beautiful city! I can already tell it's going to be one of my favorites of the trip. And the Dutch are extremely friendly! Quite a contrast to what we'll likely face at our next stop, Paris. Also, everybody rides a bike here! Literally, bike-only streets parallel many of the streets traveled by cars, and they are always packed. They even have their own traffic lights. It's great to see a city embrace alternative forms of transportation, although it makes crossing the street twice as hard. And also, everything you've heard about this city is true, and I do mean everything, although from the looks of things, it feels like there is so much more to it than just that.
Last night after we got situated, we headed out to forage for food. That's what it's begun to feel like, going out and searching in a new land for that elusive appetizing meal that fits our budget and isn't too American. There always seems to be a McDonald's or something like it within close range, but we keep trying to eat outside the box I guess. After almost an hour of wandering and getting the lay of the land, we happened upon the bright yellow sign belonging to Pizzalijn Salvatore, an unassuming takeout pizza joint down some metal steps with a Vespa parked inside and photographs of Luciano Pavarotti and Sylvester Stallone hung on the wall. I actually thought Pavarotti was Napoleon, nevermind that it was a photograph (I still think they do bear some resemblance), but Alex was happy to correct me and then laugh. Hey, I never said I was smart. Anyway, I like eating at quirky places wherever I go, so we walked right in to find two old Italian guys looking up from their card game to take our order. Right before our eyes, the fellow rolled out the dough and assembled the toppings before skillfully tossing the pies into the oven, all while chatting on the phone in rapid Italian. While we waited, I noticed what I assumed to be his family watching an American sitcom subtitled in Dutch, which made me chuckle. The show was How I Met Your Mother, not the most notable piece of American television, but I couldn't help but think how a lifetime of watching TV like this might cause you to at least pick up some English, which seems really cool. It also makes me feel a little better about not really knowing any foreign languages myself, since I was never immersed in one constantly like these kids appear to be. We finished our pizzas with a pitcher of local beer in the basement bar at our hostel (handy) and headed out to explore the possibilities of what you might call Amsterdam-type activities.
This morning, I received a gift from the gods in the form of a long, amazingly satisfying hot shower, my first since leaving the Americas. Let me tell you, you don't know what you have until it's gone when it comes to hot water. At our last hostel, we had two showers to 45 people, which supplied cold water for 30 seconds if you pressed a metal button on the wall. The Flying Pig has about twice as many showers, with real knobs and shower heads tall enough to reach my head, so I am happy.
After that glorious experience, we headed out with some hostel buddies to a pancake restaurant built inside an old converted carousel. The pancakes were bigger than the pizzas from the night before, which made me full and happy. To occupy ourselves in the afternoon, we headed to a laundromat, since we were running low on clean socks and undies. It turns out that they wash, dry, and fold your clothes for you. You just weigh the dirty laundry and pay by the kilo. For only seven euros, we didn't have to do anything but wait.
But instead of waiting of course, we went to the nearby Heineken brewery to go on the famous Heineken Experience, which is part brewery tour, part theme park ride, culminating in the end with a few free pints in a really swanky Heineken-themed bar. For the most part, I don't really care much about beer besides just drinking it on occasion, but even I enjoyed the tour, which featured all kinds of cool history about the brand, their packaging, and lots of cool old advertisements.
We were hungry after the beer so we collected our neatly folded laundry from the really friendly folks at the Wasserette (Dutch for laundry I suppose) and headed in the general direction of a supermarket. On the way, we ended up stumbling upon an awesome open air market, one of my favorite things about European cities. We walked around for a while and by the time we were done, I had accumulated a quarter kilo of prunes, a link of the absolute most delicious chorizo sausage I have ever tasted, and a wedge of some cheese I thought looked like Brie but is definitely something different. I don't know why, but totally unexpected and unplanned meals like these make me so happy. I bit off the metal clasp on the end of the sausage and ate the whole thing right in the street, and then knawed on a huge loaf of cibatta that Alex got from an Arab bakery for only a euro.
Needless to say, Amsterdam is proving to be a little more exciting and much less American-feeling than London, even though evidence of our culture's influence is literally everywhere. The whole city just has this very eclectic feel to it that I am enjoying wholeheartedly. In the next few days we plan to explore the red light district, check out the Van Gogh museum, see the Anne Frank House, and wander through more of the parks and streets in this magical city. |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Hi Michael!!! Great blog! I'm really enjoying reading it (well this is the first time I've read it). Be really careful. I have a friend whose son is with a guided tour, same age as yours, and someone broke into 4 of the rooms! Wear your money and camera to sleep! (I'd like to get a picture of that, by the way). Have FUN!!!!!!See you in OC. Love, Aunt Lisa
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Hi Michael, Enjoying your blog. Glad you're having fun , seeing new things, and meeting new people. Be careful and keep your eyes open. We're up in NYC for Lexi's party (and a visit to new Yankee Stadium). Keep on blogging! Love, Dad
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Hi Michael!!! Great blog! I'm really enjoying reading it (well this is the first time I've read it). Be really careful. I have a friend whose son is with a guided tour, same age as yours, and someone broke into 4 of the rooms! Wear your money and camera to sleep! (I'd like to get a picture of that, by the way). Have FUN!!!!!!See you in OC. Love, Aunt Lisa