On the river Amstel we sat and smiled

WARNING: Contains lots of pictures. 

 

Daaaad?

 After one hour in a train from Rotterdam to the Dutch capital, I stepped out in the sunshine in front of Amsterdam Centraal to Sophie, and six months' separation dissolved into nothing.

Amsterdam is hotter than Rotterdam and Den Haag.
Our walk through the whole city to our hostel in the Museum area made me long for another of those ice cream twirls I just consumed.
Jansen Hotel is nothing to brag about. It is old and not very impressive, but at least the pillows were good.  

 

Rijksmuseum

 

Obligatory tourist picture.

We decided to be cultural and experience some of Holland's history, and went to the Rijksmuseum 500 meters from the hostel.
I saved 9 euros on pretending to be 18 years old. I am a disgrace...
But on the other hand, the museum was much smaller than I thought. But a lot of nice paintings and beautiful wooden cabinets.



We occasionally passed a diamond exhibition. Free entrance, so we could go in there, see gemstones being polished , have a look at the biggest diamonds in the world (I think), criticise the people who spend a fortune on a rock, laugh at ladies selling rings for 5000 euros and trying to convince me that they had something for my budget too.

Hard, shiny material

Good!

If I say Amsterdam, you say?
sex, drugs and rock'n roll.


I am learning by doing, so we couldn't be in the most liberal city in the world without visiting a coffeeshop.

We sat down in Vondelpark and ate a little bit of muffin.

 

Sophie taking a picture of a Dutch muffin.

Street art

Then we walked around to check out a church, buy something to drink, and then

floating in space, sitting on a bench, laughing at all the people walking by, Sophie spoke Japanese and thought the pattern in the pavement was amazing, my legs were no longer attached to my body, what?, ate potato chips, but wasn't hungry, sunglasses on, everybody suddenly speaking Japanese, dog on a bike, why am I here?, haha, Sophie looks funny, what is she saying?, I don't understand, why are we here?,THIS IS SO EXTREMELY FUNNY, why am I laughing?
I am floating in spaaaaace

Don't remember

And it was cold, but I couldn't feel it, I just knew it, and then Sophie wanted to go back, but I was sure I couldn't walk. I was wrong. I could even read the map if I held it 10 cm from my red eyes, and walk if I didn't move my gaze from the pavement.
I am impressed by my own abilities.

I was at bed before 8 o'clock, woke up around 2 o'clock and was still floating in space.
At 7 o'clock my brain was back from it's trip around Mars, and we could have a good, controlled laugh about Tuesday afternoon, and I decided to never repeat it.
Funny how hard it is on your body. After 12 hours of sleep I was still tired, and all we did was sitting on a bench.


My short term memory was still not working as well as it normally does, but when we were entering Anne Frank's house, I was pulled brutally back to consciousness of this world's gruesomeness.
Strong experience.
Tears well up in my eyes thinking of how people were forced to live and die by fellow humanbeings.
But it doesn't help to weep for them now.
Honour them by working against repetition of history.

Prinsengracht 267, where Anne Frank spent 15% of her young life

A free guided tour through the city took away the dark feelings after walking through the Frank family's prison.

Amsterdam

Three hours walk through all the interesting parts of town, loads of information, hilarious guide, sunshine, cool people. And for free.

 

City^2

I learned a lot about the history of this strange trading city, about the politics and why they are so liberal and about different buildings.
Did you know that marijuana is not legal, only tolerated, and that 80% of the population in the country have never smoked pot, or just tried it once? The country that smokes most pot in the world is Spain. Holland is number 9.

Magic mushroom anyone?

The prostitution has been in Amsterdam for centuries, as a trading point with sailors coming from all over the world, and because the Catholic priests needed amusement. At one point the church started selling forgiveness to sailors in advance of their sins.

Red light district monument. Anonymity
 

The prostitutes in the Red Light District work for themselves and rent the windows in shifts, and because they are not criminals in Holland, they can call the police for help if someone bothers them.


I believe there is a lot to learn from the attitude. Many of the problems around these themes in other countries come from the thing being illegal, so the government doesn't interfere. Prostitution will always exist, so by legalising it for individuals (It is illegal to be organised, so no one is abused), it becomes a clean business where the girls are safe and can count on protection from the government, and not a dodgy affair in filthy backstreets.

 

Canal and bird

 

Nieuwe Markt, where Rembrandt spent most of his time

 

Guide and group

 

Street art II

 

Marijuana plants in a window

 

Kroket, one of few Dutch dishes

 

Amsterdam's coat of arms

 

Begijnhof, secret little park with church between the houses

 

No normal door. Secret gate to Begijnhof

 

Most famous coffeeshop in the world. A scene in "Ocean's twelve" was played here.
Ammagad, George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon have all stood there.

 

Amsterdam style

 

Because of the canals, Santa Claus uses boat in Amsterdam! And because he is high, he comes at spring instead of Christmas

 

In Amsterdam, they knit warmers for the lamp posts. How thoughtful!

 

Narrowest house in town. 1,8 meters wide. 

 

Why not?

 

I love creativity!
I never see this in Norway!

After this very amusing and interesting tour, we headed for the sex-museum.
Quite intense impressions, but interesting to see f ex how porn was in the 1920's.
And how sick some fetishes are. Bah. 

 

Porn from the 60's

 

Me sitting on giant penis, thinking about life

 

Like this one. Apple cider "The forbidden fruit".

 

 

Brazilians showing their capoeira skills

 

Nice view from our hostel room

At night, we had decided to join a pub crawl in the Red Light District.
I know.
I went against my own principals.
Pub crawl. 

Ready to hit town

But one is in Amsterdam to do things he wouldn't do other places, isn't it?
And it wasn't that interesting even. Maybe it had to do with being Wednesday night.
At least there were very few people out apart from this group of around 20 tourists.
But I got a free t-shirt, so it was worth the money.
The best part was walking through the Red Light District at night when there was action.
Different experience.
In every window there is a woman with beautiful body winking and waving at you, and sometimes a middleaged tourist comes out of a door with a satisfied smile after paying 50 euros for 15 minutes of pleasure.

Here there should be a photo of the windows, but they warned us about photographing the prostitutes. They dislike it very much, and turn violent, smashing your camera.

I took no risk.

Strange indeed.
But the unpleasant feeling isn't there.
The streets are clean, all kinds of people walk around talking, and if you don't like seeing almost naked bodies behind the glass, you just don't look.

Apart from that and some interesting people in the group, there wasn't anything to tell. Boring pubs and shit music at the last club.

We crashed in our beds at 03.30 with soar feet and dizzy heads.
And then up again at 08.00.
Shower, breakfast (peanutbutter sandwiches, yum) and then out in the sunny streets.

 

How do you change time?
If someone has the answer, please let me know.

I wasn't really into the idea at first, but luckily Sophie didn't give up, and at 11 o'clock we sat in a canal bike, feeling the sunrays colour our noses pink, pedaling past lazy ducks and under bridges with Pink singing on my phone.

Moment of complete happiness.
 

 

Oh yeaaah, sunglasses on, rockin' the boat

 

Amsterdam love

 

Happiness

 

Reflections

 

Heavy traffic in the canal! It's a wonder we didn't sink or crash. Or both

 

The meaning of the word "relaxing"

Pedaling, avoiding tourist cruises, waving at bypassers, taking pictures, laughing.
The man we rented it from completely underestimated our skills, and in 1 hour and 15 minutes we managed to get almost all around the city's complex canal system (100 km alltogether - more than Venice) and ended up near the Rijksmuseum and I could run to the toilet and relax my hyperactive bladder.

 We found our way to Albert Cuypmarkt, Amsterdam's biggest market.

 

Go crazy

 

They are quite vulgar in Amsterdam. 

Chocolate genitals for sale 

Murder!

Shoes, cheese, sunglasses, clothes, phone accessories, souvenirs, flowers, pancakes, fish, plants, jewelery.
Anything you might need plus a hundred things more.
Having a really unhealthy day, I only spent money on a fresh waffel with chocolate. And then a fresh stroopwafel. And then some handmade chocolate.

Couples in the park

And then we went back. Sophie packed, and we went out in the city to have a drink at Prik (what a name...), the most famous gay bar in Amsterdam.
Nice place, very pink.
It was almost empty because we were early, but at least the guys working in the bar were as gay as you get them.

 

Prik

Sophie took a train to the airport at 18.41, and I walked my way back to the hostel and bought salad for dinner on the way.

I like it.

Decided to spend my last night in Amsterdam doing nothing. Had a conversation with the world's most negative person, whom I found quite funny and interesting, and then I skyped with Irene for too long, so I got to bed later than I expected.
Well, it was worth it.

Even after almost 9 hours of sleep, I am a complete wreck. Got up at 09.30 to run in the park for thirty minutes, had a shower and breakfast and left for Amstel Station where my bus departed.
Was unable to sleep in the bus, and ate a chocolate to comfort myself.
Had an attack of low bloodsugar after that and felt miserable the rest of the way to Brussels.
Then I had to walk for 30 min in the sun with my 378 kg suitcase, and now I am in the hostel, which happens to be half an hour of different transportation from the center.
I still don't know if I bother to drag my exhausted body out in the streets of Brussels today.
I think I have to sleep on it for an hour.
If not, I am ready for some heavy touristing tomorrow.

Brussels in one day. Might be tough.

But NIHIL IMPOSSIBILE EST.