so, sunday i was in amsterdam. i flew in from prague because my flight to houston left out of amsterdam on monday... im glad i took that day detour to prague because in addition to it being 300 euros cheaper, apparently saturday was a giant gay pride festival on the canals... the city was still covered in confetti and garbage the next day. apparently it was jolly good fun
for everybody involved, and there were still boats doing the gay pride boat parade the next day (perhaps they just had gotten lost and figured theyd keep partying)
amsterdam has a reputation for the red light district and the pot houses... i didnt partake in either, although i walked by examples of both... the pot houses just annoyed me because they smelled up the sidewalk, and i actually got freaked out when i was trying to walk from the nieuw markt back to my hotel for my canal boat trip and i walked down a side street off of nieuw markt, and then a man came out of a door, and then the window curtain opened to reveal a middle aged woman in underwear sitting in a chair. and then another such lady, and then another closed curtain and i looked to the right, and there was the same pattern, woman in the window, followed by several closed curtains... and then i got to the canal, and was like phew, im safe back on a well traveled canal... but no, across the canal was a live sex show place, and next to that was another one, and then i looked at my side of the canal, and there were more. so i pressed on, and made it back to my hotel for my canal trip.
in addition to the canal trip, i ate indonesian food... which i had not eaten since 2003, when i was in indonesia. i miss it, it's good stuff. and i went to the rijksmuseum (pronounced reichsmuseum) and the van gogh museum... both of which were overcrowded. seriously, the van gogh museum is popular, so they should raise the price to 20 euros, and also only allow a certain number of patrons in at a time, because it was difficult to see some of the more famous van gogh's that they had, although there
impressionist painters, too popular, too cliche today, and just too revolutionary, not to mention what sort of pretentious drivel they inspired others to do... but i did need to see som were no crowds around the gauguins or his disciples. which just shows how stupid people are. however, i've always been militantly againste brighter colours at that point in time, and something light, it was heartening to see that as van gogh descended into madness and depression his paintings actually got brighter and cheerier... so that was nice, although, im so used to being alone and in quiet places, the swarms of tourists with funny accents like new jersey, freaked me out, so i tried to rush through the museum so i could get back out
into the open and the peace and quiet of my solitude which ive grown accustomed to.
amsterdam is interesting, although, i didnt particularly care for it, maybe it was because i was just tired, but it seemed to be crawling with american tourists, and because i came the day after a big celebration, the city was fairly dirty, it had its appealing points, like indonesian food, and everybody seemed to own a boat, however, ive been once, so now, i can go somewhere else. there were still more things to do there. i have friends that LOVE amsterdam, and its alright, i'd like to see the maritime museum
and look at the replica east indiaman
De Amsterdam, but it depends, i'd go back, but its not at the top of my list of places to go back to... i met alot of californians there. on the canal cruise, i met two californians from oakland, one of whom was a lawyer, i shared a taxi to schiphol with a california lawyer from beverly hills, on the plane, i sat next to a californian studying at berkley. it was like i couldnt get away from californians. and they all pointed out that im not a stereotypical texan... at least not what they had expected a texan to be... plus that i didnt have an
accent.
for everybody involved, and there were still boats doing the gay pride boat parade the next day (perhaps they just had gotten lost and figured theyd keep partying)
amsterdam has a reputation for the red light district and the pot houses... i didnt partake in either, although i walked by examples of both... the pot houses just annoyed me because they smelled up the sidewalk, and i actually got freaked out when i was trying to walk from the nieuw markt back to my hotel for my canal boat trip and i walked down a side street off of nieuw markt, and then a man came out of a door, and then the window curtain opened to reveal a middle aged woman in underwear sitting in a chair. and then another such lady, and then another closed curtain and i looked to the right, and there was the same pattern, woman in the window, followed by several closed curtains... and then i got to the canal, and was like phew, im safe back on a well traveled canal... but no, across the canal was a live sex show place, and next to that was another one, and then i looked at my side of the canal, and there were more. so i pressed on, and made it back to my hotel for my canal trip.
in addition to the canal trip, i ate indonesian food... which i had not eaten since 2003, when i was in indonesia. i miss it, it's good stuff. and i went to the rijksmuseum (pronounced reichsmuseum) and the van gogh museum... both of which were overcrowded. seriously, the van gogh museum is popular, so they should raise the price to 20 euros, and also only allow a certain number of patrons in at a time, because it was difficult to see some of the more famous van gogh's that they had, although there
impressionist painters, too popular, too cliche today, and just too revolutionary, not to mention what sort of pretentious drivel they inspired others to do... but i did need to see som were no crowds around the gauguins or his disciples. which just shows how stupid people are. however, i've always been militantly againste brighter colours at that point in time, and something light, it was heartening to see that as van gogh descended into madness and depression his paintings actually got brighter and cheerier... so that was nice, although, im so used to being alone and in quiet places, the swarms of tourists with funny accents like new jersey, freaked me out, so i tried to rush through the museum so i could get back out
into the open and the peace and quiet of my solitude which ive grown accustomed to.
amsterdam is interesting, although, i didnt particularly care for it, maybe it was because i was just tired, but it seemed to be crawling with american tourists, and because i came the day after a big celebration, the city was fairly dirty, it had its appealing points, like indonesian food, and everybody seemed to own a boat, however, ive been once, so now, i can go somewhere else. there were still more things to do there. i have friends that LOVE amsterdam, and its alright, i'd like to see the maritime museum
and look at the replica east indiaman De Amsterdam, but it depends, i'd go back, but its not at the top of my list of places to go back to... i met alot of californians there. on the canal cruise, i met two californians from oakland, one of whom was a lawyer, i shared a taxi to schiphol with a california lawyer from beverly hills, on the plane, i sat next to a californian studying at berkley. it was like i couldnt get away from californians. and they all pointed out that im not a stereotypical texan... at least not what they had expected a texan to be... plus that i didnt have an 
accent.
No comments:
Post a Comment