Amsterdam

Luke and I planned a trip to Amsterdam from November 19-22. My friend Liam decided to come with me as well. The plan was that we would fly out of Cork together and meet up with Luke at the hostel when we arrived in Amsterdam. Our journey to the Netherlands turned out to be a smooth, beautiful, eye-opening experience.

I think this story might work better if I start off with the end instead of the beginning...

11/22/08

I woke before sunrise on the Saturday of our departure from the Netherlands. I rose from my hostel bed and gathered my things in the dark, quickly packing up what I had brought with me. I woke up Liam, and within minutes we left. We checked out of the hostel and walked through Vondelpark. It was serene and there was a chilly stillness in the air.

As we proceeded on to the tram stop, a light snow began to fall. The air was cold and a light breeze blew fluffy snow flakes past my face as I took in the quiet beauty of the city lights around me in the dark. It was a symbolic, peaceful, somewhat melancholy moment.

The moment was melancholy because it pained me to leave a city that I felt such a strong bond with, and what follows is how this bond was formed.

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11/19/08

Liam and I caught an outbound cab at 5 am in order to get to Cork airport in time for our 6:30 flight. We arrived in time and everything went smoothly. We boarded the plane and unsuccessfully tried to get some shuteye. The upside was that I saw an amazing, neon orange sunrise as we were flying toward Amsterdam. We arrived at Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam at approximately 8 o'clock. We were seriously sleep deprived and couldn't wait to get to our hostel. We took a cab from the airport to the hostel, which turned to be a 20 minute ride. That, while also taking into consideration the fact that the "cab" was a black benz, resulted in a cab fare totaling something considerably higher than we had been expecting. All we could do was laugh it off, but it turned into one of the ongoing jokes of the trip.

The hostel "Stayokay Vondelpark Amsterdam" was definitely a good choice. It was located outside the hustle and bustle of downtown, so it was in a quiet, safe place. The hostel was right next to the beautiful Vondelpark, a large park dotted with large trees, ponds, and benches.

Liam and I rented a locker, secured our belongings and ventured into the city on foot. The first thing on my mind, as usual, was finding food.

After coming across an awesome Dutch outdoor market, we spotted a little Dutch cafe on the other side of some of the stands. We went inside and sat down, and I found myself staring down at a menu that was written completely in Dutch- expected, yet surprisingly difficult to navigate. I decided on a brie and fresh herb omelete. What was brought to me was one of the highest quality, most picturesque breakfasts ever created. It simply was beautiful on the plate. That was one of the things that struck me- the contrast in dedication to quality of presentation between Dutch and American breakfasts. Our waitress was a gorgeous, blond Dutch girl and she even helped us map out the day's route.

It was a beautiful, fairly mild day outside, so we spent our time wandering the city on foot and takings lots of pictures. We walked all over the east, west, south side and the center of the city. We decided our favorite street was "Herengracht." It was a beautiful street that spanned each side of one of the canals circling the city. The street names that ended with "straat" (street) lead into the city center (centrum), while the street names that ended with "gracht" circled the city center. The realization of this fact was essential in our navigation of Amsterdam's small, compact streets. The thing about Amsterdam that struck me the most was how quiet it was! The most beautiful fact about city life here was that things were busy, they just weren't loud.

I would say an equal number of people choose to ride bikes in Amsterdam as the number of people that choose to drive cars. Each city street was integrated with a bike path. This added the dynamic of watching out for bike riders almost as much as cars when crossing the street and other public areas. All of the bikes were "old school" banana bike style. At night the bikes each had lights on the front and back, so a silent flow of little bike lights could constantly be seen gliding down the city streets. Each bike also had an eerie, deep, hollow-sounding bell that seemed to resonate forever when rung. To make a long story short, the bikes were awesome, and they increased the efficiency of the city tenfold. The possibility of using bikes as a cheap source of transportation allows Amsterdam to compensate a much larger amount of people than cities similar in size. This, in turn, has made the city a cultural center of Europe.

In contrast to Amsterdam's dark past as a leading port in the slave trade, the city's present diversity makes it an interesting, enlightening place. Amsterdam is like the "Venice of the north," and the beauty of its network of canals and quiet, shady, streets is unrivaled by many of the places I've been in my life. It is a city with a truly "European" feel. This feeling contrasted so much with that of Cork that I was undoubtedly somewhere completely new. My fascination with a newfound European charisma caused me to begin to appreciate more and more what I was seeing.

On our first night in Amsterdam I decided to buy a foot long hot dog on a roll with cheese when I was walking downtown. The guy heated it up for me, I paid, and it was delicious. Later on that same night, I walked into a different store and ordered a "Dutch sausage sandwich." Shortly after, I was handed what looked like a large hot dog on a baguette. I turned to Liam and said "Man this looks like a giant hot dog... I thought I ordered a sausage sandwich." I bit into it, and sure enough, it was a massive hot dog. A Dutch sausage is in fact a hot dog! I decided I was eating way too many hot dogs and didn't eat a single one the rest of the trip.

The best food I ate while in Amsterdam was a warm wafel with melted chocolate and a blob of whipped cream. I bought it at a little wafel stand while walking around one cold afternoon. These little wafel stands were all over the city to provide a warm treat for cold pedestrians.

11/20/08

We woke up and took advantage of the hostel's free breakfast buffet. After having some bread, cheese, cereal, and coffee, we headed off in the direction of the Van Gogh museum. We walked past the Rembrandt Museum and through a very strange park. In the center of the park's barren trees was a massive, twenty foot high sand castle. The sand castle was reminiscent of Tajma Hall and had the most detail I had ever seen in a sand sculpture.

We eventually found the Van Gogh museum, and we were blown away by the collection there. They had over 300 original Van Gogh paintings, and the viewer was able to progress through Van Gogh's life with him as his style and mental state changed over the years.

After the Van Gogh museum, we went straight to the Botanical Gardens. Very cool. My favorite was the butterfly house. Butterflies flew freely all around us, throughout the humid greenhouse as they pollinated flours.

After the gardens, we decided to go warm up in one of Amsterdam's "pubs" and have a pint. The first bar we went to was called Pirates Bar. Loud techno was pumping and lasers were flashing everywhere. Liam and I downed our beers and got out of there as quickly as possible. We missed Cork at times like this.

We decided to not give up just yet, and we went inside a restuarant/bar with a more relaxed feel. We sat down at the bar and ordered a couple of pints of Heineken (you had to specifically say "pint" or they would give it to you in a tiny cup...we found this strange having been so accustomed to Irish culture).

The original Heineken Brewery and headquarters are in Amsterdam and they pretty much run a beer monopoly in the city, so the choices of beer were extremely limited. In each pub you could have Heineken or Amstel Pils. I was surprised at the difference in taste between Heineken here and the American version that I knew so well. Heineken in Amsterdam is stronger and sweeter in taste. It was delicious. I actually liked the Amstel Pils even more. I know Amstel Light is popular in the states, but I never saw it in Amsterdam. The Amstel was similar to the Heineken, being stronger and sweeter in taste than the American version, but it was a bit less hopsy than the Heineken. It was overall smoother on the palate.

After trying Amsterdam's only two beers we got some traditional Chinese food cooked in a genuine wok. We each chose what type of noodles, ingredients, and sauce we wanted and then the chef cooked it up for us.

11/21/08

We woke up on Friday and decided that we wanted to visit the Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt Museum). After some breakfast and a stroll around town, Luke, Liam, and I walked over to the Museumplein (street with a lot of cool museums on it). The Rembrandt Museum featured a lot of old paintings of upperclass lords and political figures, as well as a vast array of fine Dutch metalwork in silver and gold. This type of art really isn't my style- I prefer more abstract, creative pieces, but all in all it was still an enjoyable, educational museum experience.

The highlight of the museum was an exhibit by Damien Hirsch called "For the Love of God." We had to wait in line to walk into a small dark passage. This passage led us into a large room. At the center of the room a skull made completely of diamonds sat in a glass case. The entire room was pitch black except for the glowing skull, lit up by several spot lights directed at it from different angles. The effect was magnificent, for the different angles of light entered the skull and were diffracted by the facets of the diamonds into rainbow prisms of light.

I pondered the meaning of the exhibit, for I was sure that by now most of us were aware of the violent conflicts going on surrounding the diamond trade. This phenomenon can generally be grasped after watching the movie "Blood Diamond." I concluded that, as opposed to the use of diamonds in a luxurious, glorified way, Hirsch used them in a seemingly wasteful way (in covering a skull with as many as he possibly could) in order to instill a desired shock value in the audience. The use of the skull as a symbol of the unspoken undertones in the diamond industry was meant to alert people to what consumerism and advertisements have made them blind to. I could be completely wrong in my assessment of Hirsch's exhibit, but at least it was a successful piece- it made me think.

Following our visit to the Rijksmuseum, we spent the better part of the day hanging out downtown and meeting people. One particularly interesting guy that we met was a Croatian named Milan. He told us all about living in Croatia. He also asked if we were here in Amsterdam "to get girls" and we said no, which surprised him. One thing that I noticed while in Amsterdam was the stark contrast in opinions that we had as opposed to Europeans surrounding prostitution. Liam, Luke, and I all saw it as a very strange thing that we in no way wanted to take part in. Many Europeans that I encountered, on the other hand, saw it as no big deal. It simply was part of life. It was really hard for me to grasp this concept.

Later that night we decided that while we were in Amsterdam we had to walk through the Red Light District. It's a surprisingly small part of the city, and it's not easy to find.

As we walked past the windows lit with neon red lights, I experienced a feeling of disconnected sadness. I felt bad for the girls. Some were absolutely gorgeous, and some were younger than myself. People outside of the places we walked by tried to get us to come inside. The Red Light District became increasingly sketchy as we walked through it. Lots of junkies and homeless people asked us for money. We were definitely on our guard, and for good reason. The fact that Liam and I were both 6'4'' definitely gave us a nice buffer of security. Walking through the Red Light District was an eye opening experience, and it's an important place to visit in order to get a more complete sense of Amsterdam. One can better understand a city when he or she sees not only its beauty, but also its dark side. The bottom line is that prostitution is present in every city, Amsterdam just makes it visible to the public.

After our crazy walk through the Red Light District, we walked back to the hostel. Liam went to bed and Luke and I played pool with a couple of funny guys that had just flown in from LA. We had a couple of pints of Heineken and shot the breeze for a while. Luke and I played a final round of pool. I then said my goodbyes because I was flying out early in the morning, and hit the sack.