Amsterdam with mom, Oct. 19 - 28

My mom came to visit me in Amsterdam for a little over a week. The time was spent intensely discovering the city, it was cool to be a tourist while at the same time having lived here and knowing all the ins and outs. This is the coolest city in the world, and there's nothing better then visiting it, especially with an insider (me)! We had loads of fun.

Day 1 - Orientation
I woke up at 6am after a day of cleaning, shopping, and generally staying up late. The trek to Centraal Station and Schiphol Airport was very graceful (I caught the right bus, bought the right tickets, and found the right platform). I met my mom and when we got back to my place and unpacked (got loads of new stuff!) I skipped my class and did a massive walking tour of Amsterdam. To avoid jetlag it was best to stay up, and we saw all the major tourist attractions that most tourists see during their entire time in Amsterdam: Waterlooplein, Flower Market, Kalverstraat (major shopping street), Dam (the first day of a fair where there was a stand with delicious Oliebollen; Tim Horton's Dutchie timbits are based on these), Red Light District, Universiteit Van Amsterdam, Rembrandtplein...

Day 2 - Back Pedal Breaks and Beer
Heineken brewery! Also my moms first day on a bike, and my first day of yelling "back pedal breaks!" over my shoulder. I even watched her take a light tumble.
The brewry no longer brews, but you get to see all the old equipment, as well as learn about the company now. You even get 3 free beers and a souvenier, and many people just come for the bar. We also had a traditional pancake dinner at an old merry-go-round styled restaurant, the first of many pancake dinners. In the evening we hit Holland Casino, where my mom didn't get in because of an expired drivers license. We went to Leidseplein instead, the mecca of nightlife in Amsterdam, and of course, more pancakes.


First day on our matching bikes. On the famous "Skinny" bridge




















Day 3 - Clogs, Shrroms and Prostitutes, or All-Things Dutch
I took my mom to the traditional Dutch village of Zaanse Schans that I visited before. This time the windmill was more exciting; because of the strong wind all of the machinery was in overdrive. We are now also both the owners of traditional Dutch clogs. Well, mine are traditional. My mom's are decorated with windmills, and the Dutch have a saying that crazy people "walk with the windmills". Pretty funny.
In the evening we took a very informative walking tour through the Red Light District, where we learned that the Dutch government recently sent prostitutes to Afghanistan as their contribution to the effort. Our group was very small, just me, my mom, a Dutch couple and a rowdy American accountant who bought a box of shrooms during the walk, offered everyone a shroom, and when we all declined he proceeded to eat the whole box himself. He made it through the tour but at the end when we went for a drink at a bar they were starting to kick in; he spent the evening admiring the beautiful lights of the parked taxis. The bar itself was the last wooden bar in Amsterdam, and it used to accept cash and monkeys as payment (because of all the sailors). When the owners got bored of the monkeys they were banished to the basement. To this day the Dutch have a saying that if you get a bad/rejected hotel room you're "rooming with the monkeys".





















Day 4 - Den Haag
Day trip to Den Haag (The Hague) with the Intenraitonal Studnet Network; my mom hung out with students all day. Den Haag was the capital of the Netherlands until 1806. That year, Louis Bonaparte set up his government in Amsterdam, and when the French were kicked out the government returned to Den Haag but the title of apital and the king remained in Amsterdam. Today Den Haag is sill the seat of government and the residence of the royal family. After seeing the Queen's Royal Residence (on certain days, depending one the stock market, Queen Beatrix is the richest woman in the world), we wanderd through the city and ended up at an IMAX movie theatre; to us Canadians it's nothing new but for some students it was a unique experience.
En route back we stopped at Scheveningen, a major sea side resort/the most popular beach in the Netherlands. During WWII Dutch resisatance fighters used "Scheveningen" as a password because no German could pronounce it properly.


Royal Residence










Embassies and other important buildings










Scheveningen











Day 5 - Rijksmuseum and Rain
Intense museum day, including the Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt's Night Watch is here), Van Gogh Museum, Museum Van Loon (a canal side home of the wealthy Van Loon family, co-founders of the Dutch East India Company VOC) and the Amsterdam Historisch Museum. My favorite in terms of content is the Van Gogh museum, but the building of the Amsterdam Historisch is very interesting. It's located in a former orphanage in the Nieuwe Zijde (New Side) of central Amsterdam, which is actually older than the Oude Zijde (old side) of Amsterdam. We had a great dinner in a beautiful Dutch restaurant and an uber touristy boat trip throught the canals at night. It rained heavily though so we couldn't see much, and we got soaked cycling home at the end of the day.


Rijksmuseum











A couple doodles...











Amsterdam Historisch Museum











Day 6 - Churches and Hookers
Museum day number two started in the Red Light District at the Oude Kerk and a funny church called Our Lord in the Attic. In the 17th Century Catholics were only allowed to practice in private; public churches weren't allowed. This church was built in the attic of a wealthy merchant's home. Following that we dashed to Rembrandt's house and had lunch in a tiny, leaning house that looks like it's going to fall into the canal any day. We dodged the rain again and made our way to the Jordaan to catch another boat tour, this time not in the rain, and even got to see the inside of a house boat. We returned to the Leidseplein for souvenier shopping and dinner, and then took a walk around my hood. We took the walkway over the River Ij past a massive floating Chinese restaurant, Centraal Station and we even made our way back to Dam for more donuts and walked through the Red Light District. Near Dam, where the Red Light District starts, is a neat bar called Fockink, where they serve traditional Dutch Jenever (similar to gin) and loads of other liqueurs. It's an extremely old place and the bar is very low (the Dutch were short brefore they evolved?), with a walk up window so you can also get liquor on the go. That's where a family with 3 small kids got their shots; I guess they didn't want to hang out in the smokey bar. But even the kids got a shot glass, with juice. Very funny. We walked home through the Red Light District; it's such an intrersting place at night. And despite the non-stop drug dealers selling "cocaine, ecstasy", you feel very safe.


Oude Kerk











Our Lord In The Attic














Church in the attic














Rembrandt's House, the one with the green shutters between the Rembrandt facade and Rembrandts cafe











Canal tour #2











On a house boat; not too shabby either! The city has reached its limit on houseboats; the government will not allow any new ones. As a result, they've become very expensive; often a houseboat costs as much as a canalside house.











Day 7 - Anne Franke Huis
First thing in the morning we went to a Gassan Diamonds, a diamond factory. The tour and demonstration was brief. The major part of the tour was us sitting in a little office looking at
beautiful, sparkling diamonds that we could take home for about 1000-10000 euros. Next stop was the Willet-Holthuysen house, a gift from a wealthy family to the city of Amsterdam; beautiful canal side home. That was the end of the Museum itinerary, and in the afernoon we went back to my hood and went to the Turkish market. It's a cheap market with everything, and it's not on any tourist map so it's truely local. In the afternoon we decided to be brave and fight the crowds at the Anne Frank house. It was worth seeing but quite disappointing. When the family was discovered the Germans confiscated all the furniture, and Otto Frank (Anne's father and the only survivor) never recreated the conditions they lived in. Personally, I think it's so they can cram in as many tourists as possible in one day. A true tourist trap. In the evening we finally made it to the Casino, and after doing well at the slots, losing, doing well at Black Jack, and losing, we ended up 12 euros poorer. Not bad.


Gassan Diamonds














Anne Frank Huis, the one in the middle with the light shining on the top windows.













Near the Casino











Day 8
A chilled out day. Went shopping at Waterlooplein market, a true mix of things where you can find neat one of a kind items and loads of junk. We also met my Dutch friend for the best applei pie in town, which is truely somethign since the Dutch aren't great culinary artists. As usual, we took a walk through the Red Light District at night, and caught a ferry to Amsterdam Noord to one of my favorite cafes with a cool view of the harbor.


Outside my window










There's a windmill in my hood, how cool!











The Jordaan district












Day 9
On our last day we just wandered the side streets of Amsterdam and did some last minute shopping at the Flower Market. We also visited my favorite pancake place, a little 3 table restaurant located on a top floor in a narrow canal house. We took one last walk around the city in the eveing, and visited Club 11, located on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in Amsterdam. When you're on the 11th floor in a flat city, the view is quite spectacular and it seems to be very high up.


The statue version of Nightwatch at Rembrandtplein
















Crazy ING ad on Kalverstraat; that's a real guy!















A map of Amsterdam:















Our travels through Amsterdam. X marks the spot... where I live.















Day 10
No point in going to bed, we caught a cab and train to Schiphol at 4am in the morning.


Now that I'm alone again I feel homesick for the first time. With no visitors in sight I feel permanent here!

Weekend at Texel, Oct. 6-8

On Friday I headed off for a weekend trip to Texel, the largest of the Wadden Islands on the north coast of Noord Holland (the province of which Amsterdam is the capital). It's funny that it took us 2 hours by bus and 20 minutes by ferry to get to the north end of the country. Since we left on Friday, I missed Casiotone for the Painfully Alone opening for the Veils in Amsterdam, as well as Al Gore at the Conference on Sustainability. This made me very sad.

When we got to Texel we got our rental bikes (back pedal brakes) and had to cycle to our hostel in the cold rain and wind. It felt more like bootcamp than a trip we willingly paid for. The highligh for many people was the all you can drink beer. This helped alot during the first night's Dutch games, which included games like shitting nails, eating stale gingerbread dangling from a string, and eating black licorice "Lady and the Tramp style".

Texel Island as seen from the ferry. It was rainy and grey, but the scene was very beautiful. I've seen many blue skys, green forests, and blue lakes, but I've never seen this many shades of grey.










When we arrived at Texel we were put up in a hostel, which felt more like camp. We got a room with bunk beds, so Jacqui, Brendan, Zim and I shared a room, along with Kyle. The rooms were supposed to be seperate sex, but we figured we're roommates back in Amsterdam, let's take our relationship one step further and share a room. Big mistake. Each night I was kept awake until 4am by very very very drunk boys, who did silly things and refused to listen to my sober voice of reason.

The next day we cycled around the country, which was brutal! The landscape is incredibly flat, so the wind makes it very difficult. I was blown off the path a few times and seriously considered pulling over and dropping dead. I did discover first hand that cycling along another person makes a huge difference, because they do all the work fighting the wind. Those pro-cyclists know their shit.


On Saturday we headed off to town to catch a boat and see some shrimp fishing (or "shrimping" as I called it). It rained all night, and when we got to the boat the entire town/dock was flooded!






























And when we came back from the boat trip a few hours later the water was gone!





























Shrimping on the boat. Who knew the Dutch had an industry based on shrimp?










After the boat trip we cycled through the trecherous, flat landscape...










To a sheep and goat farm. We were allowed to go in and play with the baby goats, who nibbled on everything. One even took a bite at my kneecap! There's nothing fleshy or delicious about that! I gave Brendan my camera and asked him to take a picture of me and the goats. I didn't know when he was taking these pics. I look like a seriously crazy person. The goats don't help.










On Saturday night a few of us brave souls cycled out to the beach for a midnight swim in the North Sea. The water was really cold, but after getting out the air seemed much warmer, making for a great beach night walk. I felt like I was in a Coldplay video.

The Dutch love golf; during orientation we played urban golf, and on Sunday we played field golf. The putters had little clogs on the end. Note again the flatness.













I wasn't exagerating when I said I had to put up with very very very drunk boys. When we got back to Pad22 Brendan and Zim were still drunk. Jacqui and I left them at the bus stop and walked home. They got home half an hour later, and took a nap on our hallway floor.

Nederlands Film Festival in Utrecht - Oct. 4

I had the chance to check out the National Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht. One of my Dutch classmates organized the outing, and even found films that I could understand, eventhough I was totally willing to go and watch a Dutch film. In retrospect, sitting through two hours of something you don't understand at all made me really appreciate the subtitles.

The first film was a short called Meander; it was about a group of kids and their day swimming in the river. Not eventful, and actually kinda boring. The film was not silent but had no dialogue so language was not an issue.

The second film was a documentary called Dreaming By Numbers. It was set in Italy and in Italian, subtitled in English, which really surprised me, considering it's a Dutch film. Thank you Global Village. It was about the Italian lottery and how each number represents something according to a large book (I don't remember what it's called...) People who've been playing the lottery for years would go to buy their ticket by describing a crazy dream (e.g. in whcih their toes turned into string beans and a dog ate them) to the ticket lady. So the person behind the counter would give them the numbers for toes, beans and dog. No joke.


Utrecht. Note the platform along the canal filled with tables; haven't seen that in Amsterdam yet this seemed to be the trend in Utrecht.










Dutch Daan and American Evan. Dutch Tim is taking the picture. We're all filmers together. In Utrecht for the Film Festival.

Anna's Amsterdam

I had my first visitor in Amsterdam, former roommate Kelly, which also meant I had a personal photographer. So here are a few pictures of me in Amsterdam, in some of the locations that I pass through on a regular basis. Because Amsterdam is a small city geographically, everything is just minutes away. You could say this is my new hood.

Dam; in the background you can see the Koninklijk Paleis, the official residence of the queen, although she actually lives in Den Haag. To the right is the Nieuwe Kerk (the new church; second oldest in Amsterdam), the coronation church of the royal family. When Napoleon took over Europe he gave the Netherlands to his brother Louis, who lived in this palace. However, his brother actually started to like and care for the country, causing friction with Napoleon. When he made his first address to the people as their new king, he even made an attempt to speak Dutch: "I am your new duck" is what he said. Apparently "duck" and "king" are similar.









The narrowest house in Amsterdam












Nieuwmarkt (New Market) and Waag. Originally part of the city's fortifications, but served a variety of funcitons later. It was a spot for public executions, as well as where Rembrandt painted the gorey autopsy pics. This is also the headquarters of the Waag Society, a secret society I will be working on a project for. Well it's not really a secret society, but to get to the meeting room you use a small side door, where you a first buzzed in, and then climb a very narrow staircase. I like to pretend.









The Oude Kerk (oldest church) as seen from land in the Red Light district












In the Red Light district; it really looks like any part of the city, and is utterly safe to walk through. You're not allowed to take pictures of the girls in the storefronts.









There is a walkway over the river Ij that goes from my building to Centraal Station.









There are many draw bridges in Amsterdam. This one is on the main street by my house. It's my new excuse for being late: the bridge was up. Another excuse frequently used by the Dutch: my bike was stolen. Luckily I never had to use the latter.

IKEA

Today Jonathan, Brendan and I made a trek to Ikea Amsterdam. The Dutch make it seem light-years away, while in reality it's a 40 minute commute by metro. Being at Ikea made it seem like I was back home. First of all, it's Ikea, thank you globalization, they're all the same. Second, most of my house is Ikea, so I was constantly spotting furniture and accessories that we own.
I bought a futon for all my future visitors! Check out my futon:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10103&storeId=3&langId=-15&productId=35465

Crazy sex with roommates...

No, not an orgy, but an outing to the Seksmuseum Amsterdam. I also visited this little gem on my visit 3 years ago, but this time I have photographic evidence of the debauchery.


Jacqui (Australia), Mr. Penis, Zim (South Africa)











Zim, Mr. Penis, Brendan (Australia)













The Seksmuseum is located on the Damrak, a major street running from Centraal Station (seen in the background) to Dam Square. It's uber touristy, and makes the typical Amsterdamer cringe.