The void: November 2007 - March 2008

So what is there to say? I moved to Amsterdam, went through hell trying to find an apartment, worked as a tour guide, and partied.

As soon as I got back from Canada I worked as a tour guide of the historic city centre by day, and of the Red Light District by night. While preaching 17th Century Golden Age Amsterdam, pot and prostitutes to wide-eyed tourists, I realized how incredibly sucked in I've become by Bizzaro-World, becoming part of the scenery myself. One day, while walking through the Red Light District, I failed to notice a Santa walking around followed by kids in blackface, until my tourists started to point and shriek in delight thus drawing my attneiton to it. It's funny to think that walking through the Red Light District was just a regular part of my daily life. I even recognized many of the prostitutes and was on a nodding basis with them, and noticed when they switched windows. While doing this job I was also searching for an apartment, but if you've been reading the blog you know by now that it ended happily, and I finally found a place - 3 months later.

In between all of that I managed to hit some crazy raves, including some Dutch hardcore parties. The Dutch don't dance, but play them sound hardcore (loud, industrial pounding) and they go mental. It's so funny to see the world's tallest people, who live in the world's second most densely populated city, jump up and down kicking their legs, as is traditionally done to hardcore.

The morning after a party, and we usually partied until 8am, instead of going to bed we would hang out at Hill Street Blues, the coolest coffeeshop in town. My friend and I set a record of 10 hours of hanging out and outstaying people who came in hours after us. The coffeeshop was drafty, the couches were old, but the graffiti was awesome and the waitress was cool. No reason to leave. My "hard core" t-shirt is getting a lot of wear here; too bad the Dutch don't get it.

More on Dutch culture; they have a museum night once a year, where museums are open all night long alongside antics like this one. At the Rijksmuseum (national museum), they had a Dutch version of Joan River's harassing people in line with inane questions and hysterical laughter. Cameras were on hand to capture the action and show it on a massive screen over the entrance to the museum to entertain, or antagonize, the people in line. Nice to see the Dutch have a taste for fine art. I dreaded her, but secretly hoped she came over so I could be on the big screen, all foreign and confused.

We went to more raves and hung out in more coffeeshops...

But things were nice and wholesome too. I celebrated American Thanksgiving with Elysia and Paul for the second year in a row, this time at an American art centre.

More raves; this one was on a ship called the Stubnitz, a former freeze and transport vessel turned party venue. It travels the world but is anchored in Amsterdam. You can barely see it in the background.

I went to Antwerp one evening for, yes, a rave.
I bought this nifty hat at the Christmas market. It's badass, just like me.

Even Amsterdam's Smartshops embraced the Christmas spirit. They sell mushrooms and herbal alternatives to hard drugs.
This coffeeshop has huge versions of the Christmas ornaments I have at home

Dirty Dicks is a gay S&M club; even they have Christmas spunk

And the royal palace, on the only frosty day this winter. My next apartment is only 20 seconds walking distance from it, so you can say it's in my 'hood.
Anna the tour guide




At Christmas time I was still staying with Elysia; we bonded so much that we got each other the same Christmas gift. My goal in life is to do every cool party in this book. The other blond is Nyree, which makes me brunette Barbie by default.

Stefan the Swede
There's no nature in Amsterdam, so this is as close as you get to "getting away from it all": skating in the city's clubbing destination, Rembrandtplein. If Rembrandt saw the square that's named after him, he would resort to heavy drinking, probably in Rembrandtplein.

And for Christmas Eve, we went to a rave. This is the aftermath that rolled into Christmas Day.

On the second day of Christmas...

I also paid a visit to the city's botanical gardens, which were established in the 17th century when the Dutch East India company sailed the world and brought back a bunch of exotic plants.

New Year's Eve, a rave. The fairy returns.

The wings never made it out of this party; it was that intense. It was held in a squat outside of the city centre called the Ruigoord. It's an entire community; people live there permanently. One part of the party was in this barn, the other in a converted church.

After all the craziness, I went to Poland at the beginning of January for a month to regenerate and prepare myself for the job hunt to come. After all, one cannot stay a filthy raver and tour guide forever, although the two go hand in hand beautifully. Before doing this I moved into my new flat so all was ready for grown-up Anna when she returned. This picture was taken in an old building in my hometown of Lodz...

With Ewa, a former roommate from Amsterdam now living in Warsaw, in a cool traditional restaurant. Big straw roosters are typical in Poland. I don't know why.

This is the historic city-centre in Warsaw, but it's not that old. It was completely destroyed during, and rebuilt, after WWII

Back in Amsterdam, I sorted out my apartment. My room was quite cool, with a nice view that included a windmill. My previous place was by the city's eastern windmill, this one was by the western.

The stairs on the left lead directly from the 4th floor into my kitchen; I have no front door in this place. In Amsterdam, housing is never perfect.

This is my living room, and me dressed as a fairy for a costume party. Funnily enough, no one else showed up in costume. Thank god I'm cute, otherwise I would've felt like an ass.

At the moment I'm actually packing up this apartment and getting ready to move this coming weekend. It's an awesome place, so quintessentially Amsterdam: attic, no front door, shady landlord. But as much as I like it here I'm ready to move into my beautiful city centre apartment, and embrace my new life as a yuppie, and my new neighbor the queen. But fear not, more party pics to come! Anna is still cool.