Amsterdam - August 1997
I was on quite a high to be going from Turkey to Santiago, Chile. But along the way, I made it a point to take three days in Amsterdam to see what this famous city would like like, it didn't disappoint me. Upon arrival, I met a really cool Austrian women with colored punkish hair and nosering and all. We both came off the same flight and bordered the same train, so I introduced myself and we continued to find a hostel to stay in the center of the city that night. Upon leaving the train station and being in the center of the city, I recall alot of musicans around, one in particular in a kilt with bagpipes. From there we wandered not too far away and found a decent hostel with a bar and everything else. Most of the tourists were young. After unpacking, I recall meeting the Austrian girl once again the lobby, and we explored the town a little bit. Actually I basically explored the city for three entire days and nights.
One of the main memories I recall was how beautiful the city was just about everywhere you went. The canals and gingerbread-like houses and such. I also found a few really good bookstores with alot of books in English, much like I'd find if I were in the United States. Rather quickly the Austrian and I guy met a local Dutch guy. He brought us to a few places here and there, and it was quite interesting to be shocked into the fact they actually spoke Dutch here. Everywhere we went, people generally spoke English to us, but then you'll see a newspaper in Dutch and you'd remember that English wasn't their native language. The Dutch people are so bilingual though, and their English is so native-like, you tend to forget completely. On an additional note, apparently most of the Nordic countries are like this as well, and they are generally known for having a slight more of an American accent as opposed to a British one, despite the proximity to the UK. Of course I don't know if the British would agree, but the few Dutch guys I spoke to confirmed this, and it was noticeable in their speaking.
One particularly friendly Dutch guy we met actually had introduced himself to the Austrian girl in the park. Apparently his story was that he was kind of an ex-hippy. Apparently he said he'd lived off welfare for years and years, most of his life actually, and was just a musician. He lived to play his music. At this point he was probably around 40 years old, and he'd decided to find his first job, so he was extremely excited to be working with his hands and working on restoring houses. At this particular time though, it was his vacation, so he was just sitting in the parks and watching people and such like that. Anyhow, he ultimately because our tour guide, and a very good one at that.
One of my favorite parts of Amsterdam was when I came across an extremely large chess board with very large pieces, and people were actively playing at that time. The pieces were almost half the size of my own height, and to move one, you'd have to pick it up, walk a few steps to wherever you are going on the chessboard and place it down again. There were people surrounding it to watch how the game progressed as well. I took a picture of it as well and put it in the photo collection.
One of the negative things I'd noticed about Amsterdam was that it attracted alot of drug users from probably the entire world. Most were European though, as it was close proximity and the leaniest drug laws as well. The hash shops are known throughout the world, and I also noticed alot of other kind of seedy guys throughout Amsterdam who were always trying to push harder drugs on anyone who wanted them. This aspect was kind of annoying, but in some ways, it wasn't that much different than walking around in any major US city if you are in the place that does that. But I guess being tourists, it was kind of annoying at times.
One particular man.. who was homeless kind of got under my skin a bit though. He approached me and asked in perfect English if I spoke German or English. I shook my head 'no' and waved my hand as in 'no' I'm not interested in giving right now. Somehow or another he assumed I spoke English and got right into my face saying how he is a human being and I shouldn't ignore someone just because they are asking for money, and I was an awful human being for doing that and how much he hated that he was to be invisible because he was homeless. He actually followed me down the street quite angry about this situation. I never did give him any money, and I met him again the next day I think and he was quite upset to see me again and I believe he kind of got in my face about it again as well. To me it was obvious that he'd probably did too many of the harder drugs and it had probably warped his mind to some extent. Well, at least something had. You can't be yelling at young people demanding money because you want some, and expect them to acknowledge you if you don't want to do that. I was having enough money problems myself, but I always feel like I keep going deeper in a hole all the time financially, particularly now without having a job and soon to be looking for one in South America. Anyhow, to me, it felt like his problems could be resolved fairly quickly by the next person who walks by mainly because his vision for himself is relatively simple (just to get a buck or two for food), unfortunately my money problems felt significantly grander although I had the illusion to be doing okay as I had some credit cards that were paying for each of my meals rather than harrassing and demanding stangers to pay for all of my meals. anyhow..
All in all, Amsterdam was quite interesting. The canals and the houses and bicycles everywhere were the high points. The abundant English being closedly followed. It was impossible not to like the place. The only thing I wasn't so sure about was that the extremely relaxed policys on everything had somehow warped some of the people who were attracted there, but generally I liked everything about it.
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