July 2010 in Europe: Rewind....Amsterdam wrap up ~ July 19-22, 2010

Or Amsterdizzle as I nick named it!

I did not say much about Amsterdam for lack of time and also because I really wanted to take the time to figure out my overall impression. During my first night and day it was easy to walk around the wide eyed in amazement and curiosity. The smaller than human crooked row homes, all the bikes, the mix of locals and tourists, all the canals and their cute arched stone bridges spanning for their entire lengths and, of course, the famous working girls and coffee-shops - each offering their wide arrangements of booty and marijuana products (Sold separately).

My hotel was centrally located in the city center. In Amsterdam, this means the red-light district. Exciting, I thought. I laughed at the irony of my hotel being across a canal from a church which was next to a row of glass doors with working girls strutting their bodies in nothing more than a lingerie invitingly opening and closing their doors at passer bys. Oh and then the tapping on the glass with their ringed finger: Tap tap tap! These went on all night, this I know because my room window faced this mess.

When I checked into my hotel, Dennis, the receptionist, greeted me with a hazed look, shirtless, a smile and a swollen ankle resulting from a fall on the hotel stairs that lead up to the rooms. This guy was friendly - for those who knew my old roommate Antwan, he had that type of personality ~ warm, funny, lively, but something kept you from fully taking the guy as truly genuine. Its hard to explain. Whatever, it worked for the the moment and I was happy to be around it. Dennis cracked open a beer for me before we even got started on the reservation ~ "would you like a smoke" he offered. Of course I did ~ it's after all what I came to do in Amsterdam! This is going to be fun!!!!

Buzz kill: The room ~ blah. I'll spare the details, but is was tiny and didn't go hand in hand with the boutique chic lobby of the hotel. It wasn't anything up to par with the hotel in Budapest, which, besides the Residence for Andrea's wedding, was the best hotel of my stay. I really didn't want to be in there long so I went out for a long walk through the "red-light district." I was still in disbelief that I was in Amsterdam and with my camera in hand took as many pictures as I could. I parked myself near the glass doors of the working girls and as soon as they saw my camera they disappeared. This was really silly of me to do ~ I was lucky. You are not supposed to take their picture as I later found out during my stay. I found this out, when a middle aged woman took their picture and out runs one of the girls with a bucket full of water and dumps it on her as the other girls screamed "no pictures!" Ouch!

It was a party town but different than I was expecting ~ nothing like Berlin...but then again, I don't think they are comparable. There were a lot of people out in the streets abusing the lawlessness of it all. I saw way too many people sick on the side of the street throwing up. I also saw a very sweaty man that had to be carried to an ambulance as his eyes kept rolling in the back of his head. That just took the fun away from it for me. I became very aware of all the trash in the streets and the canals and it took away from the beauty of the city too. I later discovered that you have to go out into the city and away from the center to really see the charm of Amsterdam. I don't know, maybe it would have been different if I was there with a group of friends partaking in the partying, maybe I would had not been as aware of it all...hard to say.

I did meet to very different people that I will consider new friends. There was Dennis of course. The guy is cool and was nice enough to take me out one night to hang out with his friends and bar hop. This was great because I go to go and do what the Dutch do: drink and smoke ~ just not at the tourist locations! ja! Dennis is Dutch and is my age but looked older I thought. He is a partier and has been moving all over Europe chasing hte party while working in the hospitality industry. He spent two years in Ibiza and had some crazy stories about all the drugs, parties, and trouble he got into! He's no working/living at this hotel and sleeps in whatever room didn't get booked for that night. I think he's only possession was his mountain bike and his toiletries ~ he had the same clothes the 3 days I was there from what I can tell. (antwan?)

Then there was Jim. Jim is a 65-yr old retired US army sergeant from South Carolina. Jim was married and has two adult sons but came out of the closet at 38. Now he works with autistic kids and is a self taught artist. A very good artist I might add since he showed me his art on facebook. He was great to talk to, so many stories - damn, what a life. He was there with two other friends who were not as friendly or active so I think Jim really appreciated having me to talk to and walk around with...probably as much as I did.

If it wasn't for these two guys, I think Amsterdam would had been a bust for me. Maybe it was just bad timing. Here are more pictures from my stay there. The sun never came out and the temperatures were a lot cooler than Eastern Europe. This added to the dreariness of it all.

I did rent a bike the first day I was there. Everyone get around Amsterdam in bikes which I think is great but when the streets are so narrow and you add all the other cyclist, public transport, and a string of people on foot constantly moving in every direction, it makes it very hard to navigate. I found this out the bad way. I went to a coffee shop then got on the bike, started riding when all of the sudden this car cuts me off out of no where, when I dodge it I almost ran into another cyclist. It scared the shit out of me. I got off the fucking bike and walked it right back to where I rented it and returned it. I decided to be on foot for the rest of my trip (literally) in Amsterdam!