f r e s h s t a r t

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

 

The dam on the river Amstel

Amsterdam was a completely charming town. I'm a grid-oriented person, so the series of concentric circles of canals really messed with my sense of direction, but somehow I made my way around. Standing around holding a map with a puzzled look on my face actually helped a lot, which was not the case in any of the other places I visited. One older man actually volunteered to help, gave me a brief history lesson, and seemed to want to plan my day for me.

I found a room at a cute, nice, clean hostel. I was in a roomful of women, which was great, since I've found that rooms with guys can be kind of smelly. It was right in the red light district, which was actually a good location. It wasn't loud, and it made for a quick walk from the central train station.

I spent my first day there at a coffee shop. 'Nuff said.

Day two was lovely and much busier. I rented a bike in the morning, and the guy at the bikeshop marked my destinations on a map for me. I biked down to the Vondelpark, a gorgeous park on the south side of the city. I stopped and picked up ingredients for a picnic lunch on the way.

After hanging out in the park, I biked over to the Van Gogh Museum. It was surreal to see so many Van Goghs in the same place. It wasn't crowded at all, at least compared to the Paris museums I had just seen, so I was able to spend more time looking at a piece if I wanted too.

I came upon a flea market, and wandered around there for part of the afternoon. I biked along several of the canals, and just enjoyed the beautiful streets. By the way, I have never seen so many bikes in my life. There were literally thousands of them parked in the bike garage near the train station, and hundreds parked on many of the streets. I absolutely loved it.

I went to dinner with some people from the hostel: couple of Aussies and a UChicago student who used to live a few blocks away from me in Andersonville. Small world. The next morning I was off to Innsbruck.

09:21 0 comments