Amsterdam

Amsterdam is definitely one of those places on everyone's list of places to see; especially before you're 30- Filled with a variety of activities that rivals any crazy fucked up dream you could have, drugs that should be legal in this country, and beautiful girls riding bikes in skirts. I didn't do much in the activities from a crazy fucked up dream category; though our hostel was really close to the red light district.

I met up with a pretty large group of people, some of whom I met previously in Dublin for St. Patricks' Day. I had about a week or so in between Dublin and Amsterdam, so I spent a few days in Manchester, and a few in London, both to which I would return to on the way back to Dublin (I was sort of making a circle).

I arrived in Amsterdam via hitchhiking from Den Haag (The Hague), which is about an hour away. I was told on the ferry over from England to Holland by a guy who was headed back to The Hague that it was an easy way to avoid train fare, and that it was commonplace for young people to hitchhike around. So with Christiaan's advice, I sat out with a homemade sign on the F19 freeway, waiting for about 2 hours. Our ferry had arrived quite early in the morning, (6am), so by the time traffic was picking up, I was set. A young couple picked me up in their faded red VW Polo after seeing the flag on my backpack (an Indian one.) "Thanks for stopping. Ohh wait- do you speak English?" I asked. "Of course my friend," the guy said as he laughed. "Our first Indian hitchhiker! I really can't believe it," the girl said.

I wanted to set them straight before it got confusing-
Me: "Well, to be honest- India is my second home, my motherland. I'm American- but I'm a dual citizen."
the guy: "No problem my friend; as long you did not vote for Bush!"



No problem there; I voted against him twice.

I arrived at my hostel a few hours earlier than my friends, and spent the time wandering around eating a muffin. A definite tourist city, I was shoulder to shoulder with people doing the same. I walked into Dam square as the sunlight hit my face, and saw what many see in big cities- pigeons. I'm not sure if people understand, but pigeons are effing gross. I admit that before someone told me how foul they were I had no issue with them either.



Anyway, Dam square is a central area that is about a 10 minute walk (with a huge backpack) from the Centraal train station, and is one of the first spots people usually hit. One of the great in life for me is people watching. With the early morning sun in my face, and an amazing muffin in hand I was loving watching pretty Dutch girls cycling around, and little kids feed the oh-so gross pigeons with the slight hesitancy that all kids have around animals.

Oh, and about their bicycles. They are serious about bikes. I've never seen a city so full of bikers (and no, I've not been to Portland yet- it's on my list). I started to understand why everyone was so fit- they literally bike everywhere. Cool, except for the fucking cold. But- when you can't bike, you can take the tram or a train somewhere- no problem. So this is how serious the Dutch take their bikes-



Yep, its a bicycle parking garage. How awesome is that?

The people in Amsterdam are very diverse. The Dutch colonized quite a bit, and people from all their former colonies came back to Holland. Some of the best food I had there was at a small Surinamese restaurant that my host, Jannie took me to. I knew little about Suriname, but was intrigued when the man who took our order approached us. I looked up to see a man a little shorter than me, with the most interesting face and overall look I've ever seen in a person. He wasn't Indian, not quite Indonesian, not quite African, just a masala of it all. I talked with Jannie for a bit about what his ancestry might be. Turns out Surinamese people are among the most diverse in the world. There are incredible mixes between Dutch, West African, Indian, Javanese, Chinese, and Native South American tribals in the country.

The amazing food reflects the many cultures present. I had some slow-simmered pork with a Desi-style bread and plain rice. I wish I had taken some photos of the food! This is probably what a typical plate looks like:



I could go on and on about Amsterdam, but you've probably heard about the Heineken factory, the red light district, and smoking pot from someone else already, right?