Amsterdam (8-11 Sept)

8/9
Reached Amsterdam at arount 12 pm. on the train, announcements were made in English in addition to Dutch and French and some other langs. Had a hard time finding Shelter City, the hostel which we were to stay at. had to ask for directions from quite a number of pple - the guy at the info counter at amsterdam centraal, the girl at the bookshop, the tall guy in the street and even the guy from the shop we lunch at. had pizza and apple tart for lunch. finally found shelter city after lunch. like brussels we had problem navigating at first cuz there were so many little side streets and some may not be indicated on the map, so again we had to keep rotating and rotating the map. anyway for the first night we got a 4-bed dorm, with common toilet and shower, there were enormous lockers within the room to store ur bags under lock and key.

amsterdam is really quite 'za2'. even in the day u can see grps of blacks congregating in corners, women parading their assets behind glass windows. when we were taking photos on one of the bridges, we saw two girls who were probably tourists too not far from us and a grp of guys approached them and asked them whether they speak english but they bochap them. i quickly pull YS away. we took quite a lot of photos, za2 as it is, there are lots of nice bldgs, bridges and canals.

went to tourist office near amsterdam centraal and managed to plan our itinery for the next two days. went back to the red light district to take more photos before dark. almost lost our way on the way back to the hostel cuz by then it was already getting dark and it was harder to read the map and the road names. decided not to enter the red light district again for dinner in case we get lost, so we chose a brightly lit shop on the 'right' side of the red light district whcih wasn't dark and sleazy. i skipped all the items with fries and chose sausage with mash potato with carrot and onion. there was a nice couple who offered to help us take photo together and they were intrigued by the digital camera! the dutch man was proudly showing off to his wife the preview. they actually thought we were from Taiwan and they guessed quite a lot of countries but couldn't get it right. they were quite surprised to hear that we are from singapore, as always.

after dinner, managed to find a convenience store to buy water, then went back to the room to rearrange stuff cuz tomorrow we will be shifting to a 16-bed dorm. went to use the internet for a while, it cost 30 cents for 10 min, so i used it for 20 min. needed to get in touch with Veron to arange tomorrow's meeting, but the phone was not getting thru, or rather it was saying something in Dutch which i couldn't understand. took the chance to email back home and email a few frens, typing at lightning speed.

9/9
CY has passed driving exam!!! guys are usually more steady. actually i am not surprised that he passed the very first time. today shifted to the 16-bed dorm...sianz...

we met Veron at amsterdam centraal. our first stop was Van Gogh Museum. we took the tram for the first time. Tram 2 and 5 go to Van Gogh museum. the entrance fee was 10 euros, in the end we also rented the 4 euros audio guides which turned out to be really worth it and informative and gave lots of information on the paintings. now i know that Van Gogh's art is characterized by pointillism and impressionism as well as Japanese influence. jap art is characterized by bright bold colors in one shade and have clearly defined borders and boundaries (but i was quite puzzled as this would be contradictary to impressionism). before he was influenced by impresionism, his paintings were characterized by dull colors.

had very late lunch at 4 pm. ate vegetable quiche and shared a salmon salad with YS. went to the Albert Cuypt market after lunch by walking. along the way we passed by the Rijkmuseum which we had originally planned to visit but there was no time. by the time we got to the market, it was near closing time, but we still managed to get some souvenirs. me and YS went down to Vondelpark after that, but Veron did not join us. Vondelpark was a nice big park popular with joggers and cyclists and there was a big grass patch where pple were juz sitting there or lazing around and there were enthusiastic pple giving impromptu performances like singing, juggling, typical of westerners i suppose.

on the way back we passed by a vibrant looking place that looked interesting, so we stopped for dinner. we had pasta, price was quite reasonable too, 6 euros. went back to hostel after that.

today we took some really nice photos, esp at vondelpark. think i am starting to get influenced by YS and her photography habits - now i will consider the proportion of sky and land in my photographs.

10/9
actually 16-bed dorm was not as bad as i thought. i actually slept quite well the night before. the only thing is, because there are so many pple in the room and some of them may want to sleep early, u can't stay in the room if u want to do some of ur own private stuff like reading, writing, but have to come out into the common room. for breakfast, i tried the muesli with milk and banana and i felt really satisfied after that cuz this should have less carbo than the bread option. i will probably need to lose weight when i go back so may as well start now when i can.

after breakfast we went to take the boat ride at the Rokin Pier. we found our way there by walking along the tram line. we took some nice pics at the Dam. the Paleis (Royal Palace), Madame Tussaud's Museum and the National monument were all surrounding it. the Paleis was particularly impressive (later in the day i saw it in one of the videos in Anne Frank Huis, Hitler was giving a stirring speech there).

on the boat ride i managed to get some really nice pics!!! the sky in Europe is so blue and cloudless. against the tall green trees and brick buildings, + the bridges and canals, u can get really nice picturesque photographs. really, Amsterdam has a distinct character of its own - the bicycles, trams (u can hv bicycle track, pedestrian path, tram line and cars all running parallel to one another), the canals that occur almost along every street, the thousands of bridges, and in general the hustle and bustle of the street. According to the commentary on the boat ride, Amsterdam has almost 1000 bridges and because there's shortage of housing, some pple chose to stay in boathouses. u need a license to stay in one. i saw the Negen Strajts, which is actually 7 arches in a row, but couldn't get a nice pic. then they talked about the low (really low) railings built to prevent cars from dropping into the canals (but i wondered how effective it is?). on the whole, the boat ride was pretty nice and relaxing.

after the boat ride we took the tram to Anne Frank Huis. we take away crossiant for lunch cuz we thought we needed to queue quite long for the tics but later we realized that the queue moved quite fast. the tic was 7.50 euro. when we were queueing, someone who cycled past was shouting something but i think what he was saying was why are we queueing up to see a house. looking at the exhibits and watching the videos made my heart feel very heavy. it must be terrible to live in darkness and to be so restricted in ur movements, canot make noise in the day, cannot go out and play, not enough to eat. it makes me wonder why do pple today (including me) complain so much when our lives are already so good?

after that we bought apple pie from the Albert Heijn supermarket and ate it cold. we passed by magna plaza when we were walking back and decided to go in and take a look. the special thing abt this shopping centre is it looks very old and ancient on the interior as well as the exterior. ok, probably this is nothing surprising in the western countries. oh and the toilets on the 3rd floor had a brilliant view of the hustle and bustle of the city below! i ate smurf ice cream at a shop somewhere near the main street leading from the Amsterdam Centraal to the Paleis. i thought i looked quite interesting - how often do u see ice cream that is blue in color? and it was only 1 euro (with cone). i asked the person what it tasted like, he said ' a little bit sweet, a little bit sour' i was wondering what i was in for. it actually tasted quite good, a bit like vanilla, but not quite vanilla, i can't really place the taste, but it was nice :). how come he told me it tasted sour? can't taste the least bit of sourness in it.

for dinner i tried the shoarma sandwich which i had been thinking of trying for ages at a kebap shop. in terms of value for money and taste, the chicken kebap i ate in Brussels still wins hands down. in the distance we could see the centraal station. after so many days here, we are really starting to get a hang of the roads here. on the first day we were having so much problem finding our way about. by the last day we were quite expert at reading maps and following tram lines and knowing what tram to take without asking pple and we had no problems finding out way back to hostel even in the dark. its always like this, when u have started getting used to a place, u have to move on to a new place and have to start finding ur way again. just like changing jobs?

in general, i think amsterdam is lively, vibrant, and has a very distinct character of its own. walking down the streets, canals, bridges and looking at the houses on both sides really allowed me to feel the distinct character of the place. it was a pity we couldn't see the Rijkmuseum, but i guess 3 days did allow me to see some places in detail, such as the Van Gogh Museum. oh and i saw some interesting food there. i saw kit kat with hazelnut cream in one of the convenience stores (green wrapper) but din see it anywhere else. there were lotsa nice desserts in the Albert Heijn supermarket such as chocolate mousse, ice cream, but no spoon was provided! if not i would have tried more stuff.

looking at the photos i think i am really quite pleased with the photos i took in amsterdam. nice scenery and nice blue sky . on the whole, i had a great time here and i love Amsterdam!