11. Novembre 2011: Hurly/Burly

My first day and a half of Amsterdam was absolute chaos. Ok, I take that back (but I won’t erase it because it’s a good hook, is it not?) because the traveling was the chaotic bit. Still, the traveling took almost a day and a half so maybe that statement is more accurate than I initially meant to be. Oy. Beginning at the beginning…my flight from Florence to Munich was delayed 1:20 hours. I had no idea how long it would take to get from Florence to Munich but I did know that I needed to catch my connecting flight to Amsterdam in Munich. So I did what any person in that situation might do; I approached the counter (which is there to help confused travelers, is it not?) to ask if I would still be able to make my connection. There had been absolutely nothing happening at this ticket counter for the past forty-five minutes but the moment that I approached the counter, the woman behind it stood up, rummaged in her purse for her cigarettes and told me that she would be back in five minutes. So I waited. Fifteen minutes later, she returned to the counter bringing with her a fresh cloud of cigarette stench. I smiled and politely asked if she knew whether or not I would be able to make my flight and, in true Italian fashion, she rolled her eyes, gave me a curt “yes,” then checked her text messages on her cell phone.

Needless to say, I was more than ready to board a train leaving Italy when it finally arrived—I’d happily be stuck in Munich! No need, though, because my flight to Amsterdam was also delayed (weather problems in Munich). Just to solidify my opinion about the Florence airport, though, the Lufthansa section of the Munich airport provided free and unlimited hot drinks, newspapers in all languages and the cleanest airport bathrooms I have ever seen. Now are you ready for some irony? When I was waiting in the Florence airport I decided to read ahead for my Dante class. As we were arriving in Munich, I finished Purgatorio, preparing myself to enter Paradiso!

I did eventually make it to Amsterdam where I boarded a train, then wandered around until I found a group of American students who pointed me towards the Tram. Around 1am, I finally made it to the biggest dump, excuse me, my hostel. Luckily I only stayed there for one night and I simply slept (after everyone else in my assigned room had already been asleep) and woke up (before anyone else had woken up yet) then attempted to take advantage of the free breakfast. That, however, ended up being toast. Or, plenty of bread, forty students and one toaster. So I grabbed a cup of coffee and a map and hit the road! I headed in the general direction of the meeting point I had decided on with my friends. Mara and Gabby are both Knox students studying in Spain this term and we had decided to meet up in Amsterdam at the Tattoo Museum. I woke up fairly early so I spent the first part of my morning wandering around Oosterpark and enjoying the architecture of Amsterdam. It is certainly old style architecture but not as old as Florence, so it was nice to be appreciating something new. There is also plenty of new art and architecture in Amsterdam. The park was filled with modern sculptures giving it a personal vibe.

I soon made it to the Tattoo Museum and waited for about fifteen minutes before another woman approached me and asked if this was the new location for the museum. My eyes widened, I went inside to ask the ticket vendor. She told me that the old location had been closed five years ago but it still was the first to show up in a google search for the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum. What luck.

 An hour and many fruitless phone call attempts later I received a call from my friend Ellie who was also meeting me in Amsterdam. She had arrived at the station and we were supposed to head to our hotel together so, reluctantly, I left the meeting point and went to pick her up hoping that Mara and Gabby would be able to call me at some point. I would later learn that they had gotten lost and arrived at the museum about ten minutes after I had left. Oh the power of timing.

I met Ellie at the station nevertheless and we headed towards Rembrandt Park where we were staying at a man’s house through a company called Air BnB. You can register with this company, get reviews and personal recommendations and rent out apartments, rooms, beds, couches for a price of your choice just like you were running your own mini hotel. We managed to find a reasonably priced room that was very well reviewed and for good reason. The view from our window was beautiful! The only unfortunate part was that it was located a twenty-minute tram ride from downtown Amsterdam.

 We settled in then headed back into town. Still no word from Mara and Gabby so we set out wandering. Neither of us knew much about the city and the ACM program has gotten us so used to structured group tours that it was a real breath of fresh air to wander aimlessly around a new city. The culture of Amsterdam is hard to pin down—it seems like they have absorbed whichever style or cultural quirk that serves their fancy. The buildings were old fashioned but not medieval, inside, many restaurants and coffeeshops had decorated in an Islamic or Indian fashion and there was modern art and sculpture everywhere. The atmosphere was unpredictable and fun.

The canals going through Amsterdam are entirely different from Venice. Venice makes a show of their canals whereas Amsterdam lives casually with the beauty and practicality of their canals. The streets are so narrow that hardly anyone drives. Biking and public transportation are the main forms of getting around which makes for a very quiet big city. However, it makes walking around frightening sometimes because there are absolutely no traffic patterns for the cyclists to follow. It’s a quiet free-for-all! Ack!

We wandered through the Red Light District as the sun was setting. The lights here are pretty fantastic when they reflect off of the canals but the half-naked women in the windows are a much less desirable sight. We visited a coffeeshop which was just a smokier, quieter version of any other coffee shop anywhere else in the world. Neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before and we began our day fairly late what with travel and all so we decided to head in early so that we could get an early start the next day. We searched for a place to grab some dinner and on our way from the Red Light District towards the Jordaan District we stumbled upon a bizarre encounter with three men. A man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask was holding a bouquet of roses, a man in a spray-painted gold track suit was playing a gold tambourine while a third man in a sky-blue tracksuit played a catchy jig on the accordion. All three men were giddily prancing down the street. And that was that. Continuing the musical theme, we passed a man sitting on the sidewalk playing the Godfather theme on the recorder. With smiles on our faces from these only-in-Amsterdam-experiences, we sampled a Dutch pancake which is huge and a very filling meal within itself. Delicious!

We made our way back out of the city and I finally got a hold of Mara and Gabby. We planned to meet at Centraal Station—a building that never moves—in the morning. Great success!