In Amsterdam
Amsterdam pictures - 30
The plane ride from Hartsfield to Schipol was very uneventful. Finished reading Island and that was about it. My flight left an hour late, but that actually worked well as I had a last minute bank SNAFU that took an hour on the phone to sort out. The plane landed an hour early at 7am local time. Since I am leaving on a flight later tonight, my main bag was not returned to me at the airport, and I am dressed quite lightly. Just a short sleeve shirt and my business hoodie, and it is actually a bit cold.
I took a train from the airport to Amsterdam Centraal station for €6.50 round trip, and once there just started walking around. I managed to find a few places I had been last time I was here, especially the hotel (Golden Tulip) and a coffeeshop I liked a lot (Goa), but at 8am everything was closed. I walked for maybe 90 minutes until it started raining pretty heavily. Fortunately I was again close to the train station at that point, so I went there to rest and stop getting wet. Ate and sandwich and drank some freaking delicious juice and sat around for a bit until it stopped raining. Still pretty wet I went back out as there really wasn't anywhere to sit at the station.
Fortunately found an open coffee shop a few blocks away around 11am. Bought a cappuccino and a gram of weed and am sitting here killing some more time. My phone and laptop batteries were low, and I asked about using a wall outlet they had. Girl seemed unsure and said ask guy. Guy said it was ok. Maybe 30 minutes later another guy comes in and starts speaking strongly to me in Dutch. Guy #1 speaks up, and they argue a minute. Apparently they usually don't let people use the plug, but since I had asked it was ok for a little while. Maybe 20 minutes after that, guy #1 says ok that's enough plug usage. Another 10 minutes later, some homeless looking guy comes up and starts getting into a major argument with guy #1 about wanting to plug his device in (I think an ipod), but guy #1 is not having it, and I actually thought he was going to start wailing on homeless guy. I decided this was a good time to leave.
Walked around for a while more, going in to a few smart shops and whatnot, eventually going back to Goa once it was open. Definitely a an awesome chill place, and they have fresh squeezed OJ for cheap. Amazingly, there was an open internet connection here, so I was able to do a few important things (like make sure my bank had unSNAFUed things for me, and check myspace). My plane leaves at 6pm, so I headed out after sitting around there for a while. No prostitutes for me today!
I definitely enjoy Amsterdam. There are a lot of cool small places to get a drink or smoke a joint, the canals and architecture rock, and there are cute girls dinging by on bicycles everywhere you go. There are shady characters around, and definitely shady places to go, but not so much that it is seems to be a problem, and I for one need the occasional shifty Turkish guy to provide goods or services.
I don't quite understand why you really don't see any nice bikes here though. The police have road/mountain bike hybrids which are ok, but practically everyone else rides what to me are big unwieldy one speed old fashioned devices. Maybe it just doesn't matter as much to have a good bike when the whole city transit network is designed with bikes as a big element. Maybe more a matter of frugality? It is a mystery.
Everyone speaks English here, which is good because my language skills are not so good and for the moment I am without a guide. Fortunately Dutch sounds a lot like German if you were speaking German in a really silly manner, so I can get the gist for a fair amount of basic cues. Internet availability is very sparse here. There are internet cafes (usually run by some shady guy) but at none can you use your own computer. Apparently it is not a popular idea in Amsterdam to have wireless access at cafes and whatnot (which is why this is probably backdated). My phone data services work, and I used that to great advantage to find directions and whatnot to places. Also props to the wireless stumbler on my phone. That shit is useful! A translation application would be nice as well though.
The plane ride from Hartsfield to Schipol was very uneventful. Finished reading Island and that was about it. My flight left an hour late, but that actually worked well as I had a last minute bank SNAFU that took an hour on the phone to sort out. The plane landed an hour early at 7am local time. Since I am leaving on a flight later tonight, my main bag was not returned to me at the airport, and I am dressed quite lightly. Just a short sleeve shirt and my business hoodie, and it is actually a bit cold.
I took a train from the airport to Amsterdam Centraal station for €6.50 round trip, and once there just started walking around. I managed to find a few places I had been last time I was here, especially the hotel (Golden Tulip) and a coffeeshop I liked a lot (Goa), but at 8am everything was closed. I walked for maybe 90 minutes until it started raining pretty heavily. Fortunately I was again close to the train station at that point, so I went there to rest and stop getting wet. Ate and sandwich and drank some freaking delicious juice and sat around for a bit until it stopped raining. Still pretty wet I went back out as there really wasn't anywhere to sit at the station.
Fortunately found an open coffee shop a few blocks away around 11am. Bought a cappuccino and a gram of weed and am sitting here killing some more time. My phone and laptop batteries were low, and I asked about using a wall outlet they had. Girl seemed unsure and said ask guy. Guy said it was ok. Maybe 30 minutes later another guy comes in and starts speaking strongly to me in Dutch. Guy #1 speaks up, and they argue a minute. Apparently they usually don't let people use the plug, but since I had asked it was ok for a little while. Maybe 20 minutes after that, guy #1 says ok that's enough plug usage. Another 10 minutes later, some homeless looking guy comes up and starts getting into a major argument with guy #1 about wanting to plug his device in (I think an ipod), but guy #1 is not having it, and I actually thought he was going to start wailing on homeless guy. I decided this was a good time to leave.
Walked around for a while more, going in to a few smart shops and whatnot, eventually going back to Goa once it was open. Definitely a an awesome chill place, and they have fresh squeezed OJ for cheap. Amazingly, there was an open internet connection here, so I was able to do a few important things (like make sure my bank had unSNAFUed things for me, and check myspace). My plane leaves at 6pm, so I headed out after sitting around there for a while. No prostitutes for me today!
I definitely enjoy Amsterdam. There are a lot of cool small places to get a drink or smoke a joint, the canals and architecture rock, and there are cute girls dinging by on bicycles everywhere you go. There are shady characters around, and definitely shady places to go, but not so much that it is seems to be a problem, and I for one need the occasional shifty Turkish guy to provide goods or services.
I don't quite understand why you really don't see any nice bikes here though. The police have road/mountain bike hybrids which are ok, but practically everyone else rides what to me are big unwieldy one speed old fashioned devices. Maybe it just doesn't matter as much to have a good bike when the whole city transit network is designed with bikes as a big element. Maybe more a matter of frugality? It is a mystery.
Everyone speaks English here, which is good because my language skills are not so good and for the moment I am without a guide. Fortunately Dutch sounds a lot like German if you were speaking German in a really silly manner, so I can get the gist for a fair amount of basic cues. Internet availability is very sparse here. There are internet cafes (usually run by some shady guy) but at none can you use your own computer. Apparently it is not a popular idea in Amsterdam to have wireless access at cafes and whatnot (which is why this is probably backdated). My phone data services work, and I used that to great advantage to find directions and whatnot to places. Also props to the wireless stumbler on my phone. That shit is useful! A translation application would be nice as well though.