Amsterdam and Brussels

Amsterdam.


First of all, I have gotten a couple of messages questioning whether everything in these blogs are true. Absolutely. I feel no need to lie about my journey as I write this for me and to express what I see, do, and feel while I am abroad. I have just been lucky to experience everything that I have and meet some of the most wonderful people on the planet.


I stayed in Amsterdam for a few days, and I have mixed feelings about the city. I met Shiv (a fellow UNF Osprey) and Larissa (an Aussie I met in Barcelona) in Amsterdam. Our hostel was in the heart of the Red light district. This seemed like a great idea at first but then you begin to realize the whole district is all the same. The red light district is made out of coffee shops (places where Marijuana can bought and consumed), chinese food(for munchies I assume,) head shops (where you can buy marijuana pipes, bongs etc), sex stores, and of course the infamous ladies in the red windows. You begin to realize there is no cultural value about the redlight and the district's coffee shops are filled with only tourists and locals don’t participate with the ladies of the night. In fact, the Netherlands, has the lowest percentage of people that smoke marijuana because it’s legal. They smoke it when they are in high school and then decide its time to grow up. Just thought that was interesting as the only country in Europe where it is legal to purchase weed is also the country with the lowest percentage of consumers. I understand that they are cutting down the red light district because locals are tired of dealing with the ever present smells. Also tourism may be hurting (there are 240 coffee shops in Amsterdam a bit excessive in my book.) Bottom line, going to the redlight district for cultural value is equivalent to going to I-drive (Orlando's tourist street filled with hotels, restaurants, and tacky t-shirt stores) for the real Florida experience. It’s a amusement park for adults.

Since I was in the red light district and it took about 25 minutes to walk out of it, I really didn’t venture out to the real Amsterdam until the second day. Now that’s the best part of Amsterdam. It’s gorgeous, boats navigate through the maze of narrow canals. Tall Buildings are built directly upon the edge of these canals. Most of the buildings are hundereds of years old and are incredibly narrow. The stairs in these buildings are incredibly steep, as there is such little room in these buildings. In fact, the bathrooms were so small that my knees were smashed against the door. Shiv and I went on a free walking tour and we were amazed by the history of the people and the humor of their history. Fun fact: when Napoleon conquered the Netherlands, he created a law that each person must have a last name (before it was Jim the Baker, Dutch are practical) in order to keep track of his subjects. The Dutch begrudgingly agreed; however, many of them thought it would be funny to make funny last names like 'Jim Pubichair, buttwipe, long live the king etc...now one out of ten Dutch people have jokes for last names. I guess their ancestors didn’t think that far in advance.

The people of Amsterdam and the Netherlands are incredible open-minded. Their motto is 'If you can contribute, you’re welcome to come.' It all started with William the Orange, a Medieval king that saw that there was money to be made helping those religiously persecuted. He thought that if he opened the doors to all those persecuted as long as they could contribute whether it be business men or an officer in another army you were welcome. Ever since then, those that were being persecuted fled there for equal rights (Jews from the Nazis until they conquered Amsterdam, homosexuals, even the French noblemen ran there for protection during the French revolution.) They were the first country to legalize gay marriage, prostitution(fun fact: it was in order to fight Sexually Transmitted Diseases), marijuana and they promoted women’s rights.


Also the language of Amsterdam is offically Dutch, but unofficially English. 94% of the Dutch people in Amsterdam can pass an English fluency reading, written and speaking exam. I am not quite sure if some states in America can boast such a literacy rate. The people are unbelievably kind. When I was on the train, I met a giant Dutch man (the Dutch are the tallest in the world) with weathered skin and hardened hands. He was a goat and olive farmer outside of Barcelona, He had this perpetual friendly grin that made you feel welcome and I couldn't help but flash my smile back. He thought it would be a shame for me to not enjoy Amsterdam the way the locals do, so he wrote down a list of things that he used to do when he was my age and lived in Amsterdam (another fun fact: the waiting list to buy a house in downtown is around 17 years.) He also then walked me directly to my hostel. I hadn’t asked him to, but he just said 'Once again, it would be a shame for you to be lost. I would hate for this to put a bad image on us.' This was also his first time home in 10 years. He put off seeing friends and family for me, a complete stranger. I touched by his gesture. However, this was not the only time that I was impressed with the Dutch generosity and hospitality. I did as my farmer friend recommended and bought a couple bottles of wine, sit on the canal’s edge, and call out to boat locals and ask if I could join. I did this on my last day there and on the first boat I was welcomed aboard and spent a few hours cruising the canals, sharing laughter and beautiful conversation. They went out of their way to drop me off at the place closest to bus stop as I was leaving straight from there to Brussels. There we parted with hugs and smiles. It’s just the Dutch way. It strengthens my belief that people are generally good, especially the Dutch.


I briefly talked about the bike culture in the Netherlands in my Rotterdam entry. However, in Amsterdam, it’s even stronger. There are so many bikes there locked up that people forget where they put them. In fact, there are four bikes for every one city native. Also, drunk dutch people find it fun to throw bikes that are not locked to objects like trees or a pole and throw them into the canals. It’s a little sport they call 'chuckin.' 20,000 bikes are in the canals and there is a layer of bikes 4 deep and it provides numerous locals with full time jobs to go around in boats with cranes and just pull out bikes 10 at a time. Now people are not only throwing bikes bin the canals, but also small ‘smart’ cars that are parked next to the canals. An average of two smart cars per week are being pushed into the canals. I also can’t tell you how many times I was almost hit by a bike while wandering around the city. It’s pretty dangerous, I must say.


Brussels.


I went to Brussels directly from Amsterdam to meet Larissa. I'm not really a big fan of the city. I stayed there for two days and saw everything the first afternoon I was there.

They have a giant square in the heart of city. It is the grandest square I have seen yet. Three or four story buildings made with the same design as the canal houses in Amsterdam. The tops were plated with gold, glistening in the sun, creating an awe-inspiring view. Also there were other fantastic buildings with ornate carvings of saints, knights, and other important figures with the the smallest details of the person’s facial features shown. It was truly a spectacular square. I met a girl named ‘London’ who was a ballerina (brings the count to two now) in NYC before she tore her ACL and shifted focus to film. I was interviewed for a documentary. I forgot the name, but she seemed pleasant enough so she tagged along with us. Anyway, there were a lot of wonderful architecture, monuments (Europe is just one giant monument meca), churches, gardens, and of course EU's parliament is located there. The city is primarily a business city, so there are large glass skyscrapers, etc. The exciting part of the trip came when there was a large, but peaceful, protest of Palestinians against the Israeli floatilla blockade. I had to walk through to get to where I needed to go. I was shoved and things were yelled at me a few times, but I felt safe. It was nothing compared to the communist rally in Barcelona.

The next day I enjoyed the parks around the city and stopped in for a few pints of Belgian beer. The belgian beer was everything I expected, and then more.


When I went to Brussels (about a month ago,) a lot of college grads were just starting to make their big trip through Europe with friends. In the hostel the first night, I encountered a lot of weird and common sense questions by these travelers (including two UF grads.)

Heres a list:

1.Q. Can you use a debit card to book hostels and flights online?
A. Really?! Of course you can.

2. Q. Where do you eat to save money?
A: Shopping at grocery stores
Q:You can do that?
A:rolling of the eyes.

3.Q:Where do you get a good haircut in Europe by a proper stylist.
A:Rolling of the eyes again.

And my favorite:
4. Q. Did you see a place to get Prada sunglasses today?
A I couldn’t help but laugh.

They all talked about doing Europe through the backdoor, but good luck wearing Prada, designer haircuts, and just showing up to hostels hoping for vacancy. I was happy to help, but I felt that this was very common sense stuff, not just beginner traveler ignorance. I wish them the best of luck. They were also very depressed when it rained that night. They left with expectations of Europe being like Candyland where everything works out and you will be entertained every moment. I told them a lot of the time, things don’t work, you miss trains, you jump on the wrong train, the weather is awful, etc. But how you deal with these situations will make or break your European trip. You have to entertain yourself and be disciplined with money to ensure yourself a long and enjoyable trip. Also, many of my trip highlights resulted from bad situations. It takes an optimistic attitude to find something to do. I think most people would agree with that statement. I don’t say this like I'm a world class traveler, I am not. I still look and ask for tips from others, but I just found the questions funny.


Sorry I don’t have much else to say about Brussels, I just thought it was bit of a let-down. I just stayed too long. I would feel different if I was just there for a night. Wonderful city though.


Sorry this took me so long to write and post but I have been basically non-stop traveling for basically a month now, and I just forgot to write it.

As always I love you and miss you all,

stay safe out there,

and, of course seize, the day.


Nathan