Some Random Pictures and Canal Tour

Day three, my last day in Holland, ended with a Canal tour of Amsterdam. It was ok, short but the views were nice. I had already seen most everything by this point though. One of the things they mentioned that I didn't know were the houses used to be taxed on their width so home builders began making homes thin but deep. There's also a hook at the top of each home. When moving in and out those hooks are used to move large items like furniture since they will not fit through the doors.

Anyway here's random pictures:

A long line for the wax musuem, the wax figure of Obama was quite a draw I suppose.

I took a boat like this for my Canal Tour.

Jesus Loves You! At least we Americans didn't get all the religious freaks.

A copy of Jumbo, a Chinese floating restaurant in Hong Kong. I ate at the real thing when I was in Hong Kong.

A chocolate covered waffle that looks way better than it tasted.

This ended my last full day in Amsterdam. Overall Amsterdam was nice, but gets old quickly. It is a very beautiful city, very walkable, and easy to see. Everyone bikes, though I was afraid to because the streets seemed a bit chaotic to me. It wasn't as chaotic as Asia, but it was enough to scare me. I didn't want to get run over you know.

Amsterdamers don't really seem to like tourists. I can't totally blame Amsterdam people for not liking tourists though. They do get the dumbest of the dumb coming to their city to smoke weed, gamble, and whore. I mean, that's not going to attract a great crowd, it's going to attract people that are willing to jump in the dirty filthy canal water instead.

I assume how Amsterdamers view tourists.

Some other random tid bits...
For a long time Holland was quite liberal but now it is starting to shift more conservative. The hard right wingers in Holland all live outside the major cities. They want to preserve their Dutch heritage and basically get rid of Muslims (maybe other groups too, I dunno) though they themselves live in isolated white Dutch only communities. It strikes me as blind nationalism or a desire for racial purity. It's probably a mixture of both and seems quite backwards to me.

The Dutch take global warming seriously. The country is below sea level, dams and dikes keep the water from flooding their country. Should the water level rise too much their country could be no more.

Also a random note, starting Thursday shops will actually be open until 9 PM. It's shopping night, I guess the weekend begins now. The Dutch seem to be a people that don't work that late, at least not in retail stores, I don't know about their corporate culture. Most days as soon as the clock hits 5 they are gone.

Amsterdam City Hall: No Public Urinating and Dog poop

Back in Amsterdam I decided it was time to go to city hall and look for a no urinating sign my dutch coworker told me about. I started to walk over there from the central train station area. Animal excrement loves me feet you know. When I was maybe 11 or 12 I stepped in dog poop while going home from the comic book store with my friend. I have stepped in cat piss while walking in the bathroom with the lights out. Now, while walking around Amsterdam and looking up at the buildings instead of down on the sidewalks I stepped in dog poop. Great. Amsterdamers seem to love dogs, and they are always walking them. Well, I guess some of them don't clean up after their dogs.

When I got to city hall I basically walked around everywhere dragging my feet spreading it wherever I went. I wasn't that successful actually, I had to clean it later cuz my shoe stunk. It was disgusting.

While at Amsterdam's City Hall I ran into this little gem. Ha! Hilarious. No public urinating!

I believe the translation is: "It is prohibited in or around City Hall to urinate except the designated toilet facilities."

The entire sign of things prohibited at city hall.

Inside the city hall I ended up talking to a nice girl that worked the tourist section. She was Dutch but I believe lived most of her life in France. She said the bad stereotypes of the Dutch are: they are money grubbers / hordes, they don't spend, they are arrogant and think they are the best, they look down on everyone else, they are always right and if wrong will look for a way to make themselves look correct. She said another bad thing was they make their money off the hard work of others, for example they may not have had slaves in their country but they were big players in the Slave trade, they were not big well known colonial powers but they did colonize Indonesia.

I don't know how true these stereotypes are, they're just what I was told.

Day 2: Amsterdam Anne Frank House, Van Goh

So when I finally got back to the Anne Frank house I saw the line was even longer now! It sucked but I got in line and toughed it out this time. It was interesting to see the actual house that Anne Frank went into hiding in. The Diary of Anne Frank is something I obviously read as a young child but I didn't remember much of it anymore. Still, the museum was very powerful, a powerful reminder of a racist past. No pictures were allowed inside so I can't show anything. I will say that the rooms were much bigger than I thought they would be, though they certainly were not big in general.

The museum was set up by Anne's father Otto Frank. After the war when he knew his daughters were dead Anne's diary was given to him. Otto said he had always known about the Diary but had promised his daughter he would not read it. He didn't, until after WW2 and he knew she was gone. He was surprised by what his a daughter had written, deeper thoughts than what he knew of Anne as a child. He said, as a parent you never really know your child. He complied a version of the diary to be published. It is now available in over 70 languages. People started visiting the house after the book's publication and eventually it became a museum. The rooms are empty though, Otto wanted them to stay empty so there's a model of what they looked like when Anne live there.

After the Anne Frank house I stopped by the Church right next to it.

Inside of the church.

Then I got some food from a little stand right outside the church. I got the haring again. Why? I don't know, I must be a masochist. This time I oped for the smoked herring. It wasn't as bad, in fact I ate about 75 percent of it. Then it starting tasting raw to me again and I just couldn't finish it. I tossed it again. I also for french fries with mayonnaise, that's how the Dutch like their fries. I said to the man working there “that's how the people here like it right?” He probably also saw the haring I had (I hadn't eaten it yet at this point) and said “you are one of us now”. The people around me chuckled and I walked off to eat. I must have missed the forks because the mayo is all over the fries. I got it all over my fingers and felt like a savage eating them. I saw later that people eat fries with little tiny forks. Oh well, next time.

Little stands right by the Anne Frank House and the Church next to it.

Hot dogs seem really popular in Amsterdam.

A flower shop... tulips were out of season.

You can get herring here.

French Fries here... get it with mayo like the Dutch.

Smoked Herring.... it was still disgusting.

They drench fries with mayo..... it wasn't that bad but I'll never want it on my own.

The weather in Holland sucks right now. Did I mention that? On again off again raining, freaking cold as hell, and then it starting haling! It hailed twice while I was there. Anyway, that was eating my food on a bench enjoying the clear blue skies and bam, hail. Damnit.

Some more random pictures:

Next it was on to the Vincent Van Gogh museum.

I got an audio tour thingy for 5 euros because I am not a fan of art so I'd have no idea what anything means. The audio tour could be a bit melodramatic at times. On one of Van Gogh's famous self portrait: First it said the man looked somber, then right afterwards it went on to say “You would say this is the face of death.” No I really wouldn't. I would say you are too melodramatic and emotional, just stick to somber.

Somber was good.

I pretty much have no appreciation of art because when I looked at some of these paintings I would think to myself: man some of these look like what a child would do with crayons: orchard in bloom, view of arles. I also remember thinking those people in the boat look like stick figures.

Ok so I know next to nothing about art which is probably why I lack true appreciation of these great works. While I lack real appreciation of art it seems part of the reason van gogh is considered great is because of how he used colors, specifically colors that naturally contrasted each other yet still creating amazing works where the contrast is not evident. Also stylistically he basically help found modern art. Really though I don't know much beyond that and I'm going to stop pretending to. I doubt I'll go to other art museums while in Europe. This pretty much did the trick for me. I'm so uncultured.

Some other pictures outside the van goh museum.

Finally I walked through Vondel Park. It was cold but lots of people were there exercising, riding bikes or jogging. I guess that's how the Dutch stay in good shape. It's not just women that were tights as pants in Holland. There were too many men wearing tights, I know it's cold but sweat pants work fine I think. I did see maybe two or three crazy people wearing shorts in the freezing cold, one of them was a girl, the others guys.

Amsterdam Day 2: Wasted Morning

Anne Frank House already has a huge line!

Anne Frank House line goes around the corner.

Admission Rates for the Anne Frank House: normal price 8,50 euros.

Day two in Amsterdam was supposed to be more promising than day 1. I didn't get up until 10 am though; I hadn't quite converted timezones yet. My first stop was to be the anne frank house. When I got there the line was already huge, stretching around the building. Forget this I thought, the line will probably be shorter later. So I left deciding to return later in the day.

I then went off to visit the Dam area. On my way to the Dam I decided to try haring as the dutch call it. It's uncooked cleaned herring with some salt mixture.

Hey what's this? Let me try it....

The famous Dutch herring minus onions....

About as far as I got... look at the fish! Yuck!

I was told older folks eat it plain while the younger folks eat it with bread, onions and pickles. I chose the bread and pickles. It was gross. I did not like it at all. It was slimy and cold and the texture did not agree with me, not to mention the taste. I should say I don't like raw meats in general, I don't like sushi and I don't like sashimi. When I was in tokyo ,I tried it and while it didn't taste good to me I could at least finish the sashimi there. I could not finish the herring. It was that bad to me. I ate the pickles and the bread untouched by the fish and threw the rest away. Later I was told that this dish is something of a delicacy. Well maybe your herring is a delicacy and an acquired taste but it still tastes nasty, No offense. I believe the raw herring came about from the old days (no refrigerators) where the raw herring could be stored for a long time and still eaten.

A few Dam area pictures...

Entering the Dam area...

Monument at the Dam.

The Palace was under construction. It opened at 12:00 noon and I was one of the first people in line but the line wasn't moving. Do people here actually work? The lines for everything here are worse than Disneyland.

After that I ended up back in the red light district. Hey.... no, I didn't go back to get hookers. I thought it would look different during the day and it's right next to the Dam area. For whatever reason I thought the girls would be all gone now. Nope, most were gone but a few do work during the day. Weird.

Oude Kerk

Fat hookers just across from Oude Kerk.

Anyway this is Oude Kerk Amsterdam. It's the oldest church in Amsterdam I think and all around it is the red light district. I thought it was funny that just across from the church were windows with hookers in them, they were all fat and black. This church became rich back in the day when people were more serious about going to heaven. Sailors wanted to go to heaven too. This church was interesting in that it allowed sailors to come in the night before and confess or whatever before they took off in the morning. The sailors would come in and say the sins they were about to commit: boozing, whoring, gambling, the whole nine yards. The preist would say ok, write up a letter, presumably to god, and then take money from the sailor. This would allow the sailor to still go to heaven. You know, back in the day the Catholic church would let you go to heaven by buying your way in.

A sex worker leaving to go home.

Another walk by taping of the ladies working in the red light district. I got caught again!!

I got bored of the red light district so I started heading back to the Anne Frank house. Here's some crap I ate and things I saw on the way back there.

Febo Burger.... Febo is a fast food chain where you buy stuff from little compartments. It's not good but I was on the go.

More Febo food

Vanila Ice Cream - Yes the Dutch eat ice cream in their cold weather. Crazy! I tried it, it's home made basically. It was very rich and not airy. It was also kind of warm for ice cream. Quite good

Wandering around Amsterdam on the First Night

Welcome to Amsterdam.

One of my first sights in Amsterdam.

There are bikes everywhere.

Another early view of Amsterdam.

After checking in the hostel and talking to one of the workers for a bit I decided to explore what I could of Amsterdam. It was around 7 pm I think when I left so there wasn't much daylight out.

I walked by some coffee shops, places to smoke marijuana, and went in a general weed store to check out what they had. There were marijuana lollipops, a marijuana red bull type of drink, hemp shirts, hemp hats, joint holders and more. It was interesting for like 5-10 minutes and then I left, without buying anything of course.

A "coffee shop".

Hemp Store

The Dutch people don't seem to work late. Pretty much everything was already closed so I decided to visit the red light district. I figure that will for sure be open late. I had heard that the reality was that the red light district is a really sad sad scene. I had heard that the old perception was that these girls that worked there because they wanted to, not because they needed no longer applies. Maybe, I'm really not sure. Of course they are all smiles when people walk by but I'm like 100% that being a prostitute really sucks and that they probably have crappy lives.

There are supposed to be girls of all shapes, sizes and colors, but I only saw black, white and one thai girl (could have been a lady boy). Most of the black women I assume are from africa and many of them were really fat. There were lots of pretty white girls. I was surprised, I figured hookers would look pretty nasty in real life. Nope... at least in Amsterdam they look like barbie dolls wearing bikinis / lingerie. I believe most of these girls are eastern european, very few are Dutch, or so I was told. The hostel worker said you can tell the difference by their eyes, I could not. Anyway I believe most of these girls are eastern european because when I took pictures (you're not supposed to take pictures) they would yell at me “fucking idiot” and stuff like that with an accent that I assumed was some type of eastern european.

So anyway there are these little windows and the girls stand inside them with lingerie and try to look as inviting as possible. They tap on the window as you walk by to get your attention. They actually rent these windows. I'm not sure how much they are but I believe it's not cheap. They make up for it by charging a high price for 15 minutes. I'm not sure exactly how much because I did not want to catch any venereal diseases from them and I'm just not into whoring.

The street where the red light district begins has been renamed Sunset Blvd for obvious reasons.

Hard to see but there's a sex worker sitting in a chair.

Several sex workers

An empty booth

Another booth with the curtains drawn back so you can see where the 'love' happens.

I did actually ask one if she would let me ask her a few questions so I could post it on youtube. She said it would cost me. I said, ok, how much. She said 50 euros for 15 minutes. I was like, I don't have that many questions for you lady, how about just a 5 minute interview. She said no so I left without an interview for you guys.

Now then, I had been try to get a picture of the hookers discretely but it wasn't working. The pictures came out too dark and you can't see anything. I decided then to just try and walk by and video tape it real fast. I got caught and the girl quickly closed the curtain and banged the window really loudly to warn the other girls to close theirs. As I kept walked she opened the door and called me a “fucking idiot”. Nice.

This quick video shows what the hookers look like in Amsterdam, I got yelled at for this.

On the way back to my hostel I got lost and was wandering around for quite a while in the cold miserable rain. I should emphasize miserable cuz it really, really was. I couldn't find any damn street signs so my map was useless. I learned later that the street signs are on the buildings. How annoying, but once I found that out I could get around better.



Anyway so that was my first day in Amsterdam. I came all the way here where marijuana and prostitution is legal and didn't engage in any of these activities for my whole trip. Instead I did things like try some raw herring dish... more on that later.