Amsterdam: The Least Dutch City in the Netherlands

2017 February 23

I finally left for my trip at the beginning of this month. I started writing this February 4 on the train between Amsterdam and Frankfurt (after which I took a train from Frankfurt to Bern, then Bern to Lausanne, Lausanne to Montreux, and Montreux to Gstaad around 1:00 AM). And since there was wifi on this train…

… I could work, write, and research! Though mostly in short sprints. The wifi wasn’t 100%.

Automobiles, Trains, and Planes

Going from my apartment in Denver to the airport was probably the most stressful part of the journey. I dropped off Eleanor, my RAV4, at the Harrison Fourds’ house before getting an Uber to a Denver light-rail station to take me to the airport.

(The Harrison Fourds are my sister, Beverly; Jake, my sister’s roommate from the last apartment; Megan, Jake’s girlfriend and former sorority sister to Beverly; and Winnie, Megan’s roommate. They live on Harrison Street and there are four of them, therefore they are the Harrison Fourds.)

The Uber driver was a nice lady who talked about her mother being from France and her daughter living in Dubai after marrying a rich oil businessman. Sounds like Dubai to me.

The airport was relatively eventless as far as airports go, but I found out that I love my new suitcase from Away.

Like in the last entry, this isn’t an ad, but I recently got the “Bigger Carry-On” from Away and it’s probably the perfect suitcase. It’s exactly as big as someone can make a suitcase without the need to have it checked. The specifications are technically slightly over the maximum dimensions of most airlines, but still will fit perfectly in the measuring cases at the boarding gates.

The suitcases also come with a battery charger, telescoping handle, and four swivel wheels for pretty good mobility and durability for the European cobblestone streets. Again, not an ad, but if I’ve convinced you to buy one, tell me so I can give you a code for $20 off any purchase, and I’ll get $20 of store credit. Seriously, I was able to pack everything for the 5 weeks into just the carry-on case and my work bag.

Philadelphia was a longer layover, but I didn’t run out of things to do. I realized it was the last time I might have consistent internet access so I made sure all web affairs were in order before my flight.

The weather in Philadelphia seemed nice. I didn’t spend a lot of time in Philadelphia, but it was sunny the whole time. If it’s sunny in March when I do another layover, I may be able to claim that it’s always sunny in Philadelphia.

The flight was not as bad as I remember my last transatlantic flight. Maybe it’s because I now have a 20-hour transpacific flight from Los Angeles to Sydney to compare it to – seriously, near the end of that flight I was in existential “what is reality” mode from exhaustion. Or maybe it’s because I’m of American drinking age now and I found out that American Airlines offers free wine and beer on international flights.

Nederland

This is the first country I’ve been to where I’ve never tried learning the language. Our Dutch roommate in Argentina sometimes taught us how to count in Dutch, but beyond that I have no experience with the language. I have nothing against Dutch, but it’s just not high enough on the list of languages I want to spend time learning. It’s the closest living relative to English, but not a lot of people speak it, and a majority of people in the Netherlands speak English just fine (90% – 93% – check my reliable source if you don’t believe me).

I was ready for 2 days in Amsterdam. Historically, Amsterdam has always fascinated me. It was the richest city in the world in the 1600’s during the Dutch Renaissance thanks to the Dutch East India Trading Company, and has always been (relatively) tolerant of other cultures. While Amsterdam is no longer the richest city in the world, its tolerance of others has certainly stayed (and it’s still pretty rich).

Immediately after arriving at Amsterdam Centraal Station…

…it was time to get lost searching for the hostel that was 4 blocks away. I was trying to find a street called Oudezijdz, but it turns out a lot of streets are called Oudezijdz because Oudezijdz means “old tributary” or “old canal”, but I didn’t know that. What I should have been looking for was Oudezijdz Voorburgwal. But there was another street called Oudezijdz Voorburg and Oudezijdz Voorburgwal, where “wal” means west – Voorburg was situated on the east side of the canal, and Voorburgwal, the same canal on the west side. I eventually found the hostel, but maybe if I studied some Dutch before coming I wouldn’t run into this issue. On the other hand, it made it interesting, and I was able to learn this bit of the language through useful experience.

A place called the Bulldog Hotel obviously needs a cat.

After spending 40 minutes to find a place situated 10 minutes away, it was time to meet Kevin.

I connected to wifi at the hostel and let everyone know I didn’t get abducted yet. Then after buying toothpaste, shampoo, and conditioner (no checked luggage means no large amount of liquids can come from home), it was time to explore Amsterdam, barely awake and fueled by large amounts of caffeine.

Because my senses were working at minimum capacity, I wasn’t sure whether or not I was full or starving, but we decided to get breakfast / lunch / dinner anyway. I couldn’t believe it, but right around the corner from the hostel was an Argentine restaurant! I hadn’t been to an Argentine restaurant since Argentina, but there was something about the place that didn’t seem too authentic… the waiter didn’t speak Spanish… the food was Argentine by name but didn’t quite taste like it… and they were playing bachata, which is certainly latino, but not really Argentine.

After walking outside, we saw there was another Argentine restaurant next door…

…and more Argentine restaurants…

…and suddenly… I realized this WAS ARGENTINA!

Just kidding, but it was weird.

Actually the entire restaurant situation in Amsterdam is weird. There are four types of restaurants: Argentine, Italian, vague Middle-Eastern, and vague Asian. From what I can tell, there’s no such thing as a Dutch restaurant in the city. If you want Dutch food, which only seems to exist in dessert form, you’ll have to buy it from a convenience store which primarily sells lighters and weird t-shirts.

But stroopwafels are totally worth it.

De Avond – The Evening

^At least I’m learning some Dutch for this article.^

Kevin and I went to the Van Gogh Museum just in time to see it close, but while we were in the area we got some pictures of the obligatory “I amsterdam” sign and walked by a Vice News office.

Many blocks in the city are indistinguishable from one to the next. This is common in many old European towns. Some were built that way on purpose to confuse foreign invaders, like me. And a lot of different languages are heard in the streets. French, English, German, and Spanish seem to be common but Dutch is rare. I’m convinced that if you’re raised in the Netherlands, you avoid living in the middle of Amsterdam at all costs, and that probably makes it the least Dutch city in the Netherlands.

One thing in Amsterdam that is actually Dutch is the prevalence of bikes. Bikes are valued highly here. A couple weeks before coming, I read a 99% Invisible article about the Dutch Reach, a workaround to keep the cyclists from getting doored when restructuring the streets is too expensive. However, I didn’t expect how fast the cyclists would go and how easy it would be to get hit. The bikes are road royalty in the Netherlands and it doesn’t matter if you’re a hulking car or a humble pedestrian, stay out of the bike lane.

De Eerste Nacht

The first night was fun, but uneventful compared to most visitors’ first night. Kevin’s and my idea of a good time is usually hanging out with friends, doing some sort of skill-building activity (tennis, singing, snowboarding, things we’ll never actually do professionally), socializing with new people, and talking about everything vaguely philosophical. Unless we wanted to pay someone to “socialize” with in Amsterdam, it’s not always easy to simply make friends (in hostels it’s definitely easier, but not guaranteed). Amsterdam isn’t known for its skill-building activities either, if you catch my drift (I’m implying that it’s known for copious amounts of marijuana use, if you don’t catch my drift). But there is always the option to walk around and absorb the sights and sounds, talking about travel, old friends, new friends, learning new languages, living in large cities vs the small one where we grew up, living in Europe vs the US, life plans, and so on.

An on-point observation by Kevin was that it’s entertaining to hear other Americans talking in the street, because 90% of the time, it’s something dumb. A minute later, we walked by a group of Americans. One was saying, “Dude, our hostel is, like, soooo chillll…”. Nothing against Americans. I am one, and I’m sure I do this more than I realize.

Dag 2

Thanks Google Translate.

The second day we actually made it on time to the Van Gogh Museum. No pictures could be taken, but here’s a video of walking on a snow mound outside afterwards.

And more of the sign.

Night two was more of the same, but this time we had Chris, a friend from Australia I met at the hostel. He joined us for the walking around and philosophizing and exploring the city. I was still exhausted from jet lag, but not at all compared to Chris – flights to and from Australia are harsh. We were all exhausted, so the night ended fairly early. (I’m not just saying that for censorship, it truly ended early.)

Bye Amsterdam

^That’s actually how you say “Bye Amsterdam” in Dutch.^

And then it was time to leave. Using my Eurail pass, I entered the station, asked the kiosk lady which rail to go to, talked with a Brit in line at Starbucks about his upcoming trip to Colorado, and did some work at the train station Starbucks before leaving and starting this article (I’m finishing this article a full 2.5 weeks later at Kevin’s place in Coimbra – I like to take time in making sure these have a little semblance of quality; if I didn’t, I would have 1 reader instead of the about a dozen). I’ve done a lot since coming to Europe, so there will be a lot of upcoming content. Don’t forget to subscribe.

Also…

…you have to pay to use the restrooms at the train stations. What!?

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