SASHA'S COLLEGE LIFE

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Amsterdam, Day 2

The Leaning Houses

Began the day with a late start. Slept for twelve hours, which gave me enough energy to walk for five continuous hours.

The Hooks

Cool Building

The first stop of my day was Viktor and Rolf's headquarters. Saw the cool building along the way.

Viktor and Rolf

I stood outside the building for a little bit. It was in a such a beautiful neighborhood. But really, I haven't seen any part of Amsterdam that I don't think is beautiful. After gawking at the building for a little, I continued my walk through the neighborhood to some shopping destinations and saw some really beautiful architecture along the way.

Mold of Einstein's Face

After wandering for a while, I made it back to STEIM and met up with the rest of my group. We went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Soon the evening was upon us and we headed out to the 5 Days Off Festival. Its some electronic music festival. The headliner we paid to see was some 17 year old French kid in a v-neck. He wasn't very good. It was all very predictable. But we enjoyed ourselves. It got soo hot in the venue that we had to leave, so we headed out in search of food and found this bakery that had the most delicious snack ever- a hot dog with melted cheese and a tomato on it- hot-dog-pizza!

Musical Boat

After dinner we ran into this character. The bridge was crowded with people so we had to see what was going on. Hanging from his fishing pole was a small wooden shoe with miniature post cards tied to it. You could take a post card as long as you left a donation. After the shoe was passed around he began to play music. He had a player piano on his boat as well as a horn and a conch shell. He put the music into the piano and began to play along with his horn in one hand and drove his boat with the other. It was quite a scene.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Amsterdam, Day 1

Street View from Front Door

So far, so good. I left my water bottle in the empty seat next to me on the airplane. Jason left his suitcase full of gear on the tram(he found out the tram drivers loop and return ever hour, so he waited an hour and lucky for him, his suitcase was still there). Sean thought he was pick-pocketed.

Street View from Front Door

We found a great bar/restaurant on our corner and had delicious lunch there. We made friends with the bartender and he marked on the map all of the places we should go, and all of the touristy places we should avoid. After that we tried to find some thrift store he recommended, but ended up walking in the opposite direction and found ourselves at an outdoor market. From there we ended up at another bar, one the bartender had recommended and made friends with that bartender. He gave us more places to visit.

View from Apartment Window

The Dutch so far have been very kind to us. The houses all tilt or lean in crazy directions. And they all have incredibly narrow staircases, which are very difficult to navigate. The houses all have hooks attached to a rod that hangs over the roof. The hook is so people can set up a rig for moving furniture in and out of the apartments, because they'd never be able to fit it in the staircase.

View from Apartment Window

The houses here all have large windows and no one closes their blinds. You can see inside while people are eating dinner, or hanging out in their living room. Everyone here is so blunt. Or maybe we Americans just aren't used to such levels of openness.

View from Apartment Window

We ate dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant on our block. After that we went for a walk around the neighborhood. So far we have all proclaimed our love for Amsterdam numerous times and said that we are never coming back to Baltimore. On our walk I found a bar that carries my beer. We're going to try going there another night. Or we're going to find another bar that carries it.