The Juxtapositions of Amsterdam

With only 2 days left before I leave Amsterdam and head to my new home in Sweden, I thought it'd be good to write a little bit about the little things that I've noticed about the city that is Amsterdam. While different and quirky in a lot of ways, I somehow still feel quite at home here (other than not being able to speak the language or read anything). I have mainly found Amsterdam to be a quiet place - in that it is somewhat peaceful and yet, somehow also chaotic at the same time.

I'm all about the paradox. Let me explain. The peaceful is I guess something that has to come from a city made up of cobblestones, canals, and bicycles. The city, to me at least, doesn't seem so crowded - it is usually comfortable (save certain parts of the popular shopping district). Mainly it seems that the disturbance comes from the tourists, actually. The people who seem to be truly Dutch and living in Amsterdam are usually quiet and just go about their daily lives, whizzing away on their bikes and minding their own business. There also seems to be less people smoking here - although Angela doesn't believe this to be true. Again, I feel a lot of the smokers seem to be tourists. I guess, also in general, the people here all have a reasonably decent manner about themselves and don't tend to talk too loudly or take up too much attention. Again, it could be that I have been just sitting in the wrong parts of town.

The city also is a little chaotic and this comes mainly from experiencing what it is like to be sitting in the car being driven around Amsterdam. It is not for the faint hearted! Bloooody Heck! Talk about crazy drivers. One thing I have grown to learn about Australia is that we are a very cautious country. We enforce such strict road rules and strict rules on wearing helmets when riding a bike. Here, nobody rides a bicycle with a helmet and everyone rides bikes! Here, everyone drives like a lunatic and so the only way to get around the city is to also drive like a lunatic. The road signs make absolutely no sense as well. Seriously. They just have a sign with like a diamond on it and it is meant to mean "priority road?" They drive on the right side of the road which is already confusing enough, but they seem to make really nonsensical turns...like turning from the right side but obstructing traffic from every direction doing so or turning right and then suddenly just turning left and then doing a u-turn and that is just part of the road. I don't get it. But I sure don't plan to be picking up a car and driving myself around anytime soon. Add to that, the bikes that are just EVERYWHERE. Not just on the streets but just everywhere. Bikes are stacked anywhere there is space, in front of shops even if it is covering the entire store and on the bridges of every canal and lamppost. On the road, with the cars, it's everyone on bikes and mopeds and they cycle like they are a car but a car that doesn't need to follow the rules of a car. They ride on the road, they ride on the bicycle footpath and they dodge in and out and don't stop for pedestrian crossing in which some have traffic lights and some don't and some cars usually stop at and some cars never stop at. I find it all a little confusing and chaotic. I feel that Australia seems to have set up a very ordered system, to the point where it feels a little like we are babies but at least we are safe babies.

Um, well that's a few of the observations that I can make about the place. Also, these are some photos I happened to take of my camera of the state of the street after the New Years fireworks in Amsterdam. Like I said, everyone lets them off and the whole of Amsterdam gets trashed and covered in the red goop that comes from fireworks apparently. This is also pretty small time compared to other red goop covered streets I saw later on.

And as a nicer photo, here is a photo of me in the park with a swan.

On another note, this is a photo to show you how the crazy cat likes to claim my bed before I go to bed.

This is a photo of a coffee shop, mind one of the more glamorous ones, because I told Elira I would take a photo of one for her. I didn't get a chance to take one of the more dodgy ones that probably actually sell the stuff buttt hey it's still an effort right?

And this is a photo of these wall "vending machines" where you get food (Japan flashback) which were pretty interesting. You put money in and you can open up the window and grab the food!

A lazy blog, from a lazy person who has had a considerably lazier week, and am not tired from being so lazy. But I have a sorta fun story to tell! But I'll write that in the next blog@!