Chapter 3 - All the Glory That Is Amsterdam On Queen's Day (and then another 4 days afterwards and Noordwijk briefly at the end)
paint|wheatfield with a reaper - van gogh
photo|world press photo 2006

Insanity. We arrived in Amsterdam to find a huge party just getting under way on the streets. We hurried to our hostel, the flying pig, ditched are stuff, and descended on the streets. Again, imagine the most crowded, happening club you've ever been in, mix it with a fair atmosphere, put it on every street in Amsterdam, and mix in liquor (and of course drugs, this is Amsterdam) to boot. The highlights of the day included Kiran bungee jumping in the heart of Amsterdam (along with a big dutchmen who was so fried that day he forgot he had bungee jumped the next day... luckily we had it on video for him), and a crazy techno stage with some damn good music. The vibe was pretty much just a continuation of the insanity of the night before, tons of different stages with different vibes all around town, and plenty of boat parties floating up and down the canals of Amsterdam. I've put up a few photos to give you a sense, but I won't bother trying to describe it (I think I did my best last chapter and failed).

The next day hurt. But everyone knows the best way to get over a hangover is to actually go and run around a bit, get the blood flowing, work the garbage out of the system. So Helene and I rented a tandem. Wow. Like I said in the 'prologue', the hardest part of a tandem is not being in the front, it's being in the back. Especially with a lunatic of a driver with a history of car crashes (of course female)(joking helene!) in the front, taking you down sidestreets so insanely crowded that she takes the tram tracks, only to find that a tram baralleling right towards you and no way to get off the tram cause there're people everywhere...! Yes that did happen, but it wasn't nearly as dramatic, I got a video from the back while we were on a less crowded street (didn't have the courage to try it on the insane ones), but it was a blast, even if the crappy dutch bike seats had my ass sore until I was in Paris. It was also a great way to see Amsterdam, and Helene and I came back with rosy faces and huge smiles to the hostel, where everyone else seemed really hurting from the night before, in full recovery mode...

I'll mention the red light district brefiely here (since it's probably been played to death in every tourist guide every made for Amsterdam) only to say walking down the streets is one of the most surreal experiences you'll ever have. No video / photos are allowed, but you essentially have these windowed doors in the front where you have woman dressed in lingere (not necessarily pretty I might add) doing all these subtle little things to attract your attention. If someone is interested they open the little door, negociate, and then disappear into some backroom, and then the curtains are drawn (the boys even saw a wife negotiating for her husband)... Seeing woman like that, reduced to little more than trinkets in a vending machine, was actually pretty sombering. Yes I realize that the woman were better off that way, with full medical benefits and a clean safe environment, but to see desire packaged that way made me feel like the world was turned upside down. A shear emotional reaction, but I wasn't a fan. On a lighter note, if you were ever curious how our culture came to equate XXX with pornographic material, it's because it's the prevalent feature on the flag of Amsterdam. It's kinda funny when you go into the churches of Amsterdam to find the XXX emblem beautifully immortalized on every pillar. I've also posted a photo of a bronze we found on the sidewalk (at least we were allowed to take pictures of that).

But more important was what we found inside the church in the middle of the red light district. There was a huge display of all the winning photos of the world press photo competition for 2006. Each picture was placed with a little explacation of the event that occured this year... and they were all breathtaking. Honestly take an instant to browse that website, and get a sense for what a crazy year it was, or even browse the past year and see just how crazy this world is each and every year. Also gives you a sense of some of the big stories you might've missed too... If I ever make tons of money, I'll order the books for each year, the highlight of Amsterdam for me and to think I only stumbled on it by accident.

The day after that was our chance to go to the Van Gogh museum, which had a surprisingly small collection from what I'd imagine. But it was still worth the visit, and I had two big favourites. The first was wheatfield with a reaper, where I got to see a wheatfield that had the same complexity as the sky in Van Gogh's famous stary night, wind swirling and twirling every piece of that field. The other really interesting piece wasn't one by Van Gogh, but rather Gauguin, another famous painter, who did a portrait of Van Gogh painting his favourite, sun flowers... in winter. This is somewhat of an enormous shot at Van Gogh, with whom he spent 3 or 4 months trying to start an artist commune in France before getting completely fed up and fleeing to tropical islands (it's also interesting to note that it was for Gauguin that Van Gogh cut off his ear...) Anyways, the story is Van Gogh could never paint from imagination, he always needed to have his subjects in front of him. And Gauguin spent hours trying to convince Van Gogh to paint from imagination but he never could, and hence this painting of Van Gogh painting sunflowers in winter, a direct shot at his artistic ability. The most interesting part of this story is that a few years later, while Van Gogh was insitutionalized for his mental illness, he finally took Gauguin's advice and painted one painting completely from imagination. The result? The Stary Night, his most famous and celebrated work.

The final big stop on our Amsterdam tour was the Heineken brewery / museum. If anyone ever designed a museum specifically designed for students, this is it. Three beers are included in the tour, with a bar halfway through and at the end of the tour, as well as a gift (which turned out, of course, to be a Heineken bottle opener). Had some crazy rides, such as the experience of being a Heineken bottle of beer, as well as explaining their history, how beer is made, and tons of interactive stuff do like being a virtual DJ or giving you time to browse through a huge library of Heineken commercials while lying back in hyperfuturistic lounge chairs equipped with a personal screen and stereo. Really fun, and a must see for anyone in Amsterdam, the funniest thing was seeing a French family go through with their 2 year old who was dancing about, and who was even pouring beer by the end of the tour with the Heineken barmen (that kid is gonna be soo cool when he's older). The second funniest thing was that Heineken brewery also had Dutch karoke... you can see the disaterous results here (the irony of course is that me, who knows zero Dutch is belting her out but Helene, who knows at least how to pronounce the words correcty after a year in Holland, is barely audible). I must say that this museum was pretty damn effective propaganda, I find Heineken has found a very special place in my heart despite being just an above average, pretty standard beer.

In the end, after so many days in Amsterdam we were sick of the city, so we wound up going to the flying pig's beach hostel in Noordwijk for our last night. Of course, the free shuttle bus was late in the day and early the next one, so we didn't get all that much time there, but it reminded me of Royan (where I studied French in the wall) a beautiful holiday town with enormous beaches. I have to tell you the, sea air did some good after so long in the city. We got a photo on our evening walk, and the next morning we set an early alarm so we could enjoy the beaches a bit before leaving... only to have been so exhausted that we slept right through it and were in a hurried panic to even make the shuttle bus back to Amsterdam to catch our train. Oh well, another visit I suppose, but we did get to see some beautiful tulips on the way out and back.

Anyways, after that we headed to Paris... where Chapter 4 will pick up. Cheers.