With Amsterdam I begin the travel segment of my journey. I used a TimeOut article (http://www.timeout.com/amsterdam/features/7/20-great-things-to-do-in-amsterdam) to find some interesting destinations outside the famous museum and church circuit. The top of my list was to ice-skate the canals. The skates usually do not fit because of my narrow feet, so I have been avoiding the sport for some time. This was certainly a worthwhile exception. What the article failed to mention was that that the weather was only cold enough to ice-skate once every decade or so. A local friend I met up with broke the news that there was not going to be any ice-skating this year. Other than that, the to-do list was pretty standard:
- Window shop the Red Light District: There is no escaping this destination, but it could ruin the city for some as it did for me. Sex-workers stand mostly naked in windows beckoning street traffic inside. It leaves an impression, much as watching horror movies or pornography at any age changes the very fabric of reality. I never used the services. They were not unreasonably expensive, but I am cheap and the act certainly would not help my relationship resume. Nevertheless, the imagery will be impossible to erase and it may have been better never to see it at all.
- Find some street art: Although the city has some public art, it was not any more than other cities.
- Canal: Prinsengracht: My other friend and I actually biked this entire canal, just for something to do. Later, I realized it was actually on my list.
- Park: Vondelpark, also saw some of Westerpark: Some parks have green rainforest parrots, apparently breeding escapees.
- Windmills
- Eat raw herring and raw meat: These were both fantastic, especially the extremely exotic, but quite common raw meat. I later discovered that Pancakes were also quite Dutch and ate all those as well.
Navigating the city: Another destination on my list was Jordaan, an art neighborhood still very much in the city center. I am not too sure whether I accomplished this or not, but definitely was in the area three separate times. This is because I really had a lot of trouble navigating the city, similar to what I experienced in Rome. The layout is markedly different from Italy though. In Rome, all the streets emanating from ancient artifacts and then merge with streets from other artifacts. Amsterdam has some of these same streets, but they go all the way through the city center. All other streets and canals circle the central train station. This structure is quite systematic and I thought I could eventually find my way around. That did not turn out to be the case at all. When the two types of streets intersect, some of the streets end and the circle is continued by other streets. I often ended up back at the train station, despite aiming for my hostel in the complete opposite direction. In the end, I had to rely heavily on the city map and tram system. My other goal of visiting street art clothing shops is also unresolved:I seem to have passed these mostly at night, so never actually went into the shop. I did not venture to them during the day for another reason.[[posterous-content:pid___1]]
Some more pain: I seem to have injured myself again. I do not know how, but presumably I tore some ligament in the arch of my right foot while hiking briefly with Fabio on the way to Milan’s airport. The pain did not start right away, because I walked some five hours at night when I first arrived in Amsterdam. That probably resulted in the supreme amount of discomfort I encountered the next morning. I began to work every day to give my foot some time and then eventually only went out for food and to the local library. One day, a friend I went out with in Milan arrived and we rented bikes all day, so that was also easy on my foot. Despite all this care and anti-inflammatories, the injury does not seem to have improved at all.
More research on foot repair was clearly required. WedMD.com had some more information: Ice and elevate the foot. If it then does not begin to heal, escalate the problem by introducing a third party: a doctor. My poor Amsterdam hostel did not have any ice, which is not too surprising considering all the other things it was missing. So, that is the plan when I get to Bruges. The city is quite small, so I should have a lot of time to rest my foot and finish this month’s work.
The review: What I really took away from the city was how green it was. Trees and streets are covered in moss and algae from the humidity, making everything a brilliantly organic green. As my train passes through other Netherland cities, I see the green again. If these features are not distinctly from Amster’s Dam, then maybe it is not worth the trip at all. Also, it rained every day I was here. Luckily, the clouds cleared for a few hours in the afternoon after work, but traveling during the winter has its problems. I need to buy a durable umbrella straight away: My second souvenir.
