Amsterdam: a place to chill, ride and be open.
When I was researching flights to get from Bergen to Istanbul, Amsterdam came onto my radar. The best flights I could find went via Amsterdam. My mother in her youthful travels loved Holland the best, so Amsterdam was told to me in a story of joy. That together with my normal curiosity made me convince my man that stopping over for a week was a great idea. Once he landed he didn't need any more convincing.
Amsterdam completely took my heart. It is my top city in our travels so far. My preference is always nature spots, but Amsterdam was able to soothe my usual agitation, at least for a little bit. We will go back and in our search for a European city base, it's high on the list.
Amsterdam=relaxation
My shoulders dropped and I felt more at ease than I have in years. It's hard to estimate exactly what made up that equation, but let's say it probably involved it being summer + full of genuinely friendly people + a place that lets taboos come to light + biking everywhere + my one hit of a joint.
Summer in Amsterdam is a little rainy, warm but not too hot. It suited me perfectly. It also meant we could bike everywhere, each of us with a child seat. It was incredibly easy to rent a bike and that ease showed how jacked the city is for bicycles. Much easier than Berlin with children and finding infant seats. The roads were made for cars and bikes, with bike roads not just as an add on. There were palpably less cars and bikes were more than tolerated, they dominated. It's a tiny city so you can get most places within half an hour. The children loved being ridden around, far more than a car or pram.
We stayed in an amazing area: De Pjip. It's trendy yes, but also very culturally diverse, and not overly touristy. All this makes it expensive but worth the cost for a quick visit. Like most of Amsterdam cafe culture is a way of life and restaurants offer every type of food. In fact traditional food was in the minority. In our area we had a pick of places to go but I highly recommend 'coffee and coconuts' for a drink and snack with children. There is plenty of space to move and crawl, and excellent stuff on the menu. 'Sla' salad bar satisfied my green leaf obsession and Albert Cuyp Market provided amazing produce. Every area has a local cheese shop and the cheese is divine.
After being in Norway where you have to go to a special shop to buy wine, spirits and strong beer, it was refreshing to just go to the corner or of the street and grab a bottle of excellent stuff. Liquor is hardly a taboo in western countries but pot and sex are. Amsterdam takes both and makes them normal and part of the consensus economy. This making taboo normal also made it not a big deal, and didn't make the culture any less disciplined. If anything it made it more civil.
Being a tourist felt comfortable. Amsterdamers tolerate a lot of tourists,many of whom don't know how to handle the freedom they suddenly get. If you are there for a short period of time it's cool to speak English. But after a few months you are expected to talk the language. Everyone speaks English so I felt very at ease navigating living there. Being from South Africa the language didn't feel that foreign - courtesy of our Afrikaans culture.
The warmth of people felt real, pervasive. It is easy to strike up a conversation and go beyond superficial friendliness. In general I found people upfront and approachable. It's very diverse and racism comes with that. But I also recently read that Amsterdam has the first major political party in Europe elected and headed by immigrants.
Mama also got to do stuff she doesn't usually do. Like see an art gallery on her own: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. I had forty minutes and got to reflect on exquisite Kandinsky and De Kooning. Vondelpark has a shallow, very clean swimming pool which Ruya got to swim in naked. Again the normal taboos are overturned with kids doing what they do. The park is huge and a lovely green space. Sarphatipark was around our corner with ducks and a decent playground. We checked out butterfly world on a rainy day but it ended up just being one room. There are tons of museums but our days were dominated by everyday living mostly.
I left Amsterdam a little more equitable on the equation of calm and content mama. And curious to explore more of the country.
