This week has been an experience that I wish to
share.
I’ve took nearly three
days to travel out of the country, to Amsterdam. (thank goodness my partner
works for the airline or none of this would be happening) I first flew to
Minneapolis from my home in Kalispell, it seemed just to have a chance to watch
the presidential debate. I say that because I don’t have a TV at home and a
friend had recently got me caught up on the state of the union. Normally I stir
clear of politics, because I understand how the world works so it drives me
crazy and then I start to growl at TVs and talk to myself around the house like
an angry crazy person. (Thank you my friend for this frustration. J
)
This first day ended in my last
flight being canceled and I slept in the airport. It was pretty cool actually.
They gave the lot of us on the flight mats to lay down on the floors to sleep
or hang out. I don’t recommend it. But it was the neatest thing to watch the
other passengers with their mats. Two women, who had just meet, put there mats
together and shared the food and water they had between them. One middle aged
couple was so sweet, the husband took six of those mats to make a thicker bed
for them to sleep on and also used the mats to make walls for privacy. He built
the shelter while she guarded their stuff. I saw one man put his mat under a
desk and others build walls using the areas behind the payphones and chairs.
One of the other passengers got stuck outside because he left the gate area to
smoke and then got detained by TSA because his boarding pass wasn’t for the
current day. And we had an older women who was having a hard time, and a nice men
just started helping her, getting her drinks, checking on stuff for her. It was
wonderful to see people come together like that. Four people even got together
to rent a four and drive to their distention but there was no cars for rent
going one way.
After
all this I realized that I forgot my passport at home. So I took the
opportunity in the morning to fly back to Montana and to a quick hour and a
half turn to come back to Minneapolis. My daughter met me with my passport and
I was back on the plane to Minneapolis to meet my partner. It was only an hour
after landing and we were on a plane to Amsterdam: land of cheese, weed and a
red light district that is on the tourist stops.
Now on the third day we
landed at the nicest airport I’ve ever been in and the first thing I wanted was
to find a hotel and get a shower and a nap. (I don’t sleep well on planes.) Six
hours later we woke up and went hunting for food and fell back to sleep. An
eight to nine hour difference can mess you up.
The hotel room was nice
and compact but small by US standards. This is common all over Europe and in
Japan that I’ve noticed. We Americans like our space. It had a double bed,
desk, hot water kettle (That I prefer over a coffee maker), and a flat screen
TV. Some interesting differences to the typical room, no wash cloths, the
shower has different hot and cold water controls that I still hadn’t completely
figured out in 3 days, the soap and shampoo were in dispensers (no
conditioner), tiny trash cans, and when you come in the door there is a slot
that you put your room key that control the power to the lights. (I like that
feature too.)
So day 4, not only are
we going site seeing but we have a homework that is due sometime before
midnight my time at home, and I have no idea when that would be. But you don’t
go somewhere like this and just hang out in the hotel. So we ventured and found
a chip-less fish vender with very good fish. The man and his wife were very
nice. The man who owned it teased us and promised the best fish I’d ever had. I
would have to say it was close. I’d had amazing crab cakes in West Palm Beach
and the nicest fish in a restaurant in Disney world. So I guess Florida is just
a head of Amsterdam. I honestly expected more from Ireland and England, since
they are big in the fish trade, too.
We rode the train to
Central Station and took a tour ride on the canals and I had a lovely time with
infants in front and behind me. They were sweet babies and the parents were
having a great time with them. I played peek-a-boo with the little girl behind
me who was fascinated with my red hair, playing/ tugging on it now and then.
When the parent kept apologizing I explained I had four kids, so I have a tough
head. I couldn’t help but smile as these young parents as they took lots of
pictures with their I-pad of not just the sites, but the baby and them as a
family. I think these new cameras that you can take pictures of yourself while
seeing the picture is wonderful. It all made the hour ride memorable.
We walked around the
inner city to see a McDonald’s about every other block while close to the train
station, there was also a BK, KFC and subway, and the many, many, Starbucks (I
swear those places are like weeds, pop up everywhere and hard to get rid of).
We also found a carnival, complete with haunted house, thrill rides, and
cari-games. There were Dutch food venders and crane games were very popular. I
was totally entranced by a ride that launched two people in a sphere in the air
with bungee cords. I have pictures. It looked like they should have a
chiropractor at the end of the ride.
There
was also a swing ride that was a two-seater swing that lifted you about ten
stories into the air. (maybe higher)
Something you see all
over this city is bikes. Here there are more bikes then people. There are bike
parking, bike garages and bike ferries. Public transportation is huge; Buses,
light rail, subway, and the massive train system. I think it’s great. I didn’t
come from a place with a large public transit system. My hometown stopped
running regular buses more than ten years ago. But it isn’t hard to figure out,
even without knowing the language. English is most places and if have some idea
of the written word for where you are going you shouldn’t have to ask anyone,
and if you do have to ask the people are nice.
On the way back to the
train station we found a medieval torture museum, and being a medievalist we
had to go. There are two sex museums I want to go to as well. It was neat to
see all the tools in person that I’d heard of and read about. It actually gave
me a few ideas for different characters. It was four floors of devices and
descriptions, and videos.
The rest of the night
was homework, I mean till 5am. (or 10pm at night back home.) And then it was sleep.
Let me tell you, there are some interesting programs on TV in the middle of the
night in Amsterdam. I watched a lot of news and programming for schools to tape
for classes.
We didn’t get out until
1ish on this 5th day. I was back to our new favorite fish vender on
this slightly cooler day, only maybe 9 Celsius. (I have no idea want that
converts to but it was a little nippy.) The venders invited us to stand under
the shelter to stay warm and I listened to them talk to people in four
different languages. I’m totally impressed with the multi-cultural nature of
this city/nation. Yesterday they teased my partner that he didn’t mention he
was American as they spoke in Spanish to him.
We headed backed to
city center by train and took the hop on hop off tour for the next two hours. Amsterdam
fact: it is below sea level. Interesting since it is a port city and huge canal
system. Accord to the tour guide, all the land you see is built there and built
up. It is drained or pulled up from the bottom of the canal to be put there. It
reminds me of Venice or Mexico City they are also constructed in this
manner.
When we finally decided
where we wanted to go, it was 5pm and they were closed. There was a diamond
factory with a tour and Anne Frank’s house where she hid during the war. We
thought that we might try to come back in the morning before the plane but we
will see. I still wanted to go through the red light district and the sex
museums, you can see want is on my mind, but food was the next on the list. We
went to a restaurant called Teasers, babes and beer. Much like Hooters crossed
with the bar in the movie Coyote Ugly. It was loud but I liked the music and
especially the uniforms of the girls. Blue sequined short short shorts, and tight
sleeveless t-tops that showed off their breasts very well.
The best parts were
when they played a song that I didn’t think was so known, a friend had just
shown me the video a week before.
PSY - GANGNAM STYLE Lyrics English
The
other part of dinner was the show. As if we had completely walked in to Coyote
Ugly, the girls started to dance on the bar. It was great. A cross between a
pole dance and lap dance there on the bar. I loved how the men in the
restaurant were dancing and flirting. It was fun to watch.
After
a long walk down the busy streets we picked up some sweet buns at the carnival
and headed back to the hotel. The jet leg was still messing with us since it
was morning at home and time for bed here. For example, 4pm here is 8am at
home, so I’ve learned.
We
relaxed and showered, then hung out for the night. I do like the BBC
programming. And a great note for thoses coming over is my TV discovery of the
night. The Disney XD channel turned into the phone sex commercial channel after
1am. Graphic commercials too. I couldn’t
stop watching. The best was a live feed of a phone sex girl.
Day
6 …. Well we slept in and just made breakfast while enjoying BBC kids shows. It
was that or news for English teli. We didn’t head out till 2pm. My partner
sleeping until it was time to go. The fish vender was closed when we got out,
so we picked up fish and chips at the airport. Schiphol, the airport in
Amsterdam, is lovely. It is bright, friendly and easy to navigate. There isn’t
anything you can’t do inside the airport that you can’t do outside of the
airport expect maybe get a prostitute, but I haven’t explored the whole airport
yet. It just isn’t listed under on the map, unless it is under massage.
We
ate at a cute self-serve cafeteria style, Dutch restaurant that had a couple of
themes. We sat in a huge tea cup in the mad hatter tea party area. I really
liked that they still used really plates, dishes and silverware. Very
environmentally friendly. They had these tiny pancakes, a Dutch traditional
dessert, that are very good. I wish we could have got more, I thinking of
finding a recipe.
My partner enjoyed that nearly everywhere we went
they were playing 80’s music and reported that he could live comfortable, maybe
on a houseboat on the canal, in Amsterdam because he would be surrounded by
familiar music.
Time to fly and on top off the time
change, it is daylight saving time this weekend. International travel it a bit
like syfi time traveling, and today I’m going back in time.
On
the plane ride I got to sit beside an older Asian couple, that the man video
screen was pink the whole 8.5 hours of the trip. A nice man on my other side was
issues with his controller for his video screen. And I sat behind a 7 year ago
and his mother who was coming back from Rome where they were visiting Dad in
the military. She hadn’t seen her husband since April and hoped to see him
again by Easter. The boy was just eager to get home and not have to walk
everywhere anymore. In the customs line I was getting to know a nice woman who
was feeling singled out by security because of her cell phone. So I played
interference so that she was more comfortable.
One
more night to go and I’ll be home again and things can get back to normal and I
can get this book I’ve finished published.
Some memorable people
on the trip:
An old man “playing” a
recorder on the sidewalk in Amsterdam. The thing was he wasn’t playing the
instrument he was blowing into the record and running his fingers up and down
the holes. My 4th grader is learning in school so I’ve know a little
about the subject.
There was a Scottish
man in full regalia outside Central Station in Amsterdam playing the bag-pipes
and chatting with people. It was neat.
At Teasers, the barmaid in the video tended to
dance a little hip wiggle, arms tight to the chest. She was very cute and
reminded me of myself, at age 20 something and even today. Does it show my vanity
that I find a girl who reminds me of me cute. (Hummm?)
Another street musician
who had one of those hand crank music boxes. I’d never seen a person actual
play one outside of cartoons. I full expected him to have a monkey pop out at
any moment, but sadly no. The odd thing about him was that he had a
handkerchief over his face the whole time I saw him.
At the hotel in
Detroit, while we were checking in a couple who had just check in came back to
the desk. They reported that someone was already in that room. There were shoes
on the floor and clothes in the room. The woman of the couple told the front
desk that she wasn’t going back to that room and they would have to come with
her to the next one, checking it before she went in. She wasn’t rude or mean
about it, she was worry and anxious. I found the housekeeping terrible, hair in
the tub, no soap and I stopped looking after that.
On the plane from
Detroit to Minneapolis, when we landed a man was nice enough to get everyone’s
bags down from the overhead compartment. Very nice and not seen very
often.
All
and all I’m glad to have gone, I got some writing done and a new story started.
I always like to travel. It gets me out of my routine and gives me ideas.
Dam Square across from the
carnival.
The is center station in city center of Amsterdam
