Impressions of Amsterdam

I have now been here over a week and due to the incredibly dull lack of work situation, I have had plenty of time to look around Amsterdam and get to know the place better. Although I am getting very sick of feeling impoverished due to the lack of tips and lonely through not meeting people at the bar, there are some things about this city that I find a little fascinating. I'm still not sure if I always feel comfortable here - the smell of pot drifting out from the "coffeeshops" lining all the major streets and the sex and porn shops at regular intervals are a little different from Melbourne and most other cities I've been in, but I definitely know my way around now and feel a little more confident crossing the street.

For anyone that hasn't been to Amsterdam, you may wonder why I lost my usual self-assured confidence in street-crossing. Two words: Bikes and Trams. I am convinced I am going to get killed by one of these things at some point in the next month (Far more dangerous than swimming with Stingrays, mum!) And if the bikes and trams don't get me, the taxis (which are allowed to drive on the road or on the tram tracks or seemingly wherever they like) almost certainly will.

There are thousands and thousands of bikes in Amsterdam and the citizens ride them everywhere. Normal traffic rules don't seem to apply, so crossing the road at traffic lights with a little green man telling you it's safe to cross is still fraught with danger. Cyclists just come whizzing past through the stream of pedestrians. Terrifying. I am wandering the streets with my camera at the moment trying to find the best photo of vast numbers of bikes all parked together. This one will do for now:

Although you'd think I'd be used to trams after living in Melbourne for 8 years, these ones seem much more terrifying. They seem to travel much faster, following tracks that are impossibly close to pedestrian areas. The likelihood of getting sideswiped by a passing tram while innocently walking down a shopping mall seems very high and there are tracks in very random places that you only notice when there is a tram rocketing down them towards you. They are also very quiet. You don't hear them coming until the (very regular) bell dings for you to get out of the way before being squished...

Oh, besides bikes, trams and taxis there is one more way that I may die in the next month. The stairs to my apartment. The Dutch are remarkable space-savers in their buildings and so it is quite common to have very narrow staircases leading up to the apartments. Mine feel like the secret stairs to Anne Franks apartment (tasteless comparison, but take a look at the photo!!!)

I showed this photo to a Dutch guy today who commented "wow, they are particularly narrow!". Every time I stumble up them after a beer or two, I mutter under my breath "I am going to die on these stairs...". Did I mention that the light at the bottom of the stairwell doesn't work? How does this girl live in this apartment?!? Getting my suitcase up them was particularly exciting. It makes you appreciate Ikea furniture - carry the box up your impossibly narrow staircase and assemble the furniture inside the apartment.

I will try to take a photo in the next weeks of someone moving house here - they actually have to hoist the furniture out the windows and dangle it precariously on a rope from a hook at the top of the building to lower it onto the ground. I watched some people move a flatscreen TV this way last weekend and was sure it was going to drop to the ground and smash into a million pieces. Better than carrying it down the stairs, though.

So aside from the constant fear of death, there are some things about the city that I really quite like and that make me giggle.

For example, on a Friday and Saturday night, these plastic public urinals appear in a number of places around the city and then mysteriously disappear on Sunday mornings. Literally in the middle of a traffic island, they have positions for 4 men to publically pee in a bucket with a small privacy shield amid the passing foot traffic. Weird! I will take a photo next weekend - I missed my opportunity this weekend (and the timing has to be right - I don't want to seem like a weirdo photographing some guy while he urinates...)

Also, there is an ice-cream and chocolate chain of shops here called Australian. Nothing about them is actually Australian, and there are not even references to Australia on their menu. Apparently it was just an exotic place to use for marketing. Because we are so well known for out chocolate and ice cream...

The last really great thing about Amsterdam is that it is definitely a city full of night-time people. None of this early-morning person stuff. The streets are packed and noisy at 3am and at 10am totally deserted and quiet - apart from the street cleaning machines. Nothing seems to get underway till around midday - definitely a city made for night owls like myself!

On the down side, I'm not finding Dutch people to be particularly friendly. I haven't had much to do of an evening besides stand in bars on my own (well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) and it is a bit sad that no-one talks to you at all. Not even the bar waiters. Makes it very difficult to meet the locals. Unless I am frequenting some particularly unfriendly bars. And it does make me wonder how often I talk to that slightly odd-looking person standing on his own in bars at home.

I am still waiting to find out when I will start work. At this stage, it looks like it will be this Thursday night - almost 2 weeks since I arrived. I will be paid for the gigs missed, but of course they can't make up for the lost tips. Grrr... I am still living in the fridgeless, chairless, narrow staired apartment. Things will get better...

On the upside, I bought a Museum Card yesterday that gives me free entry into most of the museums and art galleries in town. Something I should have done last week! So the next blog posts will no doubt be about the amazing museums I will visit in the next few weeks!