From Amsterdam to Oktoberfest this is a crazy ten days I'm having, so much so that I completely forgot to blog about Amsterdam. The beer tents beckon however so I'm going to try and keep this one short and sweet.
Amsterdam is a very surreal place what with the crazy language and laws, but one which I found myself feeling a heartfelt appreciation for due to their liberal and accepting culture revealed for me during our walking tour. The motto of the people of Amsterdam was basically explained as you can do what you want and be who you want so long as you don't hurt anybody. They were the first place to legalise
gay marriage. I also like the Dutch sense of humour. The entire population is in on these jokes played on tourists. Kind of hard to capture in words though.
We walked through the red light district a few times seeing funny sights including a mysterious bronze breast in the pavement that has been there for hundreds of years with no real story as to where is came from. Also the prostitutes.
We spent a whole day in Vondel park getting lost and playing in the awesome system of interconnected tree-houses.
I fell in love with a Dutch pastry called Streufwafflen, ate an entire bag (like 15) and lay there in a sugar-induced trance.
I went to Anne Frank's house which was pretty cool, particularly this thing at the end where they show you a video about an issue to do with free speech and discrimination and ask the audience a question
Yeah.. We didn't do that much - the Dutch weather was more changeableFrom Amsterdam to Oktoberfest this is a crazy ten days I'm having, so much so that I completely forgot to blog about Amsterdam. The beer tents beckon however so I'm going to try and keep this one short and sweet.
Amsterdam is a very surreal place what with the crazy language and laws, but one which I found myself feeling a heartfelt appreciation for due to their liberal and accepting culture revealed for me during our walking tour. The motto of the people of Amsterdam was basically explained as you can do what you want and be who you want so long as you don't hurt anybody. They were the first place to legalise
gay marriage. I also like the Dutch sense of humour. The entire population is in on these jokes played on tourists. Kind of hard to capture in words though.
We walked through the red light district a few times seeing funny sights including a mysterious bronze breast in the pavement that has been there for hundreds of years with no real story as to where is came from. Also the prostitutes.
We spent a whole day in Vondel park getting lost and playing in the awesome system of interconnected tree-houses.
I fell in love with a Dutch pastry called Streufwafflen, ate an entire bag (like 15) and lay there in a sugar-induced trance.
I went to Anne Frank's house which was pretty cool. The best part was this room at the end displaying videos about issues of free speech and discrimination. At the end of the video they asked an ethical question to the audience who pressed buttons to vote yea or nay.
Yeah.. We didn't do that much - the Dutch weather was more changeable than in London. It even hailed once. So when we got the chance to leave the apartment we walked. One day we Maccas hopped from our apartment to town and back over the course of seven hours. I don't like how you have to pay to go to the bathroom in McDonalds, particularly because the ladies working at the bathroom always shouted at us in Dutch. Scary, scary ladies..
Anyway it's 11am and I haven't had any beer yet so I better get moving.