I think I’ll go on a walkabout, find out what it’s all about.
Today’s been a walkabout day. If you’re unfamiliar with life in Amsterdam (which I COMPLETELY was before the possibility of moving here), there’s a few important things to realize. They are, in order of importance:
- Driving is for suckers.
Bicycles and foot traffic rule the order of the day. Now, the thing about me is that I’m generally not a huge fan of walking. Biking, definitely, but walking has always been Shannie’s thing. She’s the one who walked 45 minutes each way to school every day. Not that I don’t think that walking isn’t a viable transportation option, no, my problem with walking is that I get bored. All I can think about is what else I could be doing with the valuable time that I’m spending travelling at 0.5 miles per hour, and how much faster getting somewhere by bike would have been.
Living in this city could finally change that for me.
Because everything here is so densely packed, every few meters brings about something completely new to see and experience. That’s the beauty of living in a city where the core was built and designed before the age of the automobile. The streets are small, narrow, and the city center is planned around foot, bicycle, and horse traffic.
So today we walked. We needed to find a drugstore for things like soap, shampoo, etc., and the local grocer by our apartment had such a small (and expensive) selection that we opted to stroll to find someplace else. The closest place that was open on Sunday was about a 20 minute or so walk from here, so on went my walkin’ pants and hither and yon we went.
And interesting things did we see.
As a pedestrian here, you’re at the very friggin’ bottom of the Right Of Way list, just below cars. Bikes go where they want, how they want, with or against traffic, and everyone else bows to their royalty. As a walker, you learn very quickly to look both ways before stepping off the sidewalk lest you find a 30 year old steel bicycle ridden by someone old enough to be my great grandparent send you flying.
We also discovered a fantastic tiny little sandwich shop. Shopkeeper spoke very little English and understood even less, but Bacon is apparently a universal language.
Interesting sight of the day: apparently Amsterdam the entire northern hemisphere is going through a strangely cold winter, Amsterdam is experiencing something that hasn’t happened for quite a number of years.
The canals are freezing solid.
Every local sporting goods store is completely sold out of ice skates, as Amsterdammers are flocking to the canals, ponds, and other bodies of water in droves. As a Canadian, seeing skaters out on the water is a daily occurence for 10 months out of the year, but here it’s such a rarity that everyone’s jumping at the chance.
Even those without skates were getting in on the action.
Outside of the beautiful light, I notice that there is no snow to be found in any of the pictures. For the canal to be frozen solid but no snow, seems odd to a Canadian like myself.
Yeah. There’s not a flake of snow to be found here (though it’s a possibility in the weather report for tomorrow). Seeing the crystal-clear ice is a bit trippy. To me, the ice looks absolutely paper-thin, but by all of the skate tracks out there you can see that people have been hitting it pretty good and it’s holding up.
Skating! Get out there and show them how its done maybe? Skating to work is a dream I think most Canadian children had at one time or another. Bikes are for suckers!
Good luck shopping and not finding all the things you’re used to. Not knowing what products even are could be like the whole soup label prank, only you’re doing it to yourself. Time for some language classes!
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s on -4 here … but I have much snow to shovel.
Welcome to Amsterdam man!
Public transport ftw! But you’ve got a bike here that’s faster most of the times.
Drugstore names: Etos, Da, Kruitvat.
And as a pedestrian you’ve to think you’re at the top. fuck them cars.
Get ready to find dozen of sweet/cute/small sandwich shops
According to the weather forecast its going to defrost :\
and AH (albert Heijn) To Go are NOT CHEAP.. the bigger ones are, don’t make the mistake lots of tourists make and buy your groceries there
That’d be difficult, since I pretty much haven’t skated since the 7th grade.
There’s a full-size AH just a block down from the apartment in the Jordann that we’re staying in right now, so that’s where we’ve been going so far. We walked past the AH To Go in Dam Square last night, so I popped in just to look at the price difference, and yeah, you’re definitely right. That’d be like doing all of your grocery shopping at a 7-11 or something. Yikes.
Man this is making me jealous, I’m reveling in the memories of living in Berlin for a few months. Amsterdam is not so terribly different. If you can, find a donair shop, and compare it to say, Falafel King in Calgary. Amsterdam döner should kick ass.
/isjealous
@Phil The Dönner Company and they have the best Turkish pizzas