Time Lapse

Something found online. Pretty cool.

Amsterdam. from AJRCLIPS on Vimeo.

Amsterdam After Dark

It was quite dark today. It was foggy when I woke up, and I had to have several lights on even at 8am in my apartment. It rained as I biked to work, and it poured after I arrived. Early afternoon felt like twilight - I definitely would have had car lights on had I been driving. I realized that this is only the beginning; this type of weather is the norm for the autumn and winter.

The storms cleared up around 7pm, and I realized that the summer nights of comfortable temperatures, late light, and often rainless skies are dwindling. So I decided to do something I've been meaning to for over a month: take some pictures of Amsterdam after dark.

I left my apartment around 8pm and walked to a German bar that serves the original Budweiser on tap and had a few beers while I waited for the sun to set completely. I took a few pictures along the way.

I then looped to Museumplein, where many of the most famous Amsterdam museums are located (the Van Gogh, the Rijks) and headed to Leidseplein, where many of the tourist bars and dance clubs are, before walking along several canal belts and following the east bank of the Amstel river back home.

Amsterdam is notorious for its coffeeshops and prostitute windows, but its nighttime beauty may be more remarkable. Exquisitely maintained buildings border canals and rivers, and their lights shimmer in the water. The moisture creates a barely perceptible mist, giving everything a soft glow. The city is small enough that, if you venture outside of the most touristy area on a weeknight, there are few people around and little noise. It's a fascinatingly peaceful combination of traditional European village, modern cosmopolitan city, and tourist hotspot.

And, although I do miss my walks around Nob Hill and Ridgecrest to an extend, walking for three hours in this scenery is tough to beat.

I haven't quite made it here yet.

Gollem

I had another couchsurfing experience that was only possible because of my feelings of guilt and/or obligation. I’d again decided to take a break from hosting, but I received a couch request that I didn’t feel I could decline. Ted, a bicycle educator/advocate from Eugene, Oregon, said that he and his girlfriend (who works as a nutrition advocate in Eugene) were taking a bike tour through the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, and were hoping to stay with me for a few days before they flew back to Oregon from Amsterdam. Ted recognized my profile picture on couchsurfing (me standing over the Columbia river when I visited Oregon in June, 2010), talked about his love for beer, and generally seemed like a nice enough guy that I couldn’t turn he and Katy down in good conscience.

After greeting them on Saturday afternoon, ditching them to play in a poker tournament on Saturday evening (finished 17^th out of 71 players, so did just well enough to invest three hours without getting any money), and waiting for them back at my apartment until 1am on Sunday morning (they got severely lost on their bikes), I told them I’d go to the Van Gogh museum and grab lunch with them during the day on Sunday.

The Van Gogh was as packed as one might imagine a famous, centrally located museum in a European capital to be on a summer Sunday. After a couple hours of snaking around the paintings in long, compressed lines, only a few feet from the walls, we decided to leave and grab lunch. I gave them the option of going toward the center of town, where there would be lots of options, but lots of tourists (and options that specifically cater to tourists) versus checking out a street that would have more placed frequented by locals. They decided to take the more local option.

We rode down Overtoom (the street), and I pointed out Café Gollem, one of my favorite bars in town. Funny enough, Gollem was the only bar that I visited when I traveled to Amsterdam in February for my job interview. It was immediately across the street from my hotel, and it had a large sign that said “Belgian Beer.” As we passed it, we saw that it had a lunch menu. Given Ted and Katy were Oregon beer aficionados, they said that they were up for trying some Belgian beers and having lunch there.

This may have been the best decision of their trip. Gollem was empty except for us, and the bartender was more than happy to devote all of his time to letting us try different beers, talking to use about beer, and letting us try more beers while talking to us more about beer. I sampled five beers before settling on a Troubadour Magma. The bartender had a difficult time expressing just how much he liked the magma – there were many gestures involving kissing his own fingers, like an Italian chef communicating how good his cooking is.

As is often the case in Amsterdam (and perhaps Europe more generally), the menu only had three options, and the Belgian Burger was the only one under ten euro (7.50). So we each ordered one. This was my second beef hamburger since I was about 16 (my first also being in an Amsterdam restaurant, in June). It turned out to be by far the best burger of any meat (or non-meat) I’ve ever had. By a mile. I am guessing that the meat quality was high. It was topped with very thinly sliced “Belgian ham,” which was a bit like bacon. It had lettuce, tomatoes, sweet grilled onions, and an interesting aioli. The bun was made of the best hard, flaky Belgian bread I’ve ever had. And, somehow, the Troubadour beer paired with it in a way that I’ve never experienced a beer (or wine) pairing with a meal.

So, big success on lunch. And now, instead of being one of my favorite bars in Amsterdam, I’m going to officially place Gollem at the top of the pile. Congrats Gollem. If anyone is so kind as to visit me, expect to get a visit there.

From left to right: Katy, Ted, Courtney (their friend who was also in town), me

A nice use of a Delirium bottle

The bar. There is another row of taps to the left, and the taps continue to the right.

Gay Pride

I’d heard quite a bit of talk about the Amsterdam gay pride parade this week. It might be the largest gay pride events in Europe, and it’s one of the largest events in the Netherlands. The highlight of the event is the Saturday afternoon canal parade, where boats float down the canals and up the Amstel river.

I originally had no intention of attending, for a few reasons. First, I don’t like parades. Of any sort. I’d rather watch Jersey Shore, Glee, and Nascar than the teeth pulling Macy’s Day Parade. Second, I’m not much into pomp and flamboyance of most sorts (so, also, not a fan of sporting halftime shows, 4th of July fireworks, extravagant Christmas lights, and Kei$ha). And, finally, I’ve never totally understood “gay pride” (I won’t enumerate the reasons behind this so as to not invite well meaning explanations; instead, I’ll provide a link to an excellent article by Jesse Bering, a gay psychologist whose perspective seems fairly reasonable to me: Jesse Bering's take on gay pride).

That said, I’d made plans to go see an outdoor concert in the Vondelpark at 4pm with Hannah, whom I played ultimate frisbee with on Tuesday. We met at 2pm and decided to check out the parade first.

And, despite my lack of initial interest, I thought that the parade was totally awesome. Thousands of people were packed on the bridges and docks along the Amstel river and in small boats on the water. It was as festive and happy an atmosphere as I’ve ever experienced at a large public event. People danced in their boats, cheered as all the floats passed on the water, and drank beers and cheered.

One of the most interesting parts of the parade/festival was the family element. People walked around with their children, presumably with nary a concern that the event was threatening “family values” or, more specifically endangering the future sexual orientation of the children.

I got a nice hug from this giant…umm…court jester?

I particularly enjoyed this shirt.

And, after watching the parade for a bit, I did make it to the concert in the Vondelpark, which was also tremendous fun. It was a trio of trained female vocalists, one of which only sang, one of which also played piano, and one of which also played guitar.

They spoke to the crowd in Dutch between numbers, but they sang American songs with no trace of a Dutch accent. I’m regularly amazed with how so many of the Dutch speak/sing with virtually no accent, or at least such a subtle accent that I mistake it for Canadian or Northeastern.

Among their songs were Short People by Randy Newman, Man of Constant Sorrow (which I’m familiar with from Alison Krauss’s band, but apparently is much older), and Jolene by Dolly Parton (along with two other Dolly Parton’s).

Ouderkerk aan de Amstel

I purchased my road bike with the intention of exploring the Dutch countryside on the weekends. Six weeks after the purchase, I hadn’t yet taken the bike out of the city, mostly because of travel (a weekend in France), bad weather (rain almost every weekend), and a neck injury that made a riding position very uncomfortable. The weather finally let up this weekend (it was mostly cloudy, but at least dry), and my neck has improved to the point that I can spend long periods of time on the bike. So, around 5pm on Sunday, I grabbed the bike and took it on a route that my landlord had recommended.

I reached the bank of the Amstel River just outside my apartment, and I was out of the city only a mile later. The noise and congestion of the city was first replaced by parks and quiet restaurants on the outskirts of town, and then by tranquil open fields and farms.

I was surprised by the feeling I experienced during the ride. I think it was an unexpected relief to be out of the compact, urban city – to have a long stretch of road to myself, and to see a mile in front of me. It may have also been the feeling of cycling as quickly as I wanted, and having full leg extension on the bike. It may have been some comfort at seeing the types of houses that I grew up with – the “horse property” type houses of Gilbert and Chandler, Arizona. And, of course, everything was quite beautiful.

I continued for about ten miles with the river to my left the entire time. The right side of the road was occasionally lined with nice, large suburban houses with flower gardens and farm animals, but it was mostly bordered by large open fields filled with sheep and cows grazing on grass. Many cyclists passed me (men on their “good” road bikes and with cycling shoes), and I passed many groups of families and couples taking leisurely rides on their city bikes. Cars slowed down and gave cyclists a wide space when passing.

All in all, a great experience. I’m hopeful that the weather will be similarly pleasant for upcoming weekends, and that I can do some rides to nearby cities, like Utrecht, Alkmaar, Haarlem, and perhaps even Den Haag and Rotterdam.