Today I am sad, for more reasons than one.
It's our last day/ night in Europe and I really don't want to go yet. I've still got too much I want to see and so much I want to do!
My last day in Europe and the weather sucks. We've had pretty awesome weather up until we reached Amsterdam....
So, what did we do during the last few hours in this gorgeous, wet and windy city? Well, today was designated Museum day. First stop, the RijksMuseum, which is the Dutch National Museum and is full of arts, crafts, paintings that depict the history of the Dutch. I didn't know what to expect from this museum because I can be honest and say that I had no clue what it contained, so what I learned from it was immensely satisfying. I really enjoyed it alot and I learned that porcelain and china artefacts can be very interesting. In the past, any rooms filled with porcelain plates and bowls would have triggered an immediate "I must ignore and avoid" reaction and I usually would have completely bypassed it and moved straight onto more interesting things like the paintings....
However, on this day, something caught my eye... it was a plate of normal size, with what seemed like your standard oriental artwork on it. However, on closer inspection you will find that the "oriental" artwork is not actually oriental of nature, the one that caught my eye in particular had a picture of some young men, holding back another muscular young (naked) man, with another young man pulling at the masculine bits of the naked man being held back.
I thought to myself, no... that's not what I'm seeing! No way will someone draw that on a plate! What the hell were they doing?! It looked really naughty ;p
So of course, I had to find out more and it turns out, this plate was called "the Castration of Uranus"
So yeah, it definitely was a man tugging at the bits of another man.... hmmmzzz, what kind of person will commission such artwork for their dinner plates?!!
Anyways, from there I learn more about the other procelain thingies in that room, fascinating stuff.
Oh, and just in case you didn't know, the RijksMuseum is also the home of the famous painting, the "Night Watch" by Rembrandt. Beautiful painting. We lived around the corner from Rembrandsplein (or Rembrandt's Square) and there you will find a 3D depiction of the "Night Watch" - Full-scale statues of all the people in the painting, it's quite cool.
(Me with the 3D NightWatch, not very military-like... and the 3D Night Watch in all it's glory)
I found another artist, a still-life artist, that absolutely astounded me, unfortunately my nana-like memory means I don't remember the name at the top of my head, but I shall look for my notes, I know I wrote it down somewhere...
The next stop is the Van Gogh Museum. Somewhat interesting, and I even learnt the proper way to pronounce his name, finally! Unfortunately once again, it just does not compare the slightest to the brilliant Picasso Museum in Barcelona. I think all museums dedicated to any particular artist should look and learn from that fabulous museum. That's how a good museum should depict the life of an artist.
On this museum day, I realised that after these wonderful excursions to these amazing museums, and 2 trips to Paris, I have still yet to visit the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Such a pity. It's probably the one that contains most of the paintings from my favourite artist, Camille Pissarro.... oh well, must plan for another trip to Paris one day :)
After museums, we had some lunch, the mandatory poffertjes, dutch pancakes, and yes yes yes I know we can get them in Melbourne too, but I'm eating dutch pancakes in Amsterdam! We've had pancakes in almost every city we've travelled to, so it was mandatory that we had to have some today. You just won't understand....
(Marisa and I, on our last journey around the city of Amsterdam on the very windy and wet day)
After lunch we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and rest our little tootsies before Marisa went to catch up with some relatives while I went off exploring Amsterdam city on my own.
Up until now, I had just been following Marisa, Sidhi and Amie around because I arrived later than Marisa, so she was pretty much a local by the time I arrived from Belgrade so I had no clue where I was, no idea what the street names were, nor how to find things. I was heavily reliant on poor Marisa to guide us through. So to go exploring this city on my for a few hours was going to be very exciting for me!
I was on a mission to get myself hopelessly and completely lost!
I tried and tried and tried so hard to get lost, I left the hotel without map, I didn't know where anything was, I was clueless as to where I was, I only knew the name of our hotel and Marisa's mobile number, I didn't even know the street name that it was located on. When I began walking, I deliberately did not take any notice of where I was going, I deliberately walked into all sorts of little laneways and did not read any street signs and yet I still found myself turning up in the same 3-4 streets over and over and over again.
I have determined in this experiment that it is impossible to get lost in Amsterdam. The canals just lead you back to where you need to be. The funny thing was, I kept finding myself in front of the same shoe store.... what's that supposed to mean? Was it a sign? Was a higher being trying to tell me I needed more new shoes??
I tried on many pairs but I managed to avoid buying more shoes, damn it! I'm just too good :(
When I returned to the hotel a few hours later, Marisa still hadn't come back yet, so I took the opportunity to take a nice long hot bath - who knows when I will get to have another bath when I get home. Melbourne is in pretty bad shape at the moment - water-wise (yes we all have to be water wise in Oz)
By the time Marisa got back, we were late for a dinner date with Sidhi and Amie... so we grabbed some quick Indonesian take-away from a recommended restaurant nearby and made our way to Sidhi's place.
Speaking of this restaurant, what a wonderful accommodating host! They were so incredibly busy and in most cases, they probably would've turned away any take-away requests, but Marisa being the fantastic social butterfly that she is, sweet-talked this wonderful indo aunty into not only taking our order but also gave us freebies too! Gotta love the greater indo community! They do look out for their own :)
After dinner, Sidhi and Amie took me to the infamous Red Light District. It was very confronting but also quite amusing as well. Not confronting in terms of the sex and sleaze - despite how I appear on the outside, I'm really not that square or prudish. It was confronting in that everything was just so close together, the laneways were very narrow and there were a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of mainly male tourists. It almost looked like the girls were barbie dolls packed in boxes stacked on shelves sitting in a giant toy store. And you all know how much I luuuurve crowded confined spaces :Þ
All these girls, preening and prancing in a tiny little room with a window, on display like dolls with drooling sleazy men (mostly tourists I think) perving... my impressions? Some of the girls were stunningly super hot, others were pretty, others pretty ordinary, some had great bodies but shame about their heads, and others had pretty faces, but shame about the bodies... and some... well, they should just retire....
What intrigued me most was how ordinary this was for them, they do their ordinary business while people watched them like animals. They chat to eachother, they talk on the phone, they put on make-up, they eat dinner, they get changed, the read books, all the while waiting for business....
Me in my naive and sheltered little world, I can't even begin to imagine how one would fall into such a lifestyle. How can prancing around in your undies in full public view in your attempts to attract customers while eating a burger possibly be normal in a person's life? How can you do that night after night after night? It's a little bit degrading, where are the streets with the boys? How come that's not as famous as this part of town?? ;Þ
Some of pimps *ahem* I mean, doormen were offering us 3 ladies some "specials" and a "great life experience" ummm, yeah, ok, sure.... just let me do a round of the street and the canal and I'll come back later for that great life experience you're offering me. One door bitch was kinda cute too, what a pity he sells sex for living....
Day 3 - Final day in Amsterdam
Another take it easy day for us, we really didn't want to do much, some last minute shopping and walked around a little bit to absorb for the final time on this journey, the smells and vibe of this wonderful city.
Marisa took me down to see Amsterdam's smallest house, at 7 Singel Straat. Apparently, 5 families live there... believe or not. I'm not so sure...
Up until now, I had just been following Marisa, Sidhi and Amie around because I arrived later than Marisa, so she was pretty much a local by the time I arrived from Belgrade so I had no clue where I was, no idea what the street names were, nor how to find things. I was heavily reliant on poor Marisa to guide us through. So to go exploring this city on my for a few hours was going to be very exciting for me!
I was on a mission to get myself hopelessly and completely lost!
I tried and tried and tried so hard to get lost, I left the hotel without map, I didn't know where anything was, I was clueless as to where I was, I only knew the name of our hotel and Marisa's mobile number, I didn't even know the street name that it was located on. When I began walking, I deliberately did not take any notice of where I was going, I deliberately walked into all sorts of little laneways and did not read any street signs and yet I still found myself turning up in the same 3-4 streets over and over and over again.
I have determined in this experiment that it is impossible to get lost in Amsterdam. The canals just lead you back to where you need to be. The funny thing was, I kept finding myself in front of the same shoe store.... what's that supposed to mean? Was it a sign? Was a higher being trying to tell me I needed more new shoes??
I tried on many pairs but I managed to avoid buying more shoes, damn it! I'm just too good :(
When I returned to the hotel a few hours later, Marisa still hadn't come back yet, so I took the opportunity to take a nice long hot bath - who knows when I will get to have another bath when I get home. Melbourne is in pretty bad shape at the moment - water-wise (yes we all have to be water wise in Oz)
By the time Marisa got back, we were late for a dinner date with Sidhi and Amie... so we grabbed some quick Indonesian take-away from a recommended restaurant nearby and made our way to Sidhi's place.
Speaking of this restaurant, what a wonderful accommodating host! They were so incredibly busy and in most cases, they probably would've turned away any take-away requests, but Marisa being the fantastic social butterfly that she is, sweet-talked this wonderful indo aunty into not only taking our order but also gave us freebies too! Gotta love the greater indo community! They do look out for their own :)
After dinner, Sidhi and Amie took me to the infamous Red Light District. It was very confronting but also quite amusing as well. Not confronting in terms of the sex and sleaze - despite how I appear on the outside, I'm really not that square or prudish. It was confronting in that everything was just so close together, the laneways were very narrow and there were a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of mainly male tourists. It almost looked like the girls were barbie dolls packed in boxes stacked on shelves sitting in a giant toy store. And you all know how much I luuuurve crowded confined spaces :Þ
All these girls, preening and prancing in a tiny little room with a window, on display like dolls with drooling sleazy men (mostly tourists I think) perving... my impressions? Some of the girls were stunningly super hot, others were pretty, others pretty ordinary, some had great bodies but shame about their heads, and others had pretty faces, but shame about the bodies... and some... well, they should just retire....
What intrigued me most was how ordinary this was for them, they do their ordinary business while people watched them like animals. They chat to eachother, they talk on the phone, they put on make-up, they eat dinner, they get changed, the read books, all the while waiting for business....
Me in my naive and sheltered little world, I can't even begin to imagine how one would fall into such a lifestyle. How can prancing around in your undies in full public view in your attempts to attract customers while eating a burger possibly be normal in a person's life? How can you do that night after night after night? It's a little bit degrading, where are the streets with the boys? How come that's not as famous as this part of town?? ;Þ
Some of pimps *ahem* I mean, doormen were offering us 3 ladies some "specials" and a "great life experience" ummm, yeah, ok, sure.... just let me do a round of the street and the canal and I'll come back later for that great life experience you're offering me. One door bitch was kinda cute too, what a pity he sells sex for living....
Day 3 - Final day in Amsterdam
Another take it easy day for us, we really didn't want to do much, some last minute shopping and walked around a little bit to absorb for the final time on this journey, the smells and vibe of this wonderful city.
Marisa took me down to see Amsterdam's smallest house, at 7 Singel Straat. Apparently, 5 families live there... believe or not. I'm not so sure...
(Smallest house, my arm span is wider than the house!)
Thoughts before leaving Europe...
Sometimes, it's nice to have a change and that's when you have to be flexible and change according to how the situations in your life pan out, but sometimes, plans should not be altered at all, sometimes sticking to your plan is the better choice, but how do you know which is the right decision? How do you know when to change and when not to change your plans?
As one wise man said, you can't plan for surprises. Perhaps that's the best way to think about it....
0 comments:
Post a Comment