Amsterdam Day 2

I woke up reasonably late, and feeling quite ill from my beer drinking antics of the night before, so I was in no real hurry to get out of bed. I had a breakfast of bread and Vegemite (Yes, I brought a tube from home), and showered ready for a full day. I planned to go to the Van Gogh museum and check out the sights properly with my discover Europe book.

Because of my sleep in and my feeling slightly under the weather, i didn’t get out of the house until 12 midday, a very poor effort by me i know. From the house i visited Nieue Kerk, the church just off the main square in Amsterdam. It was an amazingly beautiful church with massive ceilings and a beautiful bluestone floor. Half of the building was closed for refurbishment which was okay because the majority was open. The organ in the church was the most ornate thing i have ever seen, as each pipe area featured a molded wooden panel that acted as a cover when not in use. On these panels was depicted amazing scenes from the Bible. The choir screen located at the mid area of the church was a gold lined wall, with ornate wood carvings. It was in amazing condition and proved quite difficult to photograph as the shine off the gold from the afternoon sun confused my camera (Olympus – the waterproof / shockproof one). There were also a great deal of finely crafted wooden structures and a mix of contemporary art pieces in the church. I studied the history exhibition and found that the building dates from the late 14th century.

After about an hour of wondering around this massive building and photographing the features quite artistically, i moved on. I studied my map in the middle of the square and tried to figure out how to get to the Van Gogh Museum. I headed off on my bike which i am pretty used to now and only find that i head to the left of the road when i’m not concentrating. I got very lost on the way as i had left my big map at Rein’s house and had to reply on my europe book map which doesnt include side streets. I made it eventually and paid the quite expensive entry fee to get in. The exhibition exceeded my standards, and i quite enjoyed it. The story of his life is a very interesting thing, and his art was so varied depending on the period of his life that the piece was painted in. Art is a very interesting thing really, the choice of subjects by Van Gogh really made some of his pictures perfect. The plaques were useful to decipher what the intention and subtle features of the pieces were.

I finished up at the museum and recieved a text message from Tiffany Abbott, a fellow VCA student who wrote “Hey geordie, i’m in Amsterdam, i read your myspace post! Want to catch up?” Bizarre! The fact that I can be in a country on the other side of the world at the same time as one of the 7 remaining members of my uni class is pretty scary. We met up and she introduced me to her two German friends who had driven her down from Oberhausen. We had an early dinner of chicken, salad and chips at a local restaurant. The meal was very good, and was reasonably priced for the centre of the city, 9.99 Euro, a special for the day. Tiff had earlier tried to get some accomodation with no luck as this weekend is a long weekend with a public holiday on the monday. Rein offered her to stay at his apartment with us. She accepted and he explained that he never has house guests and that he would love to have her for as long as she was in town. He’s seriously an amazingly generous man. So we walked the Germans to Centraal Station and then walked home, with me actually getting us there without getting lost. We met Rein at home and he invited his Girlfriend over. We sat around and ate nibblies and drank Heineken. We then went out to one of his local cafes, the one that i had coffee and rolls at on the first day and drank more Heineken. It was such an awesome cafe/bar, with a beautiful wooden counter and a large range of nick nacks above the counter. We headed backt o Reins Girlfriend’s house and had a look at the view off her roof, my camera couldn’t pick anything up as it was too dark, a shame really. Tiff and I then decided it was time to check out the nightlife, so Rein and his Girlfriend gave us directions to a place that they described as “a trendy spot where my nephew goes”.

So anyway I rode through the streets, with Tif on my parcel rack, in the drizzle. The bar really was quite trendy and was called Werck. It was complete with an LED wall, moving lights, mirror balls and a suspended DJ console. We had cocktails, and they were very very good, and reasonably price… for cocktails… in Europe. The music was commercial dance with a mix of older classics. Everyone danced and the atmosphere was amazing. We had two drinks and after a few hours of watching and grooving along to the music, it was home time. We once again rode through the streets, this time in the rain. We got home and made fried eggs then realised that Rein doesn’t have a toasted so we fried the bread too… Slightly intoxicated maybe? It was quite good and we hopped into our sleeping bags and watched TV. We got to bed around 3am. All in all this city is so amazing. These people are the most chilled out bunch of people, who always have a great time and respect everyone. The individuals you meet are the biggest character and have some great stories. I could live here, its picture perfect and has a great artisan culture.

Tomorrow, the Neitherland countryside!