To start the weekend off we met up with my friends from Barcelona and walked around the city, enjoying the beautiful night time Amsterdam scenery. Canals, parks, leaning buildings, and beautiful lights adorned our stroll through the city. We had italian food that night, even though I heard that Amsterdam has a lot of good Indonesian and Asian food, according to what my host family told me.
Afterwards, we walked some more and had a sketchy encounter that could've been straight out of the movie 'Taken'. While walking down a slightly dark street along a canal, we passed by two creepy, hooded, guys who were eyeing the two girls we were with and we became alert when they slowed down from walking in front of us to following us. The tenacity of the moment peaked when another two guys joined them. The girls were well aware of what was going on and were increasing the pace so we could get to the street that was well lit and populated with many people. After we reached the street, the predators abated. Moral of the story, ladies, don't go out in Amsterdam alone, in fact, guys too. Groups of three should be a minimum, and that's pushing it. Amsterdam might be a rose of a city, but it has its thorns as well.
Returning to the house, sorry, boat, a little after midnight might have been one of the best parts of the weekend, as I got a wunderbar 7 hours of sleep. I am starting to think that sometimes sleep can be much more fun than going to a european club on the weekend.
We started Saturday by doing some Dif. EQ homework that needed to be done. Homework was the last thing that I wanted to do while I was in Amsterdam, but it had to be done. Afterwards, we somehow spent an hour figuring out how we were going to get to the concert and then another hour getting food and wandering along the main shopping strip. Because of this, we were only able to see one museum in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh museum, which was not at all disappointing.
Van Gogh's artwork was incredible, it was such a shame that he was never able to appreciate the acclaim for his artwork in his lifetime, because then we could have more of his artwork. In all of the art museums that we have been to in Europe have biographies on the artists that are truly fascinating, Van Gogh especially. According to what I read, Van Gogh was his own worst enemy, driven insane by his perceived lack of success, his demise was a direct result from the failure of his hard work to attain critical success. He had such a dreary life that was contrasted by beautiful paintings. One painting struck upon this contrast. It was a scene of a majestic blue and cloudy sky that filled the majority of the painting, supported by a beautiful green pasture with spots of vibrant red. He painted that painting in his last year of life and it seemed to me to portray Van Gogh's life, beautiful but barren. The influences on Van Gogh's painting style was also interesting, as they ranged from Japanese prints, to Signac, to classic painters.
That night I went to my first electronic concert/rave, and it was pretty fun. I was actually a little disappointed because I was just so tired I really didn't get too into the dancing, but the music was incredible regardless. Also, there were so many people there that I was just dwarfed, literally and figuratively, by the size of the crowd. So, even though I'm medium height and I can do alright at concerts in America, at least see the stage, it is totally different in the Netherlands. The people here are almost all at least six feet tall. Crazy talk. Also, the concert had about 20,000 people in one room, a tremendous amount to try and squeeze through on the way to the stage. We left the concert around 4A.M. to arrive back at our botel at 5:30 A.M.ish and then set our alarms for 8:30A.M., so not much sleep.
Finally, I can say I am thankful to be back home and to try and catch up on work that needs to be finished.
Peace y'all!
No comments:
Post a Comment