5

A moving day in many senses of the word, as I bid a sad farewell to my Amsterdam home and headed to stay with relatives in the Rotterdam suburb of Bleiswijk for a couple of days.

But is there a better place to recover from a potent mix of a head cold, moving blues and a bad haircut than your aunt and uncle's house in a great little town?

Bleiswijk (pronounced blayss-wake) is a 1.5 hour commute from Amsterdam, but it might as well be on the other side of the equator. The relaxed, familial pace of this small town stands in sharp contrast to the hectic pace of Holland's capital city.

Here its 10,000 citizens live mainly in quiet streets and a few hofs, small leafy sections of about 10-15 townhomes. There's no hassle in these hofs, however. Neighbours pitch in for upkeep of the area, and the nearby village is filled with locals greeting each other daily at the butcher shop or post office. The area is also home to large industrial-sized greenhouses and Elysium, one of Europe's most popular spa/health centers.

A stroll through the streets and parks brought us to the local tennis club, very typical of small Dutch towns, functioning as a sport and social club.

Here, for the very modest sum of 160 Euros per year, you can play for 12 months on some of the finest clay courts you'll see. Today saw a kids' tournament in full swing, with future Federers and nascent Nadals in action.

The canals fill up with tree stuff (I believe that is the technical term)

A backyard pond stocked with goldfish

Here you can hobnob while you watch Bob lob

6

Below, a brief tale of a farewell visit to the neighbourhood pasta and wine store and its perfetto proprietor, Pino.

Of course Edith Piaf is playing on the cd player, adding to the wistfulness of the moment... of course a fresh bottle of red is opened...of course tagliatelle boscaiola (con prosciutto e funghi) and some waiting slivers of pizza are complimentary...of course a gregarious Austrian tenor stops in and we become fast friends...

This is a little slice of heaven in Amsterdam. This is Amsterdam.

HEMA is an old-school general store found in every neighbourhood - food, toiletries, clothes, light bulbs, bedding, etc

Biking while phoning is even more common than its driving equivalent

7

One week left to go in Amsterdam. I will do my best to do a photo essay of sorts for each of the last 7 days - photos of the mundane, scenic, interesting, and possibly bizarre that make up daily life in this great city.

Many of the past 10 month's posts cover some of the more obvious photos, but this week's bloggage will show more of the obscure and the everyday.

"What am I doing in the parking lot of the Amsterdam Hilton?"

The bridge near the apartment

Uitmarkt

Welcome to Uitmarkt, running from August 27-29:

The Uitmarkt is the national opening of the cultural season and the largest cultural festival in the Netherlands. Over the years, the Uitmarkt has evolved into a festival attracting 500,000 visitors and featuring 2,000 performers at more than 30 venues. And it's all free!

Sounds great! As soon as the rain stops and winter leaves, I'll be sure to check it out...

It's been discussed by more than one person recently that were it not for the weather, Amsterdam would be the best city in the world.

I would concur - it offers a ton of cultural, artistic, leisurely, active, and intellectual pursuits. It's close to dozens of other countries, and home to so many different nationalities.

Unfortunately, it's such an inconsistent, wet, chilly climate that experiencing many of these pursuits (and festivals such as Uitmarkt) are only for the heartiest of locals and determined tourists.

And pity the poor souls who, months in advance, fork over 50-100+ Euros for some of the bigger (non-free) festivals, only to be completely drenched and chilled come showtime (recent washouts included Dancevalley for the young kids and an epic music/arts weekend called Lowlands).

Hopefully reporting to you soon from Uitmarkt... now where's my winter gear?

Moving Day

August 24, 2010

The Full Moon in your 11th House of Social Networking lures you away from your tunnel vision to get a glimpse of the outside world. And although you are normally happy to remain exactly where you are, today you're just as eager to see where things could lead. Take a chance and reach farther than you have in the past. The future is waiting for you if you are ready for it.

And really, who am I, who are any of us, to mess with the stars when the 11th house of Social Networking has a Full Moon?

As such, I am off to Lisbon in a few weeks to live, at least temporarily. Amsterdam will remain a close and fondly thought of friend, with a few more blog posts still coming from here. Otherwise it's Lisboa fo shoa.

This doesn't mean much different for this blog - simply new sights, impressions, and images from a different part of Europe.

And if all 8 of you who read this on a regular basis have any tips, contacts, and general recommendations for Lisbon, please feel free to send them my way.

Did You Know?

Some updated facts about life in Amsterdam and Holland. Did you know that:

• The above photo is of the Netherlands' (soon-to-be-ex) Prime Minister Jan Pieter Balkenende? Awesome, I say. It's highly unlikely that you would see Obama, Harper, Sarkozy, or Berlusconi (ok, maybe Berlusconi) wearing a similar t-shirt or toting a can of beer.

• Asking for ketchup at McDonald's will cost you .45 Euros? I'm not sure if this is the only country in the world that has its McD's charge for ketchup, but it must be. It's also been suggested that copper wire was invented when two Dutch people fought relentlessly over a penny.

• Many private establishments (bars, restaurants, cafes) will charge patrons to use the bathroom? Not a lot mind you - maybe 20-50 cents - but, well, enough to piss you off (literally).

• Incongruously, and perhaps to counterbalance the stinginess mentioned above, many of the excellent festivals here are entirely free? Uitmarkt (culture/arts), Pluk de Nacht (film), Sail (previous post), Appelsap (hip hop), Queen's Day (mayhem) and many others won't cost you a cent (unless you need to use the bathroom of course).

• The most popular national weather forecast website actually provides a "korte rokjes (short skirts)" forecast? Not as in "A 60 percent chance you will see short skirts today" unfortunately, but rather just a friendly service to the ladies to help them plan their wardrobe for the day.

• You are much more likely to find a guy named "Taco" than an actual taco in Amsterdam? "Remco", "Eelco" and "Dico" are also fairly common Dutch names.

• It is expressly forbidden to wear bathing suits in the majority of Dutch coed saunas?

• Many zucchinis, cucumbers, fennel bulbs, bunches of bananas, and other assorted fruits and vegetables come individually wrapped in plastic in supermarkets? I thought nature provided its own wrapper for these items.

Dope Floats

Amsterdam celebrates its watery heritage this week with Sail Amsterdam, an event held only every 5 years.

Yesterday featured the Sail-In Parade. (Have you noticed a trend of late? Amsterdammers love them some parades). It features 39 tall ships from around the world, accompanied by every conceivable type of local boat, like so many pilot fish swimming with a whale.

The whole event takes place in and around the IJ river, for four days. It's free, family-friendly, and per usual comes with a healthy dose of gezelligheid, as evidenced by the friendly women I luckily sat next to along the parade route, who were well-equipped with tea, sandwiches, grapefruit and the classic Dutch tea towel. They kindly provided me with apples, licorice, a plastic bag to sit on, and conversation.

The tall ships came from all over the world - Russia, Italy, Sweden, even Indonesia. There was supposed to be a French boat too, but they were on strike. ('ti blague).

Impressive and imposing, these historical behemoths will stay docked for the weekend and over a million visitors are expected. The programme has various dance parties, fireworks, and general sail-y stuff happening as well.

One section among many kilometers of spectators

Booze cruise

Carien and Mieke, my caretakers for the afternoon

The nautical equivalent of the wooden shoe

Grannies gone wild

Q: Who's the most famous Dutch pirate? A: Janny Depp?

Udderly Dutch

Important Things

A very good friend of mine has brain cancer, I found out yesterday.

Meanwhile, flooding in Pakistan has been especially devastating, affecting 20 million people.

What do these things have in common? Not much - one is very personal, the other global, more remote. But both affect individual families very much, and both are a stark contrast to the hedonistic pursuits that this blog usually covers. So today hedonism itself takes a break.

This won't turn into a personal journal, nor a moral sermon on the important things in life.

International support for the situation in Pakistan, compared to recent disasters, has been low for some reason.

If haven't yet but you feel like donating, you can do so here at the International Red Cross.