“As you wander on through life, child, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut and not the hole.”
June 18-19
NETHERLANDS | Friday, 20 June 2008 | Views [74]
Boom Chicago ticket
I think this blog could consist entirely of reviews of the meals I eat. Not it terms of being interesting, of course. Just from the standpoint of generating enough content. I have a lot of opinions about food and a relatively large amount of my concentration gets focused on it now because walking around cities doesn't use much brain power.
Anyway, Tuesday night I had another kismit-type situation that makes travel really sparkle. I was eating a so-so dinner at a veggie restaurant (they only make me miss Native Foods), reading the Amsterdam Weekly, which is a much thinner version of the LA Weekly, mainly because they are no ads for escorts services, head shops, etc. Don't need 'em here! There was a food review by their Jonathan Gold of an Italian sandwich-salad-soup stand 5 minutes north of the Centraal (yes 2 a's) station across a canal. So Wednesday I decided to figure out the ferry system and give it a shot for my lunch. Totally worth it (esp bc the ferry was not a problem)! I had a caprese sandwich with aggressively delicious pesto, plus a real Italian caffelatte.
After lunch, I went to the Dutch Resistance museum (resistance against the German occupation during WWII). Again, not exactly a shining example of human decency history. About the Netherlands you mainly hear Anne Frank's family's story, the sacrifice of all involved and eventual tragedy. But that was an exceptionally rare story. There were 100,000 Jews deported shortly after Germany occupied the Netherlands. The museum makes clear that the resistance movement didn't start in earnest until the non-Jewish Dutch starting feeling the rath of the Germans. And then after WWII the Dutch fought to hold on to their colony of Indonesia, unable to have some empathy after the brutal German occupation. In the end, what I take from this museum is not a condemnation of the Dutch because the whole world screwed up from 1917 to 1941 (at least). It's more of a general man's-endless-capacity-for-inhumanity-to-man.
What do you need after the Dutch Resistance museum? Comedy. And as it happens, Amsterdam has a comedy theater called Boom Chicago that was started 15 years by Americans trained in improv. In the pictures displayed and one video sketch, I recognized people who perform at Upright Citizens Brigade, where I've been taking improv comedy classes. The show was pretty funny, lots of affectionate, hard-edged jokes about Americans and the Dutch. The show was a blend of improv, sketches and video shorts. It made me really appreciate the UCB theater for its audience of respectful comedy nerds. This audience had families to frat guys.
Thursday morning I started the day feeling vaguely queasy and took it slow. I went to the Van Gogh museum, which had a great audio guide AND did not make me want to cry. Well, it was sad when he died. At the Rijksmuseum/Van Gogh museum gift shop they were selling a transparent cling sticker for your car with the image of Van Gogh's Irises. Who would have ever guessed that those ridiculous Calvin peeing on the ground stickers would lead to this sticker?
After lunch (awesome minestrone soup and a sandwich) I did the obligitory brief walk through Red Light District. I think the weirdest thing about the Red Light District -- somehow weirder than the existence of an area with archtypal Amsterdam buildings with barely-clothed women standing for hours in windows on the bottom floor starting at noon (according to Rick Steves, uh...), with families and tours groups walking around like it's Disneyland and packs of men giggling and looking -- is that the RLD branches out much more than just a few blocks. I had read that the city has been trying to limit the RLD. Specifically, after I walked a few of these bizarre blocks, I was done and walked a block perpedicularly from the west street, Oudezijds Achterburgwal. I stood next the Old Church (yes) with my map trying to figure out the closest tram stop. I looked up and realized that there was a RLD woman standing in a window about 10 feet away from me. It made me feel like the entire time I've been in Amsterdam I've been watched by barely-clothing women standing in windows. Creepy!
I had to go back to the hotel and lie down after that because I felt pretty feverish. That was the end of my Amsterdam sightseeing time; for one thing, couldn't go paddle boating on a canal, darnit.
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