Random thoughts and A'dam experience

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Hi again,
We don't have too much time, but thought we'd just pass on a few thoughts on our trip so far..
It was really interesting for me to see how much French has dropped out of my head over the last 8 years, as even after learning it for 6 years in school and being able to write full essays, etc, I couldn't easily remember the verbs, construct sentences, etc., although could understand a lot. Instead, out of my mouth would often come Hindi or sometimes even Spanish! Quite a few French heard nahi nahi .. ek .. that kind of thing and must be wondering what I was saying as the rest of the words were all French! The funny thing is that we heard others (mostly from the US also) doing the same thing! Por favor, gracias both were said with frequency... It was also quite hilarious to see Anand trying to learn French. We took the Metro so many times that he can now pronounce quite a few station names exactly, but even other simple words are sometimes totally confused - the best was when we were leaving the hotel, and he bravely came out with a "Bonjour!" instead of Au Revoir 😊)).. Luckily I don't think the hotelier made out what it was and so it was all right... but gave us quite a few laughs along the way.
Today, we spent the day touring Amsterdam, which is quite a small, cute city. We went to the Rijksmuseum, which has a collection of Rembrandt's, saw a couple of churches, etc. But the main thing that happened here so far was all the personal interactions we have had, particularly with the immigrant population here. As Suriname is a Dutch colony, and they had taken many Indians from Bengal there, they have maintained their Indian traditions, Hindi speaking, etc over generations. Many of them are here, and every one has received us with extreme happiness and interest. In fact, when we went to the Rijksmuseum, the two men in front (ticket sellers) were both like that, and took great pleasure in speaking to us in Hindi, asking where we were from, giving us suggestions about where to go around Amsterdam, suggestions on whether or not we should get the museumpass here or not, etc., and even gave us a 50% discount on t he museum ticket! Same thing with two guys working at a wonderful falafel shop - one was from Punjab in Pakistan and another from Punjab in India, and they also were very happy to chat. It looks like the 'immigrant' feeling is well and alive here as often we heard comments about how these guys basically looted our countries, that kind of thing.. But it was great to meet so many interesting people. The dutch themselves like we said earlier are really friendly and outgoing, so that was also fun. All this really showed me clearly how even though the Rijksmuseum itself and the other 'attractions' in Amsterdam pale in comparison to the history and grandeur of Paris' museums, the entire experience was really great because of these interactions.
In fact, the city itself really felt like a flat San Francisco with canals. There was a section (flea market) that felt just like a continuation of either Telegraph Ave or the Himalayan Fair in Berkeley (down to the same smell of interesting weeds), and all the multicultural restaurants too.
Speaking of multiculturalism, Indonesians make up another big population here. And we had a quite funny experience in the falafel place. There weren't too many seats, and due to their steady flow of customers, the place was packed. We were quietly eating in the corner when I suddenly see Anand jerk and have a surprised look on his face. I look up and see that a girl is standing by us laughing, and then a second later, I see why - her mother has just taken a seat on the part of Anand's stool that wasn't being used! At seeing that, I too started laughing, and the mother, all the while also giggling, continued to calmly sit and eat her falafel. It was hilarious!
Btw, we also visited the Anne Frank house, which was very well preserved and presented. Quotes from her diary were on the walls, there were videos/films including those with Otto Frank talking or their helpers, etc. It was overall a very good experience.. glad we did it.

All right .. tomorrow we have to decide what to do - Amsterdam turned out to be so small that we finished all we wanted to do here on one day itself.. but luckily, every single person we've met has given us a different recommendation, be it the clog making factory or the cheese factory or the flower city (which would have been our choice, except that equally as many people have said it's too cold and too early in the season to see lots of flowers).. so we'll see what we can do!

Tomorrow night we head off to Berlin on a night train from Brussels. So yes, Kartikk, we're taking the train between countries - will let you know how it works out 😊.

Btw, we'd love to post the pics (we've taken 100s) but the internet connection here is really too slow.. hopefully we'll be able to do that in Berlin.

Take care all!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Amritha, Good to see a long posting from you. Enjoy your rest of the trip. kartikk

[Amma (US)]

Hey this is fun...I feel like I'm travelling in your suitcase (w/o the discomfort ;-)...the indonesian mom story was hilarious...funny what aching feet can make an old woman do...or was it Anand? :-))). Thanks for a good laugh....