Amsterdam

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I´ve spent most of the last two weeks in Amsterdam, with a couple of days each in Haarlem and Rotterdam.

Amsterdam is such an amazing city; There is always something going on, and something to do. One of the highlights was the museums: I visited the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum (most famous for its collection of Rembrandts) and foam (a photography museum). The paintings are really impressive when you are there, right in front of the originals. Much better than seeing them in a book.

Another highlight was the China Pop concert I went to at the Paradiso, one of Amsterdam´s best clubs/concert venues. It was a concert featuring about half a dozen Chinese rock acts held in conjunction with the China Festival. The best band of the bunch, in my opinion, was Cold Fairyland.

While I was in Haarlem, I visited the nearby national park. It is right by the North Sea, and is mostly made up of sand dunes, forests and open areas with grasses and low vegetation. It was evocative, but not the landscape that comes to mind when thinking about the Netherlands. Needless to say, the North Sea was very cold, despite the fact that there were some people swimming in it.

Rotterdam was cool. First time that I´ve felt like the ethnic minority. Lots of modern architecture. The Erasmusbrug is beautiful at night, and the building at one end is leaning, and the entire facade of the building is lit up. Some lucky person got to play Tetris and Nibbles with the entire building as his screen.

Anyway, since I have a job starting November 1st, I´ll be travelling around Germany for the next while.

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