Advertisement
Published: April 18th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Guy at hotel bar
Katie gives this performance 2 thumbs up. ...you know what they put one fries in Amsterdam?... Mayonaise... I seen'em drown'em in that shit, man...
Amsterdam, home to Van Gogh, Rembrandt. bicycles, windmills, wodden shoes, dikes, and Vincent Vegga's mayonaised fries. Oh ya; legalized drugs and prostitution too. Hard to forget that one. So here is what was seen and done: Van Gogh Museum, Heineken Experience, Anne Frank's house, Red Light District, Yellow Bike tour of countryside, and visited some cafe's and mushroom shoppes. Its hard to describe Dutch. The sound of it is so foreign. But if they speak slowly and if you see it printed it's starts to look familiar. I only picked up some things. Like: spreekt je Engels?, frittes, Dank U, Geen dank (your welcome), Hoeveel kost het?, Hallo, Dag(goodbye) The j is soft like the y in yes, the ee is soft like end, and the a's sound like a doctor is looking at you tonsils. Say Ahhhhhh. :O Some other things too but its superfluous. It kinda sounds like a child trying to figure out the english language. You recognise some words and the rest is somewhat garbled. Ja?
Yes and no are Ja (yah) and Nee (nahy).Funny
Thats my bike?
I thought it was hard to find my car at the mall... thing. Every language I have come across, the yes and no's are always single syllable words. I almost dont even have to hear the words anymore. Someone says a word at you with their eyebrowns furrled and the word is sharp or harsh sounding, chances are its some form of 'NO'. With the eyes wide and brows up a 'yes' always sounds longer with more air being let out. Now play amungst yourselves with that.
Van Gogh Museum was amazing. The collection was started by his brother Theo. And a lot of his works are in there, mostly due to the fact that Vincent never sold a single painting during his lifetime. He saw his whole life's work as a failure. He had fits of phsycosis, checked himself into an insane asylum at one point, acts of self mutilation resulting in the famous loss of part of his left earlobe, and eventually shot himself in the chest. He botched that too. Took him 10 days to die. Poor guy, never got to know what he accomplished. So to any starving artists out there; keep the faith. Dont quit your dayjob and make sure your family keeps your stuff. But
Oh ya!
Thanks my bike! I dont recomend shooting yourself in the chest. That's gotta sting.
The Heineken tour was more uplifting. I didn't know it was started in Amsterdam. The tour is at the original brewery. No longer in the works though. They have sinced moved due to growth. Interesting story though. And good tour. Hieneken was one of the first companies, at the early part of the century to start pensions for their employees. Not to mention the first imported beer available in America once prohibition was over. Im sure they were there before that too. Oh ya and you get 1, 2, 3, Heine's on the tour. How could you go wrong?
All Im going to say about the 6 hour bike tour is that Dutch people scare me. Ya, they drive on the right side of the road, but insanely so. You have to watch out for cars, trams, busses, millions of bikes, pedestrians, mopeds, motorcicles, and the occasional yahoo on a quadrunner in the bike lane. Oh ya. Its all that mayonaise on the brain. Felt like an obstacle course just to cross the street. The prize... your life. And the two girls on the tour with us
Stop molesting that beer.
I think she has a problem. made the day longer with their quiting attitude. Katie wanted to drown them in a canal. Kinda wish I hadn't talked her out of it. Whatever.
Well Mike and John never showed. Im sure they are fine though. So if the rest of you are thinking of going there, then I suggest not spending too much time in the hostel reception areas. The one we stayed at was Bob's and the not-so-big reception cellar is where a lot of people just hang out and smoke ALL DAY. No, not cigarrettes. But at least we got free breakfast. Two hardboiled eggs and two slices of bread with jam. Mmmmm. Not toasty. Oh and of course, tea. What is with the tea? There weren't even any supper special teas (if you know what I mean).
@ @
^
So I got to see a lot of museums and famous things. Well, famous in Amsterdam. Ate some really good frittes. Not a fan of the mayonaise though. Ketchup baby; and they had some hot sauce that went well with it too. Had some traditional Dutch food as well. They say it's not a crepe. Its a pancake. You can have them
Vlaams Friteshuis
Best fries ever. Hold the mayo. with sweet things or real food ontop of them. But trust me; its a crepe. So; some windmills, tullip fields, 6 mushrooms, and a one hour flight, and Im back in the YU.K. More kookie stuff to come....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.253s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0637s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Auntie Linda
non-member comment
Amsterdam
I have truly enjoyed your colorful descriptions of your travels thus far. I was very to hear from you Easter Sunday. We missed you! Take care of yourself. Luv 'ya