Awesome Art
Upon my arrival to Amsterdam, literally, the first thing I saw stepping off the metro was this apartment building. It was astonishing modern architecture. You could see it from a mile away, and it caught my eye so well that I wanted to find it and see it up close. That was my introduction to the amazing city.
The Van Gogh self-portrait was my favorite piece of art I saw on my whole trip. It was at the very end of the Rijks Museum. I wasn’t able to go to the Van Gogh Museum or the Anne Frank House because I didn’t book a reservation far in advance. Nonetheless, the Rijks museum had a little bit of everything and was interesting, beautiful, and informative. Up close, I could tell Van Gogh painted his portrait using small, careful, individual brush strokes, but stepping back, it looked perfect. The contrast between the two viewpoints of the painting was what made it so impressive. Another statue I loved was the Astronaut Thinker in Rembrandt Square. It reminded me of Matthew McConaughey’s costume from Interstellar. The statue marked the center of a party area of town, where I hung out for two nights.
Landmarks
I met another Australian friend through the Yes Theory community named Icarus, who was also solo traveling Europe. We first hung out in London and planned to hang out again in Amsterdam. He bought an electric bike and rode it around Europe backpacking. We rode it through the city one day, which was a blast. I sat on the rack for his backpack with no seat. It was not comfortable. This video was from Vondelpark, a spectacular place. It was charming, huge, and eventful, as there were restaurants, concerts, activities, and locals enjoyed themselves everywhere we looked. Amsterdam has a biking culture, as everyone bikes, and cars are frowned upon. I believe they are banning cars in the city by 2027 except for handicapped people and taxis.
I love rooftops and landscapes. This rooftop experience was on the other side of the river in North Amsterdam. I ate dinner in their restaurant and had some drinks with the friends I met in Belgium and partied with at Tomorrowland. We stayed on the roof until the sun went down to admire the city and take some pictures.
The staple of the city was its numerous canals. They were everywhere. It gave Amsterdam its character. With tons of boats and water taxis, it was fun watching them go by. The canals gave off the feeling that you’re in the countryside close to a river even though you’re in one of the most famous cities in the world.
Pride Parade
My friend from college, Vuk, set me up with his friends to celebrate Pride. I was there at the perfect time to experience their week-long festival. There were canal parades all day long, with people lining both sides, ten rows back. The parade was difficult to see from the streets parallel to the canals. Many people were partying in their apartments out of their windows. Just a wild celebration. Later into the night, there were tons of street parties with DJs and food.
Overall
I had the best time in Amsterdam. I was so lucky to hang out with people I already knew the whole time. It was so nice to have people to hang out with and not have to try to make friends all the time. Another funny thing was that it is so easy to tell Dutch people apart from tourists and people who moved there. All the Dutch people were over 6 feet tall with blonde hair.