As soon as I stepped foot into Amsterdam for the first time, I could not wait to experience the Red Light District, the Van Gogh Museum, the Heineken Brewery, and everything else the city is famously known for. I viewed these popular attractions that are visited by thousands of tourists every year as a check-list or a to-do-list of what I wanted to accomplish in Amsterdam so that I can say I really experienced the city. However, little did I know that I would actually “truly” experience the city on a Friday afternoon when my friends and I wandered around the city for almost two and a half hours trying to rendezvous with other Miami students at The Grasshopper, a rather large coffee shop that consists of a disco bar, café, and coffee shop on three separate floors. For more information on The Grasshopper go to www.thegrasshopper.nl/
After my friends and I ate lunch at one of the local donor kebab restaurants in order to save money for the weekend’s festivities, we began our long and winding adventure to The Grasshopper. With our stomach’s full and our well-rested legs, we headed towards the direction of the Grasshopper not knowing exactly how to get there and having only a slight idea of its location. This is when I finally began to see the true landscape, lifestyle, architecture, and means of transportation in the great city of Amsterdam.
When we took to the streets right outside the center of the city, I found streets bustling with cars, bikes, trams, buses, people walking, and mopeds whizzing by. I became really intrigued by the organized chaos of the public transportation in Amsterdam. The further you walk away from the city, the wider the streets are and the more accessible the streets are for cars. Closer to the center of the city, the “streets” were usually nothing more than a narrow sidewalk and bike path that lined all of the hundreds of canals that ran through the city. Every time I stepped off the sidewalk or tried to cross the street, I was abruptly warned by a ringing bell that came from the handbrake of a biker passing by. A tall, middle-aged man wearing jeans and a black long sleeved shirt muttered something to me in Dutch as I walked along one of the bike paths and almost got hit by a collection of bikers. I thought to myself, “Wow do I look like an American.”
However, as we continued on our journey, I learned to keep my eyes peeled for bikes, trams, buses, and cars that were always passing by and almost began to feel that I was beginning to understand the logistics of the transportation system in Amsterdam. I realized that every mode of transportation has its own territory and other people that don’t belong to that territory should not impede on it. As for my case when I was walking along the bike path and almost got hit, I should have realized that this is not my territory. Although this is only a small scale example of territory and how it works, large scale boundaries and territories work in a very similar way.
Nearer the center of the city, coffee shops lined every street and gave a distinct smell of marijuana as we walked past them. They were packed neatly and tightly in between hostels of low to medium quality, bars packed with locals and tourists from all around the world, and restaurants that consisted of all types of cuisine that cater to whatever your craving may be. Everywhere I turned I found a new alleyway, a new canal that I had not previously seen, a new square that I never knew existed, or an architectural wonder straight out of a magazine. After finally arriving at our destination, the friends we were planning to meet up with already left for other plans because our journey lasted so long. Even though we had been hopelessly wandering around the city for the past couple hours and had walked all over the city to find The Grasshopper, I realized that I had just seen and experienced much of what Amsterdam has to offer. I felt as though I was really able to get a good feeling of what the city was like by walking up and down along the canals and streets of Amsterdam. Prior to this endeavor of ours, we didn’t get to take a long walk around the city and we hadn’t taken a canal tour or rented a bike in order to see the beautiful city. Now since I took such a long walk through almost every major part of the city and got to take everything in first hand as I walked along the streets, I felt as though I had accomplished something even though I hadn’t yet been to the Van Gogh Museum, Heineken Brewery, and other major attractions of Amsterdam. I felt as though my check-list was complete.
I also found myself aimlessly wandering around the city because it was so foreign and crowded. I agree with your description of the city's varying structure with the crowded part in the middle and the more calm parts toward the outside. I like how you noted that you felt like you accomplished something even though you didn't visit any tourist sites. I felt exactly the same way when I was wandering.
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