Our first day was a walking day...plus a planning day. We added an extra day to Amsterdam to recover from our first three weeks of travel. For extended trips, there's no shame in scheduling some do-nothing days. They can make a big difference, even if it's just so you can wash clothes or get over some travel fatigue. Resist the urge to GO, GO, GO.
It was colder than we thought it would be. Our Airbnb host said this is "the strange season." Could be warm, chilly and rainy all in the same day, and switching frequently. Kade packed a light sweater or two, and a scarf. But I didn't bring anything. May have to go shopping.
Lots of little stands like this throughout Amsterdam. I thought the herring was quite good. And hard to beat fried popcorn shrimp!
oysters from Ireland, France and Japan
This mixed grill platter the people next to us ordered looked so good, I asked if I could photo it.
Over to the left, where that empty table is next to the server, that's where we sat.
Maybe Amsterdam is as creative as Tokyo in utilizing space? You have to give the city that.
There was a certain tackiness about Amsterdam - and all over the city. At times I thought, "You mean, that's right in this spot?" I found this aspect about Amsterdam appealing in a way. Not as much pretension in the city, and pretty much something for everybody. I read somewhere that Paris and London think of Amsterdam as the sibling that has never grown up - a fun, free spirited place that's a bit immature and impulsive. Yet despite the tackiness here and here, Amsterdam was full of beauty and elegance as well.
Kade found a lot of Thai restaurants in Amsterdam. A local told us that Amsterdam does not have a well-defined local food culture the way Italy, France and Thailand have. Therefore, they absorb and welcome the best from everywhere. I saw cuisines from all the world.
That opening next to the blue door is Paradox Coffeeshop. And coffee shops in Amsterdam are where you can legally buy weed products. I had been researching space cakes, and was not going to leave Amsterdam without one or two.
What's funny is that when we turned to walk down this road or lane, two guys on motorbikes were talking to another, then they took off, following one another. I saw one of them (a semi-profile) and thought it was a Hollywood actor. I had a certain actor's name in mind, then turned to Kade and asked he if she caught a glimpse of the guy. Kade said, "Yes. It looked like Bradley Cooper." And that was the same name the popped into my head when I saw him. You never know.
I simply pasted three emails I sent to people describing the experience:
Hard to believe that such a tiny piece of cake could be that potent. Space cakes are kind of unpredictable, according to what I read. Delayed reaction, and harder to manage the effects. I had a bad experience overall. Definitely got spacey, yet was able to walk around the city for three hours, but not without Kade's guidance. She had no effects she said. We were able to return safely. Definitely perception altering - like sleepwalking, dreaming and yet had awareness of certain real-time things. However, it was kind of dark in ways. Small worries were magnified, and issues below surface were very present. Based on what I read later, I ate a bit much. And when you're inexperienced, wow, can be powerful.
Yes. I ate too much. Could not have gotten back without Kade. Like I was sleepwalking, in a weird dream and partly in the real world. Not aware that I was walking, just knew that we were going places, and that we were lost. I repeated stories over and over, forgot what I was talking about many times. I could not remember events, yet had precision recollection other times. Time slowed down, and my senses both sharpened, and dulled. A fast moving bike wheel, once I looked at it, would slow to micro-movements. I was very perceptive of people we passed or encountered - details of face, imagined their thoughts, would catch them looking at us, and in slow-motion. I also seem to fixate on a couple of real worries of mine. They seemed more real and pronounced than ever, and I was horrified. The intensity of these uncontrollable worries was constant and grinding, producing lots of emotional pain and causing me to fear the future. Hours later, as I started to return to normal, I actually had the feeling that the worries I experienced while stoned were irrational and overblown. I also thought that perhaps the focus on them was a recognition that I needed to deal with them honestly. While I was having a bad trip, Kade said I was the sweetest towards her, and had the most gentle disposition. I also seem to have polar opposite side effects at the same time, or within seconds or minutes of one another: good vision/bad vision, stellar memory/lost memory, sweet towards others/worried on inside. I also saw a couple of women whose faces were beautiful, and drew me in like a magnet. Felt like I was staring at them for an eternity. That gorgeous. Wish i could see them without being high...to compare.
If Kade had been stoned too, we'd been in serious trouble. As I was coming out of the haze, I kept telling her she saved my life. I was out of my mind and in a dark place. Our waiter tonight (at a fondue spot) said I ate 2x more of the space cake than I should have. Also, he said the ones in the tourist areas are very strong, and the bars are not as regulated as they should be. Easy to get a bad trip. He recommended a spot near here...says it's organic weed. Kade also looked at her phone stats. We walked 8 miles on the day we tried the space cake. I only remember about 100 of those steps. Temporary amnesia is another scary side effect.
That building with the yellow sign is another Thai restaurant - tuk tuk something.
Marilyn Monroe, from what I've seen, is the most popular photographed and painted icon around. She is everywhere. Michael Jackson is still likely the most recognized/famous star the world has known, but lovely Marilyn is still dazzling us.
These Monroe images were in a women's clothing store, where Kade was shopping. A few minutes before, in the adjoining men's clothing store, I had a very awkward experience. The salesman tried to force me to buy a coat I had tried on. It was simply too small in the shoulders, but he insisted that it fit right, and got angry when I said it didn't fit me well, and that I didn't want it. And I was being very nice leading up to that moment, and I stayed calm. Was really bizarre. But the more he went on, I wanted to get away from him. As I walked away, he was talking aloud to himself, in English, and was very agitated. He was having a psychotic break! I wondered if that experience was just a weird anomaly, or if I had done something wrong. Later that day, in a coffee shop, we observed a lady (of color) walk back into the coffee shop, and in Dutch, tell off a female barista, whom she said had been very rude to her, and that it was racial discrimination. In fact, though, this barista was kind of cold to me, and to another person who was ordering something. This left me a bit perplexed, since in the USA it's about customers being #1, and about customers being happy with what they're buying. So I started Googling, and looking at Trip Advisor, and it seemed like there were lots of complaints about poor service in Amsterdam. I say this, despite the fact we there were so many times in Amsterdam where we had amazing service, especially in restaurants. It's just that when you travel, or get our of your comfort zone, you might get really disturbed by an experience. Maybe the key is how you decide to handle it, and what you learn from it.
This store sign is Kade West.
For dinner we went to Foodhallen, which was about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. It was gourmet food court with the best ethnic, Dutch and fusion foods imaginable. It was surreal to us - in part because I was still a little spacey. But it was one of the best food "spaces" I have ever wandered around and eaten in. It was busy, and there was wonderful people watching. There were two blonde girls making sushi, and three white Dutch preparing dim sum. We got some of the dim sum, and it was pretty good. The main thing we got, though, was fried seafood platter. The soft shell crab was out of this world!
On the walk there, we got a little bit lost. We made the mistake of not setting up our phones so that we could access the various GPS maps. In other words, just walking down the street, we had no internet access. That was our fault. We could have it. It was a tough lesson for us to learn. On the plus side, I guess you could say, we just asked people where places were. And that still works! And people seemed polite and helpful.
On our walk to the Foodhallen we stopped in a wonderful cafe. If I had to guess, it was a Middle Eastern pastry shop (probably Turkish). It was near closing time for them (seemed like it), but yet they had plenty of items still in the display case. I saw some baklava, and ordered some to take away. Again, I was still feeling the effects of the space cake (did all night really), and I was thinking the manager who waited on us suspected it. I remember after he put the baklava in a small bag, he said, in what I thought was a British accent, "Thank you, sir." He was super kind. We ate the baklava just before bedtime, and it was superb. In my mind, the rest of our days in Amsterdam, I kept wanting to return to that shop. We didn't....I think in part because I doubted we could ever find it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment