Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Amsterdam Day 3

Today i woke up at about 3pm and took a shower and prepared to meet Valentijn's Father Baas and his mother. Once all showered and prepared we took a tram which runs on the street and is a crazy hybrid of car and train, to the other side of Amsterdam where Baas lives and had a dinner with the relatives whom I had only met once before when i was very young.
About 3/4 of the way through the meal Valentijn had to leave because he was scheduled to work a shift at his job, as a bartender, he gave me directions back to his house and the name of his bar so I could find him later at my convienience. I spent more than an hour at the house just talking and reminiscing about old family stories and traditions as well as trying to fit together different pieces of the family puzzle. Once we were all talked out, Baas offered to drive me dback to Valentijns, to which i promptly agreed. Apparently in Amsterdam there is a program called Green Wheels where you can reserve a car for a few hours to drive and then park it in a specific parking spot once you are finished using it, the program is brilliant in that it uses really advanced technology to book the car and helped save on the hassle of parking which is a big problem in amsterdam and on carbon emissions. anyway We got to the Green Wheels car and i got a ride home all the while admiring Amsterdam. once we got to Valentijns apartment i let myself in and got changed for the evening. After I had gotten some food and very basic directions I made my way to velntijns bar, I took a cab who got me very close to the place but was not sure exactly where specificly Valentijns place was located, so i spent about 5 minutes looking around and could not find the place so i began asking people how to get there. I asked 2 people who i probably shouldnt have because they looked like complete idiots and they told me that the bar was a 15 minute walk in the opposite direction, i started to walk that way and realized that not only had they given me terrible directions but i did not trust them at all either so i asked a bike cab ( these cab that are actually operated by footpower rather than a moter) if he could take me there, the man agreed and set off, although after a minute he turned back and went the other way saying he didnt think that the directions i gave him were correct, in the end he stopped right where we had left off he walked up to one of the bouncers at the bar right next to us and asked him how to get to the bar, turned out it was nextdoor, so the guy gets back into the drivers seat moves about 5 feet and then turns around smiles and says "were here" well after some arguing i gave him his minimum 5 Euro fee and went into the bar where i met up with both Valentijn and his Cousin Jakob and ended up hanging out there until about 5 am. Once we got back we went to sleep with all sorts of great plans as to what we will do on my last day in Amsterdam.

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What I am reading right now

  • Herodotus: Histories
  • James Joyce: The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  • Niccolo Macchiaveli: The Prince
  • Stephen Presscott: Gates of Fire
  • Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Caster-Bridge