Amsterdam #34 - Waar Ajax tweede in de poule wordt

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Op dinsdag 21 februari 2012 19:58 schreef KingRoland het volgende:
Amsterdam-West ftw.

Trouwens , iemand hier die weet of Gein in Amsterdam Zuidoost een leuke plek is kwa omgeving en mensen?

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Op zondag 26 februari 2012 12:06 schreef Bleie het volgende:
Omdat er de laatste tijd nogal veel Fokkers naar Noord zijn verhuisd, die allemaal op zoek zijn naar huisartsen, bso's en weet ik wat in Noord. Niet erg interessant voor anderen. Maar ik vind t best zo, hoor.

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Op maandag 27 februari 2012 20:33 schreef bitterend het volgende:
Ik woon al 5 jaar in Amsterdam Noord

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Op maandag 27 februari 2012 20:52 schreef AMDB het volgende:

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Op maandag 27 februari 2012 20:34 schreef bitterend het volgende:

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mja...daar zijn vooral veel kantoren dus of het echt leeft savonds en in het weekend....

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Op dinsdag 21 februari 2012 19:58 schreef KingRoland het volgende:
Amsterdam-West ftw.

Trouwens , iemand hier die weet of Gein in Amsterdam Zuidoost een leuke plek is kwa omgeving en mensen?

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Day 22 - Saturday

It’s 6am and I feel Chris physically tugging on my leg urging me to wake. The ferry has docked at Hoek van Holland. Still immersed in this cloud of grogginess I drag myself to the lower decks to join Chris on gorging on the breakfast buffet. The sleeping tablets are so strong that even the smell of mushrooms, hot toast, eggs, the whole English breakfast get up has not had an effect on me and I eat it in a zombie-like state. I remember falling in and out of sleep whilst on the train from Hoek van Holland to Amsterdam Central. The seats on our carriage were quite roomy. I wondered why anybody would need such wide leg room and plush cushiony seats, but then reasoned that Dutch people were amongst the tallest people in the world. A grumpy train inspector later kicked us out of the first class carriage into second.

We met Luca on platform 2a in Amsterdam Central. The platforms are quite long seeing as 2 Dutch trains can fit on one platform, so spotting him at the other end of the platform and walking towards him felt like being in one of those old slomo movies. We both gave him a giant hug, pun intended because he is tall. It felt really strange as we’d only just been with him in Australia on the other side of the world a couple of months ago. He takes us back to the hotel so we dump our stuff and we spontaneously decide to rent bikes from MacBike and ride around the city.

Bike riding in Amsterdam is an amazing way to see the city in such short time. To me the traffic is organised chaos. As bike riders you have to be aware of trams, cars, busses, people, other cyclists and fully indicate your intentions. There are no helmet rules, which makes me think of the many regulations Australians are put under. Everyone sort of just goes for it; if you think you can take on a pedestrian they will ultimately step out of the way for you. We zip through alongside some canals and make our way to museum square. After chaining our bikes together in a threesome Luca produces 3 Van Gogh gallery tickets. Luca speaks a couple of words in Dutch to the security guard and we sroll past the enormous queue of tourists straight into the gallery. VIP!

The gallery is broken up chronologically into sections. Early life, Nuenen, Antwerp, Paris, Arles then the mental asylum at Saint Remy. I remember thinking the crazier Van Gogh had become, the more colourful and happier his paintings seemed to become. There was also a period of his life where he was influenced quite heavily by Japanese prints. Quite pleased that we had learnt something for the day we treated ourselves to chips with mayo. At this point Chris and I vow to always eat chips with mayo. The consistency is amazing and unlike any mayo I’ve had in Australia. I also treat myself to pickled salty Dutch style herring. It comes with a cute little Dutch flag and I become actuely aware that I am eating tourist food. Luca takes us to a Dutch icecream stall. The icecream is a mix of whipped cream and vanilla icecream and tastes unique. Luca teaches me the phrase “dank ye wel” and use it liberally for the next two days to gain brownie points with the locals.

We dump our bikes back at MacBike and make our way to the Anne Frank House. Again Luca works his special Dutch razzle dazzle and we skip the snaking queue and head straight into the house. The first three floors of the house are spacious factory areas, but as we climbed through the hidden passage way behind a bookshelf into the Frank living area I feel a slight chill. It is a little creepy being in hidden area where the Franks used to live and even creepier still when peering into the attic. The walls of Anne’s room are patched with newspaper clippings of movie stars and pets. It feels pretty surreal.

It is dark after departing from the Anne Frank house so we quickly grab a falafel and run to catch the tram to the Amsterdam Blauw Wit stadium. Chris is excited to see a national game of Korfball. Korfball is a popular Dutch sport. In short, 8 players on a team, 4 attack and 4 defense. The aim of the game is to shoot balls into yellow hoops, much like shooting netball hoops except the height of the ring is at least 2 feet taller, there is no limit to which distance you can shoot at and it is a mixed sex game. It is a damn fast sport too and the Dutch crowd really get into it. There are drums in the crowd, the people are dressed up either in shimmering red bathrobes or blue and white colours and both teams have brought very loud and annoying bullhorns.

After the match we hop back on a tram towards the Amsterdam central where we stroll through the red light district. On first assumptions it seemed as if the red windows were few and far between. Then we turned into a narrow lane and the windows were lit up from door to door and stretched for the whole block of houses. Every so often a door would open and a woman in a thong would haggle over prices with groups of drunk men. The doors would often close followed either by laughs or rude gestures but once in a while the men would step in and the curtains would be pulled. I was actually expecting the district to be seedier, so again I had learnt something interesting about the city!

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Op maandag 27 februari 2012 20:52 schreef AMDB het volgende:

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Op woensdag 29 februari 2012 14:48 schreef bitterend het volgende:

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Waar wij wonen is het leuk...allemaal gezinnen en een echt dorpsgevoel (disteldorp) maar ja noord gestoord

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Op dinsdag 28 februari 2012 16:54 schreef Luco het volgende:
Dit weekend vrienden vanuit Australië over gehad in Amsterdam. Heeft een leuke blog geschreven over de eerste dag (en dag 2 volgt binnenkort):

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Friet was gehaald in de Voetboogsteeg bij Vlemminckx en het ijs was uiteraard bij van der Linde gekocht. Toch bizar dat er bij 6 graden een rij buiten dat winkeltje staat voor hun ijs

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Op woensdag 29 februari 2012 15:01 schreef AMDB het volgende:

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Precies de reden waarom mensen Noord niet als Amsterdam zien :p

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Op maandag 27 februari 2012 20:33 schreef bitterend het volgende:
Ik woon al 5 jaar in Amsterdam Noord

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Op woensdag 29 februari 2012 15:01 schreef AMDB het volgende:

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Precies de reden waarom mensen Noord niet als Amsterdam zien

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Op woensdag 29 februari 2012 19:30 schreef WammesWaggel het volgende:
De beste friet en mayo haal je trouwens in Noord, links net voor je de Schellingwoudeburg op gaat, in dat gebouwtje

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Op woensdag 29 februari 2012 19:32 schreef Thorical het volgende:

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Dat was een paar jaar geleden zo. Nu is het 3 x niets.