Day 5, May 16, Monday, Amsterdam

Breakfast was 8 to 10 I guess, and I got up at like 945, rushed down to the lounge for breakfast cuz it was in another building. I was still kinda feelin' uncomfortable to join a group of strangers so I sat along, and an eastern european couple sat down opposite of me, I don't really know that they were from eastern europe, but the language they spoke was impossible to understand, so I figured they should be from eastern europe. The guy was handsome and the girl was pretty, so I think it's better not to interrupt'em. They noticed this little note in Chinese on the wall, so I took a look at it, too. Some Chinese dude was saying how Japanese and Korean young kids always travel and he feels that Chinese kids should do the same thing, too, and he was like I'm probably the first Chinese kid stopping by this restaurant and bullshit like that. and there was apparently some vulgarity comment left on that note saying your mother's stop being so cocky and another Chinese girl left another note under saying don't think you're the only Chinese students who study overseas blah blah blah. It was very interesting to see my Chinese friend's messages, it almost felt like how in the ancient times they left poems on the walls of hotels.
So I left the place after a good breakfast and started taking photos. The sky was pretty gloomy and it started drizzeling. Starting at Dam Square, which is the centre of the city I made my way down to the south side of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a city made up of canals and spiderweb-like streets so it was pretty easy to find my way. The buildings are really nice, each of them has a cap on it with a different shape and together it just has this really european feeling. Standing on one of the bridges and looking down the river with boats resting and houses lining up at the sides was really enjoyable. I stopped by at the football museum only to find out that it only opens on weekends. And there was this flea market where they sold flowers, mainly tulips, and tulip seeds. I remembered that my mom likes plants so I wanted to get her some tulip seeds, but the lady told me I can only keep the seeds for a week. Damn, I don't wanna fucking fed-ex the seeds home. Maybe I was just cheap.
So I finally got to Riijksmuseum, the museum has a really grand and beautiful appreance outside, though barred and ruined by the renovation going on. There was no discount on my ISIC card though. There was never discount on my ISIC card, it was a total rip-off. From the moment I stepped into the museum I was mesmerized. Because the museum was under renovation, they only showed 200 masterpieces in there. And they were like, really masterpieces. The first room has this model of an English ship that the Dutch marine force captured, and it was just gorgeous in the yellow light. Inside there was silvery, exquisite furnitures, impressive classic paintings, etchings, sculptures, one of the most fascinating collections was the two incredible doll houses, it was so fucking detailed you could see the little little kitcheneries on the dining table in one of the rooms. This is the first museum that I took seriously, I was literally every little sign next to the artworks. And I learnt awful a lot. Especially about Rembrandts and other outstanding Dutch artists of the same era, their paintings were amazing. I totally learnt to appreciate how Rembrandts create sharp contrasts of light in his works, and the crown of the museum's collection, Rembrandt's Night Watch, was just astonishingly beautiful.
Then I headed to the Van Gogh museum. It was very interesting cuz I met this tour group with an english-speaking guide and a pretty professional translator for someone that looks like a big shot from China. So I just tagged along and learnt a lot about how Van Gogh grew from a self-educated artist with rather crude skills to a master of painting. His works were laid out in a chronological order, so I could see different influences on him in different times of his life. I managed to take pictures of his most famous self-portrait although it was not allowed. Some indonesian guys followed what I did and was caught. The guard there like gave him a 30 minute preach. I totally fell in love with Van Gogh's work after the visit. There was also a shocking exhibition of this Austrian artist Egon Schiele, it was twisted, erotic, intense and there were even more intense performance by some dancers, that was the weirdest part of my trip.
Then I visited Bulldog in the rain. Bulldog is the most famous local 'coffeeshop' chain, coffeeshop in Amsterdam is where people smoke up the entire afternoon. I got into the wrong place at first. I went into the Bulldog Cafe, and I ordered a 'space brownie', which has some "00" marijuana in it. I din't know what the fuck it was, but it din't work and I was disappointed. What was cool was the posters and collections in the bulldog cafe and 'gottahaveit' shops. There were some pictures of people who I believed were drug mafias. It was pretty cool and I felt very ghetto and gangsta and, cool.
I got Kranji to Go, a local famous Indonesian take-away restaurant, and some junk Marcoroni Bolognese from the local Super Market chain.
At night I went to the bar Absinthe. There I had the first Absinthe of my life, The making of Absinthe itself was amazing and worth the trip. The bartender put a shot of super-concentrated absinthe into the glass, then put a sugar cube on a holed spoon and set it in flames, in the end the drink really became fluorescently green, just like what I saw in the movies. It was very very strong and pretty bitter, though, but the woody aftertaste was quite good.
After the shot of Absinthe, I figured I had enough guts to take on my most daring project - taking pictures of the hookers in the red light district, looking back on it, it was probably not anything venerable, but because it's like a taboo thing to do, so I just wanted to prove to myself that I can do cool stuff like that on my own. So I gathered enough courage and hit the RLD again. At first, I just took some distant pictures from the bridge, or pretending to take pictures of the buildings next to the hooker's windows. Then I became bolder and started shooting the hookers, to my surprise, they were really alert to it. After my first flash, half the street closed their curtains. But on the absinthe, I didn't realize that they already noticed me. So I continued trying until I heard ferocious banging of windows behind my back, and I looked back and all the hookers were staring at me furiously. I had to admit, it was pretty intimidating for the moment. Then I had to abort my project.
No matter what, it was quite an experience.

leaving skool guoyandao at 4:57 PM [comment]

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