Amsterdam was quite disappointing to me. The houses were crammed. There were too many people (a lot of them were tourists). The streets were narrow and parked with too many bikes and cars. Although there were canals in the city center, but I could not find any trace of leisure and tranquillity. In a word, a hectic city. However, to some people, Amsterdam was an energetic city. For example, a Belgium I met at my hotel told me he liked Amsterdam because Brusssel where he lived was too quiet and sometimes you could not find anybody on the street.
Among the Dutch people I met, some were friendly and helpful but some were not. In one day alone, I was approached by two men separately, both of about 40 odd years old. They were very “friendly” to me, but I knew they were unusally “friendly” with bad intention.
The Dutch seemed to be proud of their three well-known national policies which were the popular themes in the postcards sold there: (a) Holland is the first country in recent history to have legalized gay and lesbian marriages; (b) prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and common; and (3) although illegal in law, possession and production of cannabis are tolerated. Prostitution and “coffee shops” (selling cannabis) were open to everyone. Amsterdam can be a heaven to one person but a hell to another.
The red light district seemed to be a popular place: at least there were situated Amsterdam’s oldest church and the China Town.
In China Town, I went to a Chinese restaurant to have dinner and met a Hong Kong guy who worked there. He was a typical Hong Kong person. I asked him how was the business. He said, “no matter how good the business is, the boss will always say the business is not good.” That restaurant offered buffet (you could eat as much as you liked in one hour for Euro 8,5). Every time a customer entered the restaurant, he would say “hallo”. Then his next sentence would be “pay first” (even without “please”). He was working there alone leaving his family in Hong Kong. In his words, “for living, no choice.”
I went to Kurkenhof Garden (half hour train from amsterdam and then a 20 minutes bus) to see the tulips. It was a huge garden displaying many species of tulips, narcissus and other kinds of flowers. Wonderful flowers!
