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| entry created: Monday 20 October 2003, 10:34pm (NZ time) | |
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| Location: Utrecht, Holland |
| Local time: Monday, 11:35am |
| Music: Dutch MTV |
So I've gone Dutch and so far am loving it. On Saturday I spent the day wandering around Amsterdam with Michelle and EC, the old bartender from the boat I work on ('La Nina') who now lives here. We checked out many coffeeshops and small pubs and tried the 12% beers (for 8.50 euros no less!). But mmm what a lekker biertje! And yesterday we cycled (how Dutch) around A'dam city and took lots of photos of canals and great old buildings and went to the Sex Museum and more coffeeshops. Wow, this place is busy with a capital B. The main pedestrian shopping street was damn overwhelming, with a sea of white faces (there doesn't seem to be so many black people here), most of whom are dressed very Euro-pretentious (I mean, it looks good in the magazines, but come on). The women are all stunning, and the men all gay. (Single straight guys, this is your paradise!). And this country must use more hair gel than anywhere I've seen before, what with the proliferation of Tin-Tin ("kuifje") haircuts on both men and women. So far the weather has been perfect. It's cold (like, 10-12 degrees Celcius) but still clear and sunny. You can see your breath when you breathe, so it's like being back in an NZ winter. I have very little winter clothes, just having come from the Caribbean 'n all, but what I do have is comfortable. And thank God for the chain of H&M stores here (kind've like a Dutch combination of Hallensteins and Glassons for you NZ'ers). The roads are wide and the cars are great... no Japanese junk here, it's all Euro style and engineering. Mercs and Porsches and BMWs everywhere, which puts *me* in heaven. There's a few windmills out in the fields beside the highway, but nothing postcard-like yet. Apparently I'll find that at Zaanseschans, near Amsterdam, so that's something I'll be seeing soon. But there is definitely an abundance of canals and waterways. Okay, I gotta go, we're about to catch the train to Rotterdam for the afternoon (wow it's cool I can actually write that stuff now!). Check out holland.com - I've been using this to plan stuff to do. Okay, photos to come soon! |
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