Back from me travels

[rebness]

So hay, I’ve been back a couple of days from the Netherlands and Andorra, but delayed updates is how I roll.

 

Andorra was… a giant airport lounge. It looked like Montreal, but without any sense of history or awesomeness. Duty-free prices that are not all that free, with about five thousand perfumeries and fur coat (bitches) shops. The Pyrenees were huge and beautiful and completely non-walkable, so I instead took myself to a spa for the day. It was 30 Euros for four hours – I was lolling about in the pool for the first hour and a half, getting increasingly annoyed. This is never going to work, I growled to myself. I swam to the outdoor! Hot! Pool! with the amazing views of the snow and the mountains around.

 

Four hours later, I emerged from the spa completely relaxed, very happy and with my skin smelling and feeling divine. Oh bb, I am going to Andorra again as soon as possible.

 

Now, Amsterdam:

 

Amsterdam, I owe an apology to you. You were everything a city should be: beautiful, lively, fun and sad. 

 

We did all the usual things: rented bikes (I fell, hard, twice… the bruising is awful), ate at wonderful restaurants, visited museums. The Resistance museum was very informative – er, I hadn’t even known that there had been a Dutch Resistance during the war. The Van Gogh museum may be a cliché, but by God… I cried. I don’t know what it is about his art that reduces me to tears, but it’s only when I see the original paintings and can see each brush stroke.

 

We also visited the Anne Frank house, which was as horribly depressing and as awful as I thought it would be. It was worth it, for it truly brought the horror of what happened and some sense as to why, in that oppressive atmosphere, betrayal was almost inevitable, but it was also enraging. There were stupid people on their mobile phones: “YEAH. I’m just in the Anne Frank house. It’s okay. A bit bare. YEAH LET’S GET STONED LATER,” and then a moronic debate/exhibition thing where 56% of people there  honestly thought that we should censor all satire of religion and politics in Europe, without even the slightest trace of irony given their location.

 

There’s also the inevitable, boring thing that Chris and I ended up trying out. We refused to smoke cannabis because… well, I’m not going to debate it here. I just don’t like smoking; let’s leave it at that. The space cake, however, was not off-limits. We tried it, sat there complaining for two hours about how there was no effect and left the café. And then Chris said something or other and I just couldn’t stop laughing.

 

We wandered Amsterdam in a kind of haze. I said that I couldn’t feel my legs properly and Chris said that he felt as if his knees were stumps and we were walking on stilts. It set me off and was frightening to lose control, but we kept laughing and laughing despite it not being funny. It wasn’t hardcore or awesome. It is nothing to brag about, but it was interesting in retrospect. I don’t think I need to try that again for another six years. Actually, I doubt I’ll ever try it again.

 

After that, we left for the airport train, which had to be recalled due to a power failure at the airport itself. Made my flight with twenty minutes to spare, curling up on my seat sleepily as snow began to fall. Amsterdam, you were amazing.

 

I’ve thought it over and talked it over with various people. I’m going to try for some jobs there. Wages are higher in the Netherlands, it’s northern Europe without the endless chavs and EastEnders and well, why not?
 

ETA: Thank you all for birthday wishes, by the way! Sorry I wasn't around to thank you, but it was lovely to see them! Special thanks to pigeongirl99 for the birthday cake! :D

Comments

[pandorasblog]

Yes, please to be getting a job in Amsterdam so we can steal your spare room next time we fancy a holiday there. :D

And bb, you didn't know about the Resistance?! Basically there's this cultural conceit that every good Dutch person was in the Resistance (see Paul Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange; also his Black Book which came out recently and is based on a particular woman's life), part of a larger cultural conceit that everyone was either good or bad, right or wrong during the occupation. And of course the truth is more complex.

One really great book I read on the subject is Ajax, the Dutch, the War by Simon Kuiper. It revolves around the football club Ajax, but even if you're not a football fan this is more interesting than it sounds, because it's basically about how the creeping wrongness of the Nazi regime gradually crept into everyday life in the Netherlands - football clubs are significant because of the prominent place of clubs of all kinds and particularly sports clubs in Dutch culture. There were organisations which tried to maintain a loyalty to all their members despite the Nazis, and others which took advantage of the rules the Nazis introduced to discriminate. The book also follows various people connected with football (including many Jewish teammates) through the war years and just generally uses football to illuminate a very ambiguous area of the Dutch national psyche. I seem to remember that the author is English but was brought up there, and so was growing up at a time when the Resistance was being highly mythologised (presumably due to a national discomfort about the occupation having happened at all, the fate of the Jews, etc.)...

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I feel like it's one of those things I had vaguely heard of, but the history I was taught and studied focused on Spain, Italy and France. Ignoring the Dutch history was a mistake, I have to admit.

Thank you so much for the recs, though! It's such a hazy area of Dutch history and, once I'm a bit more au fait with it, I'll definitely be engaging you in discussion. >:D

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! And of course I didn't remember this latest travel of yours so I worried about your whereabouts and well.. you know how I am.

I'm worrying and you're off eating space cakes. :P

Glad you had a wonderful time though. <3

[rebness.livejournal.com]

It's like some nauseating teen movie, isn't it!

Aww, Shez <333333333

I'll try and message you tomorrow when I'm at work. Well, unless five gazillion terminations come in again, as they did today. >:

Psst, where's your Johnny icon? This post needs Johnny!

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

This one? :D

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

Or maybe you meant this one. (may become a double cause el-jay's sucking)

PS: Always helps if I pick the right iKon.

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

Let me tell you a story with this one. I got unfriended today because I wouldn't unfriend someone this person who unfriended me didn't want me to have as a friend. >:O

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

Why isn't Johnny icon #2 displaying I ask you!

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

I actually have a Johnny icon from Nightmare on Elm Street. /funfact

[zhonghua2000.livejournal.com]

I ran out of Johnny's but I see #2 is now displaying. I have no regressed back to Taylor and have come full circle.

[airiddh1.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good time - now where are the PICS??????

Amsterdam is an amazing place - totally unique don't you think? I was there a few years ago and stayed with my Dutch friend in a flat right at the very top of one of those lomg tall houses, it was literally two streets away from Anne Frank's house. Naturally we went there and it was very moving - thankfully the ppl that were there when I was weren't morons - most ppl were visibly upset. Living just a couple of streets away in a very similar style house the entire time I was there made it seem even more tangible.

There was a very strong Dutch resistance. I've read many books on the subject, in fact I just read one recently - In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke a Jewish rescuer who was only 17 when the Germans invaded. Its quite simply written but a good read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Hands-Memories-Holocaust-Rescuer/dp/0552547166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233867779&sr=1-1

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

BECKY HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW ABOUT THE RESISTANCE

I'm not sure we can be friends now

Did you know about the Australian Resistance

Did you

Huh

[moon-chylde.livejournal.com]

There was a French Resistance too, just in case you didn't know.

*ducks*

You definitely have to post lots of photos of Amsterdam. That's one of my very favorite places that I've never been to.

[ozfille]

Seconding the call for pics - I need a preview for when I visit Amsterdam in October this year.

well well

[wickedmanifesto.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd love it. We absolutely adored everything about it. We kicked around the idea of moving there as well...:D

[peregrinuscanus.livejournal.com]

A good book about resistance during the war is the YA book -

Tamar by Mal Peet (which won the Carnegie in 2005.

Also,

Postcards from No-Man's Land - Aidan Chambers (which won the Carnegie in 1999 and the Michael Printz Award in 2003)

half of which is set in the Netherlands during the war.



Sorry to have missed saying Happy Birthday; and wishing you all the best for any job applications.

[mothergoddamn.livejournal.com]

“YEAH. I’m just in the Anne Frank house. It’s okay. A bit bare. YEAH LET’S GET STONED LATER,”

I WANT TO BE THEIR FRIEND!

Also you didn't know about the resistance. EVERYONE DOES. Even stray cats. Deaf and dumb stray cats at that. I spit in your general area.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Tell me about the resistance, marra. >:)

[mothergoddamn.livejournal.com]

I hardly think it needs explained, marra. God, I'm embarassed for you. Pleb.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

;_;

[ladydaydream.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a really good time. I like the sound of the hot outdoor pool!

I would have loved to have seen you on the rented bikes - especially sampling space cake! ;)