4.02 - Amsterdam

This morning I went with the Austrians and the Canadian over to the Van Gogh Museum. I never knew very much about his life, or had seen anything other than the more famous of his paintings, but I was thoroughly impressed.



Afterwards, having not yet eaten all day, I went to an empty Mexican cafe run by an Egyptian man who spoke Dutch to me. In the northwestern part of the city, in a more historically working class neighborhood away from the tourist shops and restaurants, Otis Redding was playing on the radio, and I ate a large burrito. After a while, a man from Amsterdam and his Northern Dutch wife, old friends of the owner, came in, the three of them sitting down to a friendly conversation. Slowly, we all began to sing along to the music.



They invited me to their table, and bought me a beer. In English we talked about music and politics and culture, about Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the EU, and the US. He loved the city and told me where I might be able to find a job if I wanted to stay. I could see myself staying here, but it also seems a bit intense with the red-light district and all the smokeshops. It seems a bit too touristy. I left the restaurant, went back to the hostel to gather my bag, and say goodbye to my friends, and headed for the train station, and a late night arrival in Brussels.