Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

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Amsterdam and London — 8, Van Gogh Museum and markets

2012-02-09

Hooray! I finally have a minute to continue the story about our trip to Amsterdam and London. If I were to rank my travels, this one would definitely be somewhere at the top, despite all the screw-ups. It blended into one big whirlwind of amazing experiences and memories; I barely remember what we did and when, but I do remember being totally and constantly amazed and in awe just by the very existence of such wonderful places.

The classic facade of the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam with white columns, a sculptured pediment, and a golden lyre on top. Under the columns hangs a concert poster of pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, and in the foreground in front of the building, a bus stop and parked cars are visible.

This is the concert hall, one of the best in the world, you can see the name up top

A still young but already famous pianist from St. Petersburg is performing.

View of Museumplein square in Amsterdam in gloomy weather with a green lawn, puddles, and construction cranes against the backdrop of the Rijksmuseum building. Parts of the field are fenced off with metal fences, and seagulls are visible in the foreground.

This is Museumplein, meaning Museum Square

They say it's nice to sit here in the summer and watch people walk back and forth. On this autumn day, it was cold, muddy, and even a little foggy. There are as many as four museums around the square, but our goal, of course, was the Van Gogh Museum. Since we had tickets for the Museum Night, we got in, I think, for free (or maybe with a discount, I don't remember anymore)

A black electric scooter parked at a silver-red charging station for electric transport, marked with the sign 'Oplaadpunt' and an image of a plug, against the background of a textured gray wall.

Charger for the ride instead of the mobile

A glass pavilion of the entrance to the Q-Park underground parking with an elevator and stairs, inside which a man is looking at an information board.

I think this is the subway entrance

A street sign with gray plates and gold lettering indicating directions and distances to places such as the Rijksmuseum and Museumplein, with a round 'no alcohol' sign at the bottom, against a modern building made of dark tiles.

No boozing, got to preserve the culture

Modern Van Gogh Museum building with a tall glass facade on the left and a brick wall with the museum sign on the right against a gloomy sky.

This is what the museum looks like

Everything is interesting in the Van Gogh Museum. Naturally, there is a ton of originals, a ton of descriptions. I tried to read everything, but man is weak, and after a few hours, I had no energy left for it. Back then, especially, I wasn't as peppy as I am now. There are also benches inside to rest your tired legs, but they are always occupied because there are quite a few visitors. The museum building is interesting; through an underground tunnel, you can get into the exhibition building, which was built by a Japanese guy in the shape of a huge pot. During our visit, there was an exhibition of some more modern paintings, from the early 20th century, maybe not even the early part. These paintings were huge, three or more meters high/wide, I've never seen such things before.

I don't remember where we headed after Van Gogh, but it looks like the Jordaan neighborhood, or the neighborhood below it (what was it called again, the nine streets neighborhood?)

View of a city canal on a gloomy autumn day, lined with rows of traditional brick buildings, with cars, bicycles parked, and boats moored along the embankments.

Canals again

A long row of narrow multi-story Dutch-style houses with various gables lined up along the canal under a gloomy gray sky. Boats are moored on the water, and parked cars and bicycles are visible on the street by the houses.

 

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A row of multi-colored buildings under a bright sky, in front of which a large mural with a ship, a whale, and palm trees is painted on a wall, and a dark strip of a barrier is visible at the bottom.

 

A blue metal cabinet with two white silhouettes of rabbits looking at each other stands against a white brick wall. To its right is a planter with a green climbing plant.

Punk is taking a picture of graffiti

On a bright red wall, there is a light brown Buddha statue in the form of a half-figure with a raised hand and an ornamented halo, to the right of which a vertical decorative pattern stretches.

We swung by a cute and cozy coffeeshop, though I forgot both its name and location. It's decorated in an oriental theme, with Buddhist and Hindu motifs. A beautiful young black woman was standing behind the counter, she made me some tea.

I should say (I don't think I mentioned this), that we also swung by a smartshop to gawk at what they had to offer. The selection of all sorts of poison, that is, soft drugs, is large, but if you don't know much about the subject, like us back then naturally, it's better not to buy anything. But chatting with the seller is totally fine, or reading up on the internet later about what's what in this area, if you're curious.

Smartshops even sell the famous psychedelic mushrooms of the Psilocybe genus, which British scientists are endlessly researching. The mushrooms, however, aren't the ones that grow above ground, but one of those parts that are underground (the sclerotium), but the effect shouldn't change because of that.  The effect should be like this

Psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, prevents the normal exchange of information between different parts of the cortex, which is the reason for the emergence of various kinds of effects and mystical experiences that appear after taking a dose of the "sacred mushrooms," American biologists write in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hallucinogenic mushrooms have been known to humanity since very ancient times. Many Native American peoples of Central and South America continue to use them in various religious ceremonies and attribute magical properties to such mushrooms or consider them sacred. Recently, many scientists have been considering the possibility of limited use of their active substance - psilocybin - to treat psychiatric disorders and other diseases of the nervous system.

 

A white compact car with a black convertible top and a Pazzi italian slow food logo on its side is parked on a street strewn with autumn leaves. A black box with the inscription "info@pazzislowfood.nl" is installed on the roof of the car.

There's little space in Amsterdam, so the rides are compact

A blue four-wheeled mobility scooter for disabled people is parked on the sidewalk near a brick wall next to an overflowing gray trash container. Parked bicycles are visible in the background.

And even tiny-sized

\A residential barge and a boat are moored at a canal embankment in Amsterdam, along which numerous bicycles are parked and traditional narrow buildings stand.

A long ladder hoist for furniture stretches from the street to an open upper-floor window of a brick building. A man is standing in the window, and below another person is loading packed items onto the hoist platform.

Everything is thought out, optimized, it's pleasant and easy to work, and to watch it too

A large pleasure boat with panoramic windows is moored on a canal by a brown brick building with a «RONDVAART KOOU» sign and a gray classical building, presumably the Museum of Archaeology, in Amsterdam.

We wanted to take a ride on one of these, but it somehow didn't work out

A street scene in Amsterdam with a bronze equestrian statue against the backdrop of old buildings decorated with garlands of flags. In the foreground — a canal with a tourist boat and parked bicycles along the embankment.

The last day in Amsterdam, however, feeling kinda sad already

A busy city street dominated by a multi-story dark brick building with green and white striped awnings and a decorative windmill on the facade. Over the entrance hangs a neon «Diamond Factory» sign, and many bicycles are parked in front of it.

Amsterdam has long been famous for processing precious stones

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Punk kept dreaming of getting to the North Face flagship store

He'd seen too many passersby wearing the label, plus he himself is a vile fan of brands. That's one of the reasons he's a fake punk. Real punks never buy brands, and even if they happen to buy one at a thrift store by accident, they rip off the name tags. I rather support this initiative than oppose it.

We tried getting into the store, but it turned out we almost ended up on the other end of the city. Fortunately, I'm already cunning enough to realize that such an important store can only be in the center. And so it was – it's located on the trendy boutique street Kalverstraat.

Interior of a cinema: under a high curved ceiling hangs a yellow stylized "Pathé" logo in a silver oval frame, where the letter "P" looks like an exclamation mark. To the right is a poster for the movie "Due Date" with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, and to the left are yellow round clocks with number inscriptions in Dutch.

Something like this is hanging

Two shiny metal ticket vending and pickup machines stand side by side under yellow signs with Dutch text. They are located in a room resembling a cinema lobby.

Ticket vending machine

A shop window displays many small cacti topped with bright multi-colored (red, pink, yellow, orange) flowers. In the background there are baskets and trays with bulbs of various flowers, such as tulips and hyacinths, with price tags in euros.

Cacti

We also made it to the flower market, bought some tulip bulbs and a couple of bonsai trees, the little potted ones. Across from the market, by the way, there's also a smartshop, if anyone needs one (but in general there are quite a few of them, so it's not hard to find).

I think smartshops also sell the psychedelic San Pedro and Peyote cacti. Mescaline is extracted from them, another classic psychedelic alongside mushrooms. Native Americans also used it from ancient times for religious and mystical purposes, and I think it also plays a certain role in the plot of Carlos Castaneda's famous mystical books. I believe mescaline gained wide popularity in the middle of the last century thanks to Aldous Huxley's book “The Doors of Perception”. If we look at more recent times, then, of course, everyone knows the movie “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, where the main characters constantly consume it. Also, it turns out, in Sheckley's satirical novel “Journey of Joenes”, which I read in childhood but didn't understand at all since I was clueless about American realities, the main character also ate mescaline.

Black silhouettes of a girl and a boy standing facing each other, painted as graffiti on a brick wall. The girl is holding a baseball bat behind her back, and the boy in a cap holds a bouquet of flowers.

Punk loves graffiti

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We were looking for a flea market, there are three of them altogether

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Found one, but it wasn't impressive (the photo has nothing to do with it)

In the foreground — a black-and-white pole with a vertical blue LED traffic light and a yellow «260-V» sign against the backdrop of a city street with tram tracks. In the distance, brick buildings, people, and a parked truck near scaffolding are visible under a gloomy sky.

I don't know why Punk took a picture of the traffic light, but it's pretty

A long trailer with a bright mural depicting five blue monkeys riding a tandem bicycle against the background of European houses stands in front of a red brick building. The monkey on the right holds a lit cigarette in its mouth.

Just like that

A row of worn light-yellow square tiles with a repeating geometric pattern. From a small element in the center of each tile, diagonal lines diverge, dividing it into four triangles filled with alternating parallel vertical and horizontal strokes.

Tile

A smiling young man in glasses and a black jacket stands next to a large white statue of a polar bear, with his hand on its shoulder. In the background, «ENTRANCE» and «ICEBAR» signs are visible, indicating the entrance to the establishment.

Ice bar, inside everything is made of ice. But the entrance costs a pretty penny, so we didn't go

A black-and-white photograph of a crumpled street poster in Dutch, calling to "Stop racism and alienation!". The poster depicts three stylized human figures holding hands.

Racism shall not pass!

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Amsterdam, my love!

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Punk trying on hats

A smiling young man in glasses and a red-and-white hat with braids stands in front of a shop window showing smoking pipes; to his right — a woman with a red umbrella is partially visible.

Found one to his liking, locals react positively

In the next part, we are leaving hospitable Amsterdam. We'll head on a double-decker train to the gloomier Rotterdam, and further on to the port Hook of Holland, from where we will leave the shores of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the shores of foggy Albion.

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