Even though most people in the world think the Netherlands is a small country (which let us be honest kind of is, as there is max 3 hours of driving from whatever side to the other side), there still are a lot a places which I had never visited in my life over here.
I guess this is something when you are not living like a tourist, you get super complacent in discovering new stuff and you just stick to the world that you know. Is that a bad thing? Nehhh, not really, but it is nice to see something new every now and then.
Maybe some of you will recognize this area in Amsterdam as this is exactly the place where the some of the activities were going on back at Hivefest in 2022 (I think?). This is the area where the closing dinner and drinks were at the rowing club, and this is just beside the Amstel river.
So one of the cool buildings that I passed was the great classic 'Amstel Hotel' which already looked cool by day, but even looks a lot more interesting at night when it is illuminated. But I guess this would be just a tad out of budget for all of us to stay in, so just looking from the outside is also already fine there.
Yummie!
One of the things that I can appreciate about bigger city life is the presence of just any kind of food along the way for a very reasonable price actually. I ended up in a ramen shop because I really just love ramen and this isn't really a thing here in my area.
With any chance I can find to dig in on there I will surely take it. But just walking past the Amstel towards there I also saw a Tibetanian restaurant and that even made me more curious on what they would have in there. And just also the sheer amount of small cafes and small terraces where people were enjoying the late autumn sun.
Heck it all felt really alive in here!
And again our discussion went about the floating houses also here on the Amstel where with the big Sail-event just recently a few of the floating houses had to move because of the larger ships coming in. Now honestly...I'm not sure if all these boats are actually able to move since they have been here for so long on the 'dock' already.
What also was another interesting point here is that nearly every one started their conversation to me in English. Now I know I am from a different region and speak a different dialect, but this is the way people are approached at the moment over here, and that is kind of weird right?
I mean, a greet in Dutch and then shifting over to English would also be fine right?
One thing I know for sure. I wouldn't be happy living in such a touristy region at the moment, as the identity of the city is kind of non existent at the moment.
Regardless, it is fun to stroll around in!
Carree
But the whole reason I was in the big city was because I was heading towards a theatre show in one of the most iconic buildings of the city called Carree which is open since 1887.
And when being inside you can immediately see how old and classic this is. In these modern times the inside of a theatre would never be able to be build that way anymore.
The insides of the paths are super narrow and the stairs are super steep. But because of this the theatre feels like an arena or something and that is just really cool.
Also when people started applauding this was just a wave of sound coming towards you, and I after this now I am super curious on how bombastic music would sound here. It has 2000 seatings which I find a lot for an indoor venue, and just the whole place impressed me a lot actually! And don't worry, after this snap I put the phone away, just like everyone else did respecting the request of no phones.
So coming from a small stroll along the Amstel, to some awesome food, to an impressive show in an even more impressive venue.
Heck, Amsterdam wasn't too bad again after all ;)