Finding friends in the Netherlands

I didn't get the experience I expected out of Amsterdam, I'll be honest. I had plans to meet with my friend Roxy, who I'd met surfing in Tenerife. I got there, and last minute she bailed. Oh shit, now what?

I'm in a city FULL of intoxicated groups of people. Thousands walking around, most of them wearing the famous Holland orange. I'm nervous. I don't know anyone, and how am I going to meet people when I'm sober and alone and they are all having a time partying?

It's a thing about levels. You know? Like they are on one level, and I am on another one. You gotta be on the same level to make a connection. Instead, I was on the same level as this pup.

I walked around, watched people do hilarious things. Saw people selling things, hanging from things, being hit by things. Like eggs. I watched for 5 minutes while people excitedly paid a euro per egg to pelt this guy behind a wood board in the face.

I watched a ballerina dance in the midst of hundred of people. It was very whimsical, and kind of perfect.

I went to the famous Bull Dog coffee shop, where they sell weed and hash… and where I forgot to get a picture. I'll admit it was overwhelming. There were crowds and loud music and a girl almost passed out intoxicated on a bench. It was intimidating even. The last thing I thought about was pulling out my phone.

I went in, bought some hash, and sat down. I was stressing a bit, about the amount of people around me. Being alone in this chaos of party people. I began to roll my joint, and I told myself. It's ok, you're ok, it doesn't matter. And I dropped the stress.

Within 5 seconds of me doing that, a couple came and sat down beside me at the bar, and the lady struck up a conversation with me. She was sweet, they were sweet. I walked around with them a bit. Sat by the canal and watched boats go by full of people in orange listening to loud house music, dance music, party music in general. There was even one boat with a guy playing a mic'd saxophone to the music. It was reminiscent of something I'd never seen.

I eventually left the couple. Wandered around a bit more. Then decided to take the train to meet my flat mate, Alessandro. We met in Ultrecht, a city outside of Amsterdam. We walked around, had some pizza, and went back to the apartment.

I walked in to find my drapes had fallen. The one time high ceilings are an issue, is when you have to reach above the window frame.

I felt weird with such a big, open, exposed window. I felt like all the backyard neighbours had front row seats to "Giada at home". Obviously I'm not "home", but you know what I mean.

Fast forward to today, I met with my friend Cindy, ALSO a wonderful woman I met in Tenerife. She picked me up in her Audi TT, we had lunch at a beach-fronted lake cafe, then went across the street to an indoor Sky Diving place.

SO cool, but… it was expensive, sadly, and there was over a 2 hour wait. Two hours, just to float in wind tunnel for 1 minute.

Okay, maybe it would have been worth it. But Cindy had to go and I decided not to do it. Now I'm thinking I probably should have. What was I really doing today otherwise? Meh, I figured the amount of money I wasn't spending on it would mean I could afford a few more days of travel. Yep, that's how I justified not going through with it. So instead we watched, got some pictures of other people doing it, imagined what it would be like to be them, and left.

My time with Cindy was short but it was SO great to see a friendly face, especially hers!

I got back, met the apartment owner Pedro, who was NOT what I had imagined. He reminded me a lot of Lurch from the Adams Family actually. Like, THE perfect person to play Lurch in a broadway show.

I'm going to be completely honest, he makes me uncomfortable. But tomorrow I leave and it's all gravy.

He helped me reassemble my curtains and chatted about his travels in Africa and SE Asia. He told me facts about how many Dutch there are in Canada, how many people are in toronto, and even Toronto weather. As in he told me what the weather was today in Toronto... yep. Strange.

Now I'm just sitting here, writing this, and it's not even 6PM. Ya, I should have just ate the money and skydived. I probably would have met cool people. Who knows where it would have taken me experientially. BUT, I decided to hold back. Maybe this is a lesson. Don't let these deterrents hold you back from something amazing.

Lesson learned. Maybe I can still go back? Only now I'd have to cab there, then back. Agh. Forget it. I'll skydive another time.

Gah. This is what ROMO is. You know FOMO? Like "Fear Of Missing Out", except the future tense consequence of missing out. ROMO = Regret Of Missing Out

I don't want to have to experience that too much in my life. But maybe it's unavoidable.

If I had a travel companion here with me it would be different.

Which is also why I regret a bit of not eating the expensive of staying in a hostel. I would have met more people. Seen and done more things. But Amsterdam is just so gd expensive. You gotta hold back sometimes and do the feasible thing. This is why I gotta start making money online.

Listen, I know I stress about money a lot. But money is an energy, and we all only have so much of it. Some more than others, yes, but that is it's nature. It's all in how you spend it, how you save it. How you make it. What you chose as your means of making it. It's a necessary evil, unfortunately. But it doesn't have to be used for evil, in fact…

I'm about to go on a rant right now, to skip it forward to the next picture...

Money makes everything and nothing happen. Ok, maybe not EVERYthing, but so many things do or do not happen based on the presence or absence of money. It's such a toxin, but it is so ingrained in our way of life that our "body" of society would shut down without it.

I'd love it if there was a way that everyone could do the jobs they want and, instead of getting paid, just be able to live the life they wanted, without too extreme of an excess. Do you follow my drift?

Like if we all just contributed to a society, and got taken care of in return. Good housing, good food, clean water, no debt. Travel covered, and allowed to everyone, in some kind of moderation. Medicine would still be made, there would astill be healers, and cooks, and builders and teachers. Because these are things price strive to. Could it even happen? Why not, right?

I guess then though there are certain jobs that no one wants, like garbage collection and plumbing. That are really only ideal for the pay. Once that doesn't exist, do people really strive to do those things?

Yes, maybe I'm painting a bit of an impossible utopia, but a girl can dream. Other people want things, like designer headphones or big houses. I just want to see the world a better place. And.. I guess my form of consumption or my expensive habit: I just want to see the world, and write about it.

You know what I need? I need a faster computer and a lesson or two on computer use. I feel like this process is so slow, between writing, drafting, editing, uploading and inserting photos. Man it takes hours.

Ok, I think my rant is over

Amsterdam is really great. The Netherlands in general, actually.

My dinner tonight is something that's become a bit of a staple for me: baguette, oil and vinegar, olives, and Brie cheese. Mmmm brie. Pretty sure soon I'm going to turn into one of these things.

Tomorrow I plan for another try at the city. This time less patriotic chaos, and more regular Amsterdam city-life vibes.

That's it for tonight

AML

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