Stayed with Neal for the night my last night in town. He was renting a flat from a couchsurf he had previously been with. He got it for the month and will find another solution after that. Neil is originally from Scotland and has just made the move to Amsterdam. Asher and Michael met him when they stayed in Scotland and the UK for a few months earlier this year.
Pics from Neal's flat:
The beer we were drinking.
Nice color palette.
Next day walked with asher around town. We went to Vondel Park, Asher found a guitar in the bushes. I was perfect because we had been talking about him needing a guitar and he wants to start playing on the street.
Asher and his guitar on a canal.
View from Neils's. Bit different than the small tight streets and canals I had gotten accustomed to.
Vondelpark
I wanted to see one of the original Dutch West India Company's buildings. It's around the Jordaan neighborhood of the city. I'm sure there are other buildings remaining yet this was the only one that I came across though. You can actually rent it out and have events here. It's so weird to see what the legacy of colonialism has become.
This is one of the buildings that was apart of the Dutch West India company's empire.
I then met Merjin at the Bibliotech a friend of Faiza who I had met in London. We had tea and some small food. He had been living in The Sudan for a while doing work now he is working in a refugee education center working as a teacher in Holland.
Afterwards went back to Neil’s place via Sloterdijk.
Grabbed stuff and headed for Zeeburg – little did I know that Zeeburg did not handle Eurolines busses. I quicky had to get a cab to Amstel station. Luckily there was one around, who know exactly the way and we made it with about a minute to spare. I was nearly about to wait for the bus to get to the station. Knowingly, if I had missed the bus I would have spent less on getting the station but definitely wasted time on rebooking and a wasted day not being in berlin.
I'm starting to understand that when you travel you sort of have to make decisions about the way in which you spend money and how you spend it. For example I could have said yea ok Ill take the bus and try and make it or spend more and take cab and sort of insure that I'll be there. There's also this same kind of idea when you travel cheaply. Pay for the cheapest ticket and sit around in layovers for an extended period or pay more and fly directly. What is 10-20 hours of your life worth really?
Shout out to the Ibrahim the Turkish cabbie.
</amsterdam> Ill post one last one about the Zwarte Piet thing though.