04.06.2012 Hello Holland!

Amsterdam!

It looks like another water logged city, I know. But it cannot be helped. It's Easter (long) weekend, and like most holidays in Berlin, nobody from Berlin stays in Berlin. And since the nearest friends are only 670km away, "Well why not?" I told myself as I got more excited about the prospect of going before even asking my friend if it was convenient to visit. So this too, was a last minute decision; (I'm on a roll) I worked out my ride details yesterday and left early morning today. Rumour has it that carpooling was a good and safe option, "Even my mother does it." was the reassuring statement. So, I tried it, and I'm still here writing a chapter from an adventure. I think the only other mode of transportation I haven't tried yet is via boat.  

yes the speedometer is correct.

We were set to leave from Berlin at 8am and I couldn't find the taxi stand that the carpoolers said to meet at, so I sent them a text and stood at the corner of a big street and waited, trying to look as conspicuous as possible. What was the chance that they would just leave without me? Eventually I remembered to check my mini notebook (of answers) and it turns out that there was an actual address all along. I got into the car and everybody spoke English! There was a Russian, an Australian, a Dutch, and a German (point in case, nobody in Berlin is actually from Berlin). We stopped in Hannover for McDonalds and drove super fast on the autobahn (220km/h). I didn't even know cars could actually function properly at the other end of the speedometer, but I have lived to tell you that they can. The car just gets a little rumbly, and that's it, and we're going as fast as a Canadian train. 

en route

Work had been fairly stressful this week. Actually I think I would wake up with my nerves a little frayed and go to bed feeling the same, all week long. Not only was it mentally tiring, it eventually became physically tiring too. I still haven't figured out if it is me or them, if I'm not doing things the right way/not working hard efficiently enough, or the company is just crazy. Anyway, if I stayed in Berlin I'd be inclined to attempt to touch work, so I excused myself by saying I owed it to myself to get out of the city. Four days off! An opportunity like that doesn't come often, why shy away?

"Have anything you want to see in particular?" he asks, "Nope," I said, lying through my teeth. I just couldn't think of anything, but there would always be something when it's too late.

The city was packed with tourists. Just looking at the crowds of them made me feel like I already had no space. My friend met me at Amsterdam Centraal. I was supposed to meet him at his doorstep, but it was a good thing I didn't because later on I discovered that the map I drew to get to his doorstep was as useful as a chocolate teapot.  

In the city, we strolled over a whole bunch of canals, sort of looking for this one picturesque area I saw earlier, but had no useful reference as to where it was located so we never found it. Or maybe we did, but I had already forgotten what it really looked like. Anyway, I had no ambitious plans which was a good thing because then I could wander care-freely as we rambled about whatever and covered ground/water.

 

1. Pathé De Munt theatre, 2. Creeper mirrors, angled so the person inside can see who is standing at the door, 3. Anne Frank house.

Odour research!  "Optimising the sensory attributes of products and materials to monitor the sensory quality of the product" 

Silver bells and cockle shells 

swim to class. TU Delft

At night, we went for a tour of the town and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). It's a relatively small sized school, with about as many students as a third of the undergrad population at University of Toronto (then again, it's just a technical school) and a bit bigger (in land mass) than Pratt Institute. Nonetheless, this school makes me sad and wish my school could look as equally fancy-smancy at night (or even just the ID section). Carleton is supposedly one of the most beautiful campuses in Canada and has water too, but they are totally on a league of their own. Unfortunately, we couldn't enter any of the buildings because they were closed.

TU Delft library, Mecanoo Architecten

The library was really awesome and duly impressive. (what library in The Netherlands isn't?) It is open and super spacious and oddly shaped. It's kind of futuristic-spacey looking, but it's supposed to be metaphorically a push-pin piecing a sheet of paper. It's also interesting to note the ratio of space given to books vs for students to study. 

Because it's night time, there is no point in taking pictures --it's too dark for the dummycamera to figure itself out. So on the outside, the roof of this library is green (in both aspects of the word) with a serious slant --perfect for tumbling or sunbathing.. I mean reading. You can sort of get an idea of it by how the ceiling is not level on the interior. 

stack 'em and pack 'em

  

1. Industrial design building and their moat,                                                   2. moving bricks

for the art! Trust me, I wanted to be in that box

leaning tower of Oude Kerk. It's not me, it's the bell tower.

We continued downtown, and it looked like how one would imagine a small European suburban center-town space. Like suburbia back in Canada, but European, so minus the strip malls and add the boutiques, plus some bridges and squares. Small waterways and canals lined with trees mosey their way through the cobblestone streets. The night is young and bars are only half full and in a funny but cute way, the buildings are all lopsided. Even at night the city still has this quaint feeling to it.

1. Greenhouses, so bright they light up the night sky.                                                                           2. Longer exposure..

I got to see the real place of a place understood through cellphone pictures. I always imagined it would be easy to recognize these snippets of places that I had seen, but going through them in real space, it is more difficult to put two and two together than it seems.