Amsterdam with Jeff

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This weekend I took the train to Amsterdam to meet up with my friend Jeff Werner.  He is a classmate of mine from Emily Carr, and was spending some time in Amsterdam before his exchange term at The Design Academy in Eindhoven begins.  Jeff has had an interesting year, having spent a lot of time away from Emily Carr.  He did an internship in the Philippines for four months (I think) working on using indigenous resources for local designs.  That was followed by six months in Bali, working on bamboo technology for all sorts of applications.  While in Bali, he met Toni Tak.  She’s a wonderful woman in her 60s (but acts like she’s 40) who has lived both in Indonesia and the Netherlands.  Jeff was staying at a spare apartment (two floors above hers) that she keeps in the center of Amsterdam. 

Jeff met me at the station and doubled me back to Toni’s place on the back of his bike.  The bike culture here (in the whole of the Netherlands) is unbelievable.  Everybody rides their bike everywhere.  There are no fancy road or mountain bikes, just daily commuters with racks, fenders, built-in wheel locks, swept back handlebars and upright riding position.  At any one time, in any one place, you can see dozens of bikes parked outside stores, homes, stations, etc.  After a short visit with Toni, we decided that it was imperative that I rent a bike so that she could take us on a tour of the city by bike.  With my bike secured, we set off.  Seeing Amsterdam by bike is the best way for sure.  I’ve been here twice before, but didn’t see a fraction of the places we rode past in this tour.  Amsterdam is like Delft on steroids.  Wider canals, taller buildings, more peope, etc.  There is a beautiful big park that was the closest I’ve seen here to actual nature. 

In the evening we met up with two girls from Emily Carr who were studying in Enschede.  Samantha and Kristina.  We had an absolutely amazing dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant near Toni’s place.  I can’t wait to eat like that again.  Then it was off to hang out with Timo, the son of a friend of Toni’s.  He’s 26 and lives even closer to then center of Amsterdam than Toni.  There we were happily surprised to find a small get-together/party in preparation of going out to a club.  All in all there was about 12 of us that eventually went out dancing at a club in the famous Rembrant’s Square.  Fun.

We crashed at Timo’s place and the next day I rode around the city on my own and went home in the late afternoon.  I know I’ll be back there often.