Amsterdam:
Beauty and Brains
Amsterdam is one the most gorgeous, well-built cities I have ever been to. Between the architecture and infrastructure, it was enough to make me a giddy tourist looking to relocate.
Infrastructure
Despite Amsterdam's fame for encounters with "nature:" tulips, canals [it's called the Venice of the North (a poor comparison may I add)] and marijuana, one of the most beautiful things to me was the brilliant infrastructure.
Trains, as in most of Europe are fast and convenient. Getting from the airport to the city of Amsterdam was so easy even a tourist could do it, and we did. The first thing I saw when I exited the Amsterdam Centraal train station was
Bikes.
And all around the city
Bikes.
There's even a lane that's separated from the street, and paved red
For bikes.
And special stop lights
Just for bikes.
Trams run on electricity and also have their own lane
(notice all the bikes)
The canals
Beautiful and calm, the canals reflect the usually cloudy sky and rows of houses, drawing a second, slightly rippled, Amsterdam as beautiful as the one that towers above it. The canals can be used for transportation, tourism, leisure and living. Paris' Seine, with its beautiful bridges, high walls and walkways is for lounging and socializing. Or Los Angeles' Pacific, like the city itself is sprawling, wavy and warm. Manhattan is an island, divided but circular. San Francisco enacts its bay, cold and dark. Each city belongs to its source of water. No longer for irrigation, a port, or washing, but still for a lesson on how to live. Like all these cities, Amsterdam is like its canals, small and slow, connected and enclosed, unique.
Architecture
Beautiful
Muted
Flowing
Majestic
Walking around the city I passed through medium and narrow enclosed streets that often ran like tributaries to broad, open spaces. Canals of crowds. I have yet to visit a city in the States with this metering. Open spaces in most cities I've visited here were not built, they were preserved. These are the natural spaces- fields and beaches, whereas social spaces are small and indoors - movie theaters, bars, malls. Amsterdam has a much more active outdoor life:
All this space outside, and to what end?
Flowers, coffee, and gestural conversation
Shopping
Wildlife
Play
The man behind my father is standing, waiting, hoping one of the strangers passing will stop to play a rainy-day game of over-sized chess with him. Very charming.
It's not on the list of 1,000 places to see before you die, but I say go anyway!
Goodnight
and Cheers!
-Sanaz Yamin
