Amsterdam trip

On arrival in Germany I needed a so called resident permit from the foreigner’s authority, officially to continue my studies beyond the 90 days that my visa allowed. As always, beyond the official reason, there was a more pressing personal motivation. This same resident permit allows me to travel to 18 EU countries besides possibly Switzerland.

Khair, got my resident permit last Friday (15/09/2006) and have since been to three countries besides Germany. Indeed, I have been changing countries more often than my clothes. The same afternoon we (four other Indian exchange students and me) got our residence permits, we headed to Amsterdam, that Mecca of sleaze. We didn’t know what we would do in Amsterdam, how long we would stay or where we would spend the night. First thing we do on getting down is to buy the city map, a tradition which we have followed in all other cities we have visited except Brussels, where the city map was simply not available. In fact when we told the tourist official that we were tourists she said, “If you are tourists what are you doing in Brussels?” In Amsterdam, we wandered around, clicking photographs like true blue tourists until our pilgrimage was complete and we reached the red light district. Amsterdam, mind you, has the most famous red light district in the world. By now it was getting late, there were plenty of dubious characters, some nine feet tall, on the streets and we had nowhere to spend the night. Various creative solutions like the park benches, the central monument of the city and the railway station were mooted. The railway station closes at midnight, the parks were considered too dangerous and it was hazarded that the police would not allow us to set up camp at the city monument. Luckily, accommodation, at 26 euro per bed was arranged for the night. That taken care of, we set down to the business of the night. A show of certain, shall we say, unique character was watched, along with, surprise of surprises, two middle aged couples from desh!! Thereafter was time for some idle roaming around the streets; soaking in the incredible street activity of the Amsterdam night, savoring women dressed in the fanciest clothes. We turned in at around 3:30.

Amsterdam is a discreet whore. Its daytime character is completely different, one abounding with museums. Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Anne Frank and Madame Tussad’s are the main. I could visit Van Gogh and Madame Tussad’s. For the first time, I can tell you names of famous paintings by anybody apart from Da Vinci and Michael Angelo. Van Gogh’s most famous paintings are the Sunflower and the Potato Eaters, both of which I saw. Of course, I know as much about paintings as about wine, absolutely nothing. It’s vanity, these visits to intellectual museums. Madame Tussad’s was a completely different matter. This is the original one and all of us clicked numerous photographs with the wax works. Had we planned a little better I would have definitely gone to the Anne Frank museum. Some other time perhaps, solace for all missed opportunities.

From Amsterdam, we moved to Brussels where we got the terrific response from the tourism authority. That in the next post