Stir it up

Before I begin telling traveler's tales, just putting it out there: Europe was absolutely crazy about who will become the next US president. Between Nice, Amsterdam, and Geneva, this last week was Obama overload - you can see his face in stores, on the streets, even posted on the walls of ancient castles (take a look at the photos on Picasa). And last night, Sara, Dora, David, Brad, and I stayed up until 6:30 in the morning at Brad's house, watching the election progress live on CNN - because of the time difference, he began delivering the victory speech with the first rays of the morning sun. It was a beautiful moment, I can't tell you how proud I am of this country right now... I also can't tell you how much the Europeans' opinion of the US has improved overnight!

Another thing: you can visit me virtually by clicking here. This is the door of my apartment building, you can then drag the image around for a 360 degree view. You can even look up and see my windows on the top floor! Finally, if you really have a lot of free time, feel free to walk up the street... Google is amazing.

So Amsterdam. Nine hundred years ago, this place was a cold and depressing swamp. Then a few fishermen decided to settle there because there was much fish and not very many people, and the rest is history. The name of the city comes from its first major construction project, a dam on the river Amstel, completed sometime before 1204. Following this, the little town very quickly grew into a port of international significance thanks to its location and the incredible natural harbor formed by the mouth of Amstel. The settlers encountered only one minor problem: there was literally no dry land to build upon. Remember, the place was a marsh. What the people ended up doing was digging countless canals in the swamp, piling the extracted mud and peat between the canals, and building upon this foundation. Later on, they added windmills that pumped water out of the canals - in fact, by the 16th century, one in three windmills in the entire country of Holland was dedicated exclusively to pumping, and water in the canals was kept at up to 3 meters below sea level.
Today, the difference is even larger and is maintained by massive pump stations that, in the very unlikely case of complete failure, would submerge not just Amsterdam but a good portion of the entire country up to second-floor windows - this last happened just over 50 years ago, in 1953, killing two thousand people and destroying 3,500 homes and farms. The precious value of dry land is evident everywhere. Almost all staircases are extremely steep to conserve horizontal space. Many houses actually lean out above the street in an effort to increase the area of the top floors (reminder - when you watch pictures in Picasa, click on the Slideshow button - otherwise they're really small!).

The atmosphere in the city could not be more unlike that in Geneva. There are, of course, several important museums - and you can buy a 20-euro museumkaart that grants you year-long access to almost all of them, something we absolutely took advantage of, seeing Anne Frank's house, the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, the science one, the photography one, and a few others. But at night, when Geneva shuts down and sinks in darkness, Amsterdam opens up and becomes Party Central (or, rather, Centraal, since the Dutch absolutely love spelling everything with doubled-up letters). Up until 4 or 5 am, the city is soaked in light, and crowds of young people wander the streets, floating in and out of bars, discos, coffeeshops, and whatnot. We stumbled upon at least three enormous free outdoor concerts, and one of the nights we were there all the museums in the city hosted thematic parties (which we unfortunately could not enjoy because all the performances, games and so on were in Dutch).

Also, the bicyclists in Amsterdam are probably the craziest in the world. First of all, they are innumerable - there are definitely a lot more bicycles on the roads than cars, buses, and trams combined, and every road has a special designated bicycle lane. The cyclists are so self-assured that they would never a) stop for anyone/anything, except traffic lights, b) yield to anyone/anything, and c) reduce their speed. If you accidentally walk onto a busy bicycle lane, you probably WILL get hit - we saw quite a few minor bicycle accidents over the three days we were there.

My overall opinion of Amsterdam: amazing place to go for a few days, NOT a great place to live in... I don't understand how the locals don't go crazy with all the noise and light - I guess one can get used to anything.

Let me just reiterate how cheap one can fly with Europe's two major low-cost airlines, EasyJet and Ryanair. My flight from Geneva to Amsterdam was 15 euro, all taxes and fees included... The only inconvenience was that, on the way back to Nice, we had to spend the night in the Dublin airport. Dublin is VERY MUCH out of the way, but the tickets were surprisingly cheaper like this... I could not believe the amount of people who stay in that airport overnight! Every cushioned horizontal surface (benches, armchairs, some tables) had at least one sleeping person on it. For the sake of travelers' comfort and relaxation, every fifteen minutes the following announcement was broadcast VERY LOUDLY over the PA: "Please keep your baggage with you at all times. Unattended baggage will be removed and may be destroyed". I think I will remember this phrase forever, word for word... Also, we were woken up at least three times by policemen who walked around checking everyone's passports. But you know, given how much cheaper it was to fly this way, I'm not complaining!

Back in Nice, it's been raining for over a week now, and everything is cold and wet. The forecast looks a little better for the weekend, I'm so glad I missed most of the rain thanks to fall break! This coming weekend Mme. Letzter is taking us to Marseille, one of France's largest cities... Therefore, a new blog and new photos will appear in less than a week! Miss you all!