Six months has gone by since my trip to Ghana, and it was time for a reunion with the girls. First stop was Amsterdam to meet Danya and her family, and then we would travel to Paris later on to meet MT.
I arrived at Schipol quite early in the morning, and since I got up at five o'clock I was feeling kind of grumpy. My biggest question and worry arriving in Amsterdam was actually if I would like Danya and MT in the "real world". There was a lot of unnatural stuff happening during the two months we spent in Ghana and it would be quite different to meet up with them now. But just seeing Danya got the grumpy mood I was in thrown out the window and I woke straight up. It felt like we never parted.
To get to Danya's place we had to take the underground metro. Entering the metro all these warning messages I'd been getting from people came to mind. Don't take the metro Trine, you'll get robbed and DIE. So I anxiously entered the cart ready to get shot or something. I was almost disappointed when nothing happened.
Metro in Amsterdam.
We actually used the metro A LOT during the 44 hours I spent in Amsterdam. After a while I got kind of used to it, but I was still sort of scared during the evenings.
Danya's family has a cozy apartment in the center of Amsterdam. If you were to take a map of Amsterdam and putting a pin in the center, you would probably hit the complex they live in. The funny part is that before I left Norway my friends were laughing saying that I should visit the red light district, and little did I know that I would actually end up living there for two days.
From the moment I got to her family's apartment I felt right at home. Danya's whole family had been practicing English for quite some time, just so that they could talk to me. They were laughing and making jokes all the time, so there were not one awkward moment. Every night at 18:00 hours dinner was served. Danya's father star-ed as the chef and damn the man can cook.
In Amsterdam this is actually not usual, the mother is the one who is supposed to be in the kitchen (old style Norway I guess). But since I'm from a family where it is in fact my step-dad at my moms place and my step-mom at my dads place that cooks I didn't find it very strange at all (probably a reason in here for my parents splitting up :p). Anyways, they kept joking around picking on each other ALWAYS in English (with me around) not caring about the small language mistakes we made all the time, and I loved the whole scene. This is something that made me truly glad, seeing that I often experienced the dutch at the orphanage in Ghana tending to talk in their native language. It got kind of boring for me to keep guessing what they were saying. We have allot of words that are similar but it doesn't mean that I understand the wholeness of it all (There were five dutch people and me (from Norway) at the most!!!). During the stay in Ghana Danya actually on several occasions worked as a subtitle when the other dutch people started to small-talk, just so that I would feel like I was part of the group. And it always made me laugh (imagine if you will a girl translating every sentence into another language in a "funny" voice. With just a bit of grudge against the people that is not being polite). THANX FOR THAT DARLING <3 !
Amsterdam is a beautiful city with river channels and boats/houseboats everywhere. It was mostly cloudy during the time I spent her, but I didn't mind at all. All the buildings and bikes made me feel like part of some sort of movie, and I was struggling with my new digital reflex camera (I have no idea how to work that thing yet) to get the photos I wanted. It wouldn't agree as much as I would have liked to in almost every adjustment I made, and as we made a boat trip up the channel's of Amsterdam I missed out on so many good (or at least I thought so) pictures that I would have loved to have owned. The boat trip that lasted about an hour, and I got to see most of the center of Amsterdam. Really a must see city for the romantic type.
Channels..
Poor Danya though had to endure a hour of watching the buildings she passes by every day. Must have been unimaginable boring. One thing she told me (while passing by one of the pieces) that I found kind of cool, was this artist that goes around town making little monsters in mosaic. It is sort of like a trading mark, and it is absolutely worth noticing if you ever find yourself in Amsterdam.
A little monster in yellow, white and black..
After the boat trip we were walking down the streets (whit our nikeys on, everybody sing along..)just looking at things. Going by Madame toussaud at the Dam (the place where the queen lives), but not going in. We figured that it was not really an option since it's really expensive, and we were saving our money to do stuff with MT in Paris.
Later on while walking true this alley I turn my head around and this naked woman is washing the windows. I almost jumped back into a person behind me, and Danya starts to laugh. We had entered the center of the red light district with me not even noticing. The red lights indicating places to buy sex were everywhere.
Entering the red light district.
I actually kept ignoring the red lights and the ladies, since I have absolutely no interest in them. And was instead trying to take photos of the beautiful swans on the river. Danya didn't quite get that part. Here I was in one of the most known parts of Amsterdam with all these naked people and I was taking pictures of swans??
I really was struggling and arguing with my camera at this point, and the only picture that survived the delete button (and my frustration) was a "I'll keep this as a memory" picture from the exciting moment of entering the core of red lights.
Tha SwAnn...
When we finished my tour of "the real" red light district we headed home.
After dinner that night (Her dad made something really good, I just don't remember what the name was) me and Danya went to her favorite pub called Susiz's. Here we ended up talking to these really nice English-men (Michael and Arthur, not that it matters :p) who challenged us to beat them in a round of pool. The table was occupied, so we had to wait and watch a couple of Americans that were playing. It all ended up in a battle between the Americans vs. me and Michael. With a high tension in the air we were even all true the match, but lost in the end to C and Fosmo (the American dudes). So: rematch of course. There I was telling them to spread (direct translation from Norwegian) the balls, and suddenly everyone starts to laugh saying that I was being kinky?? "its called break, Trine"-Michael said. But that would in Norway be like:"DESTROY (the balls)" so no wonder I didn't get it right the first time. My English speaking skills aren't that good anyway, and I actually like the faults that I myself and other people make. At least we had something to laugh about while loosing one more time. ;p
After a couple of matches we all (except Arthur) left the pub to go to the next one. The place we went to looked like a basement to me, but it was really a cozy place to take a couple of beers. People were leaving and new people joined our group. The last couple of people that sat down was incredible boring, just sitting there not saying a word. I didn't quite get why they even bothered to sit down, seeing that the pub had lots of free tables they could shit by being quiet completely on their own (then they wouldn't have to be around to loud girls laughing and drawing on every beer-thingie (don't know the word for that one I'm afraid) we could get our hands on). But hey, they where Irish, so the few sentences they made was in a really fun tune.
When both the Americans and the English had left, we decided to leave the boring Irish people and head home. I was really getting tired seeing that I had been up since five, and again..really boring Irish people.
Now, walking over a bridge (we were ONLY DRINKING, I know it's Amsterdam but even so) we see this black thing lying there looking at us. Not daring to touch it we stood besides it trying to gently kick it to see if it would move. We actually got the genius idea that it was probably cursed (joking around, not hallucinating), and that we would end up in a really bad place if we touch it.
Then this guy comes walking over the bridge and I stop him, asking him if he knew what it was and if it was his. He just stands there starring at the thing going...yyyeah, I don't know.., and then he actually pics up the black substance, in witch me and Danya was so sure YOU SHOULD NOT TOUCH (it looked really creepy). Ouh..It's a hat! -he said, and me and Danya start laughing. You really get stupid after a couple of beers some time, but in our defense it was really 2DARK outside.
We walked along with the guy for a little while and when parting there was of all convenient things a bar. It's not every day you meet someone on a bridge, so me and Danya went inside with 2DARK and grabbed another beer (just to celebrate the romantic event). How much more stupid could we possible get from that point.
Anyways, it turns out that 2DARK is a really talented comic artist. Currently he is doing a comic on the red light district and the people that's been tainted by the sadness that you see on every corner in those streets. Questions like if the women really want to do those things for a living, and did they choose that life? came to mind, and it left me feeling kind of stupid for not seeing it that way.
The red light district by 2DARK..
After drawing on every beer-thingie we could get our hands on in this bar as well, we left to have an after party. But it all ended up whit us going to 2DARK's place looking at all the pictures he had of the comic strip. The sadness I saw in so many if the pictures really got to me. The really weird part is that I actually fell in love whit one of the paintings. (I really hope that I can get a hold of the strip when/if it comes out..at least so I can get that one picture)
The really cool part (In my opinion) was the fact that every person in the picture you can see above has their own story.
Earlie in the morning (should probably count the songs, don't you think Danya) we arrived home at Danya's place and got a good morning sleep. I woke up finding out that I left my VISA and my sweater at 2DARK's place. Not really having the exact address, only the street name, our day was already planned for us. We were going to go Bank-Card-Hunting. Loosing my card the first day was not really an option since it would be kind of boring for both me, Danya and MT if I were to rely on them whenever I needed money.
Did I mention that the buildings in Amsterdam are really alike? Well, we had no problem finding the street but the entrance to the right apartment was really a gamble. We kept looking into the mail-boxes feeling kind of awkward, and stupid at the same time. What do people think when they see two girls lurking around looking inside the mail-slots that's been built into the entrance door?
We actually did find the right apartment that way, but nobody was home. Or nobody opened the door at least.
It was not a problem to leave the card in Amsterdam, and I didn't expect to see it ever again. It would just get a little more difficult to get aboard my plane in Paris and to buy things. So we left the apartment we think 2DARK lives in, strolling down the street looking at things and buying small items, like scarfs and earrings, and suddenly I was out of money to. NICE, no card, no money and 2DARK out of sight. The weird part is that I was really calm about the whole situation, and after transferring the money to another account, I got back to my constant ongoing argument with my stubborn camera. Taking pictures and deleting them three seconds later, then trying to take the same picture one more time. This I think almost drove Danya crazy.
Back home at Danya's I decided to check the web as a last solution for finding 2DARK, and thank God for facebook. I think everyone is on that thing now a days (even my mom). I actually found him and got quite a quick response as well. And when I gave him my number so that he could call me, I was in heaven. I lost my VISA in Amsterdam and managed to get it back? Dumb luck I guess.
Just so that you can get a feeling of the streets at night..(damn camera wouldn't focus)
Me in a clog when we were walking to the dam. (The place where the queen lives)
Later that night (after a really good dinner..Norwegian shrimps <3) we went to the dam (the place where the queen lives) to meet 2DARK. When we had made the transaction we traveled to the stadium of Ajax. Here we were meeting up with Sophie, Danya's ex-girlfriend, and having just a small beer. I was not in the mood for alcohol, since we had quite enough the day before, but one beer is always nice. All the beers were on the house since Sophie worked at the place (to bad that we felt kind of dead), so it was a cheap evening for both me and Danya. We didn't spend that much the day before either, but had this been Norway we would probably be ruined. A beer in Amsterdam is about 2-3 EURO, and the same size beer in Norway is 7-9 EURO, if not more. So it was nice waking up not thinking that you'd have to eat hard bread and drink water for the next week or so.
Finally arriving home we went straight to bed. The next day we were meeting MT and we figured that we should at least rest just a little. Probably nice if we didn't look like train wrecks walking of the train in Paris.
Once again I was getting excited. Only a few more hours and the gang would be reunited...
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Da kan man i allefall krysse av Alpene i must-travel-to lista mi!
