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Elusive Amsterdam

Sometimes things don’t quite work out as you plan – especially when it comes to travel – but then
sometimes it is the unexpected and surprising that can be the best part of your travel experiences.

A few months ago I was writing a series of articles on emerging mens’ fashion bloggers – a bit of a
niche subject but there was a lot of interesting things happening in mens’ fashion and I was keen to
get beneath the surface and meet some of the people driving the trends. One of the leading voices
at the time was a collective of bloggers and fashion commentators based in Amsterdam. I made
contact and explained what I wanted and initially they seemed quite cooperative, however when I
started trying to pin them down to a specific date when I could meet with them and interview them
they became a bit less responsive.

Eventually I got tired of going around in circles so I booked my train ticket (London to Amsterdam
by train is super easy) and decided to just front up and track them down on their home turf.
Perhaps I came on too strong, perhaps I scared them, perhaps I just misjudged their initial
politeness – whatever the reason they stopped returning my calls, stopped returning my emails, my
text messages and all other forms of communication that I attempted.

So I found myself in Amsterdam for three days with nothing to do but wait for some kind of
response from the elusive fashion bloggers. “What am I going to do for three days in Amsterdam?”
I thought to myself despairingly.

Cycling

The best way to get around Amsterdam is to cycle. The narrow, winding streets and complex
system of canals discourage traffic and the lack of any hills in this low-lying country makes cycling
a breeze. For such a warm and welcoming people, the Dutch are surprisingly aggressive cyclists –
if you unwittingly step out in front of an oncoming cyclist they will not hesitate to unsmilingly ride
straight through you. It’s safest to get on a bike and join them as they cycle everywhere.

Van Gogh

I’m never particularly sure how to say Van Gogh, and a visit to the stunning museum of his work
didn’t really help with this – said with a Dutch accent there seem to be additional vowels and
consonants that take on a life of their own. The work on display here is stunning – there’s a lot
more to Van Gogh than just sunflowers and crazy.

Indonesian

I’d kind of forgotten about the colonial involvement of The Netherlands in Indonesia, but one of the
pluses that came out of this piece of history was a wealth of Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam.
Dutch food is good, although fairly heavy on the cheese, so to be able to feast on some of the best
of Indonesian cuisine made a really nice change.

I never got my interview with the elusive fashion bloggers of Amsterdam, but I did have an amazing
couple of days in what has now become one of my favourite cities in the world. Sometimes things
have a funny way of working out for the best.

Photo Credit: Tambako the Jaguar under Creative Commons license.


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