Monday, April 13, 2009

My 1st 2 days in Amsterdam

So, as it happens, I have decided to finally start writing a blog. Part of the reason is that I don't wish to send out individual emails to my friends or anyone who might not have the slightest interest in my existence, while neglecting to email people who are very much interested in my well-being - for e.g. my parents, who have already assumed that within 4 business-less days of landing in a country, the 1st major thing I would do would be to buy a phone, let the hunger take care of itself. Anyhow, I can't blame them for they are, afterall, parents.. it is their job to ignore whatever the 500 grams of stuff on the top says, I guess that's how most parents are..
Anyway, so after having wasted almost 24 years of my life living in the most obscure or isolated places on the world (Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, IIT Kanpur campus - 9 kms away from city, and then Stillwater), I arrived in Amsterdam - the land of awesomeness - on April 9th, 2009. After 12 hrs of travel in not so cosy airplanes, I went through a quick custom check at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam (was it even a check, more like welcome - I love it already).. lugged 150 lbs of crap to the platform, and with great difficulty got on a train to Station Amsterdam Centraal - the gateway to heaven.. but hang on, this is where the fun starts... carrying 150 lbs of luggage on a bus going in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go (yes, I was too smart to ask the driver where the bus was going) and then back to an apartment reserved for me, I found that my room-mate who was supposed to let me in wasn't there!!! Which means, I have to carry this luggage to the apartment agency.. please note that I was extremely distressed by the amount of luggage I was carrying, and yet I found that I had left some stuff I should ahve brought!! But when you uproot yourself from a place where you have lived for more than 2.5 years, you have to carry this amount of stuff, even after throwing away 4 bags of clothing and several pairs of shoes!! 
Finally, I signed the contract - that squeezed me dry of almost all the cash I had in Euros at the time - and was hired a taxi for to drop me back at the apartment. And this is where euphoria sets in - for the apartment is a dingy little place with wall-paper coming off the walls, toilet-bowl is almost completely brown in color, and there is no wash-basin in the restroom!! Yes, we have to brush our teeth and more often than not, wash our hands in the kitchen sink!! Ewww? Gross? Well, I have to live with this for the next 4 months!!
However, the good part is that the neighborhood is nice, there are several eatcafes and restaurants, an internet cafe which was my lifeline in the 1st 3 days, a place for linens and pillows and 4 stores belonging to 4 of the biggest chains in Netherlands within 100-150 m of my place.. Several trams and buses stop almost in front of my apartment, and there is a huge market (Javaplein) just 500 m from my place.. although it runs for almost a km and half from thereon, and the 2nd biggest farmer's market with fresh vegetables and fruits is just 1 km away.. 
There are several Indian, Pakistani, Turkish, and Moroccan shops in these markets.. and Moroccans and Turkish along with people from Suriname make the highest population in the neighbourhood.. which means that while you do see a lot of hot girls around here, most of them have their head covered in a scarf and talking to them may have dangerous consequences - there are respective gangs, the existence of which has helped label the Oost (east) part of Amsterdam a high risk area.. which brings me to my 2nd day, where in after having met my boss and doing some literature survey at the office on a holiday, I decided to take the road through the aforementioned marketplace and was stopped by 2 cops who told me they wanted to check me for arms to make the area safer (yessir, I am dangerous!! :D).. While I decided to cooperate with a smile even as they probed and tapped me (not like american cops though, checking by who seems like molestation), the only thought through my mind was if they are really cops or just 2 gay guys from the red light district! or worse, 2 cons who might run away with my stuff!! After the city was secured because I was not carrying any arms, unless you count my fists as weapons of mass destruction, I left there almost laughing because I couldn't help thinking - my 2nd day in Amsterdam and I have already been frisked!! what was it about me that screamed criminal? Was it my smile, which I understand can be prety scary or mischiveous, or was it just the fact that if you are without any weapons on you in Amsterdam, you have no reason to smile? Heaven knows, but I can say I have been scarred for life and every time I see a cop I look for the sheet handed to me by those cops that might make those new sets of cops take pity on me and not violate me in the middle of a street.. unless it's red light street and it's a female cop - in that case, frisk away!!  

1 comment:

  1. makes for an interesting read, and a bit of laughter...:D
    Happy blogging!
    Chigi

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