Losing an hour...again (notes from Amsterdam)

Sunday morning I woke up and realized I had truly done something I may never do again in my entire life: Lose an hour due to daylight savings time twice in the same year. Our government decided it would be great if we confuse the rest of the world for three weeks and move our daylight savings schedule up. While I do enjoy having more light at night in March, I don't think I would be hurt to wait for the rest of the world to switch over as well. So I lost an hour three weeks ago and I lost another one today. Let's mark that one in the hall of records.

 

Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day in Amsterdam. I spent most of it inside trying to finish some things needed for work on Monday morning, however, I did manage to sneak out for a couple hours in the middle of the day for lunch. I also secured a bike rental for the week, which cost about 47€, so basically if I use it twice a day rather than take the tram and a taxi here and there and I'll break even. Besides that, it's just faster to get around Amsterdam on a bicycle than on anything motorized. There are so many people everywhere and I think this is the one person in the world where a bicycle has right of way over a pedestrian. Cars are somewhere in the middle I think. You definitely have to be an aggressive driver here or you'll never get anywhere with all the bikes and people. It's a bit unnerving to have a car buzz past you when you are on a tight road and have nowhere to go and I could see how a lot of people wouldn't enjoy that aspect of bicycle riding around here. I plan to use the bicycle to jaunt off to and from work, weather cooperating of course.

 

I made my way over to Leidsestraat yesterday, which is one of the main shopping streets and is also on the way from the other shopping and red light districts up near Centraal Station to the museum district (Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, etc.). It was a madhouse full of people. I took a spin up and down but didn't do a whole lot. I was mainly looking for something to eat that wouldn't require an hour of time. That would be okay if I had someone to enjoy the hour with, but when I'm alone I don't really care to sit around and stare at my napkin. I didn't end up finding anything suitable so I got back on my bicycle and headed back near the apartment where I knew there were some places like that. It is a 15 minute walk from there to the apartment, but less than 5 minutes on the bike!

 

I spent the day until about 8pm working and then went out for Indian food at night. There is a restaurant nearby called Shahjahan and I'd give it an "OK" rating. It was definitely spiced down for the locals and I should have thought to mention I want it "desi hot" (like an Indian would eat). It was also very creamy, and that always spells trouble for me.

 

To my delight, I found out NCAA basketball games can be viewed over the Internet from the Netherlands, so I watched a bit of a game with UCLA last night. It didn't start until midnight, I think. Of course, in the morning I realized I was watching a game from Thursday night. Oops. UCLA won last night too, so I felt like I was seeing the real deal.

 

It's just past Noon here and I still have a couple more hours of work to do. I'd better get to it!

 

Brian