Announcement!

GOING INTO A SHORT HOLIDAY RECESS!

I'm travelling until the 20th, visiting other cities than lovely Amsterdam ;).

Will pick up on this cityblog when I get back!

Potheads

It's summer again, which means that the city almost overflows with tourists! Many of these foreign visitors are of rather young age and have only one real goal for their 2009 summer holidays: Getting High In Amsterdam.

The foreign potheads would usually ask the local-looking people (who are rarely to be seen inside the center during this time of the year): "Where can I find a coffeeshop?" (this often in broken English and with yet to be unpacked suitcases in their hands), which is a rather unnecessary question seeing the city is full of coffeeshops, of which none does any effort to hide itself from the public eye.

Once they found their coffeeshop and their first joint is being bought, they sit down in a park or (in this case) beside a canal, to smoke the miracle marihuana.

As the local people ride by on their bikes, on their way to an appointment or with bags full of groceries at the steer, they shake their heads and think: "Kids."

Stad op palen

I believe that in some tourist guides, Amsterdam is being called "Venice of the North", obviously because of the great amount of canals in the city.

This picture is taken from one of the wider canals, one that seperates the Medieval city from the 'newer' areas in the east.

The posts appearing on this photo bring me to another topic: did you know Amsterdam was built on piles? Exactly because of the presence of so much water, building on piles made it possible to make constructions that would not disappear into the mud!

An innercity jungle.

Many people from the countryside are often surprised to see that there's still quite an amount of plants growing inside the city.

In my mind, I always reply to that kind of comment with: "You know, it's not like the tree-line is where Amsterdam begins".

De Armeense Kerk

Today I decided to stay with the same tolerance-towards-religions topic I more or less discussed yesterday too, by uploading this picture of an Armenian text, found above the front door of the Armenian church of Amsterdam.

I don't speak (neither read) Armenian, so I don't know what the text says. All I know is that the church was inaugurated in 1714, after many Armenians had come to live in Amsterdam, bringing along their religion and their specific cultural traits.

The church is hard to find, because it's not in a building that would immediately catch someone's attention. It's in one of the oldest parts of the city, in between the canals and some old warehouses. I believe the building is still being used as a church for Armenian Apostolics.

On Amsterdam and its Jews.

Who in Amsterdam often said "Jerusalem"
And to Jerusalem driven came
He says with a musing voice
"Amsterdam, Amsterdam"

-- Jacob Israël de Haan --

This text and statue is an ode to the Jewish population of Amsterdam. It can be found in the old Jewish neighbourhood of the city (in the eastern part of the center); the neighbourhood itself is still there, but sadly, the Jewish population got severely diminished during WW II: only 20% of the Amsterdam Jews returned to the city after Liberation Day.

Amsterdam has a long history of Jews living in the city. The first Jews arrived as early as in the 16th century; mainly sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal seeked refuge from the Inquisition in the fairly tolerant Amsterdam, but there were also quite some Jews coming in from Germany. Before WW II, not less than 10% of the town's population was Jewish.

As I said, many Jews disappeared from the city during WW II. However, non-Jewish Amsterdam did not accept the prosecution of Jews by the Germans: in February 1941 the people of Amsterdam initiated a collective strike as a means of protest, which was later followed by other cities in The Netherlands.

The Jewish identity of the city is still important for Amsterdam today. It manifests itself in many ways: the supporters of the football team Ajax address themselves as "De Joden" ("The Jews"), often (deliberately?) provoking anti-semitic remarks from the opponents, and the most-used nickname for the city is "Mokum", which in Hebrew ("Makom") means "place" or "city".

GayPride

Saturday the 2nd of August was GayPride in Amsterdam!

Apart from the famous CanalParade (a defilé of boats equipped with huge sound systems, flamboyant decorations, and above all: dancing gays and lesbians), many activities took place to celebrate equal rights for heteros and homos, under which the already widely known GayLympics at the Homo Monument. Several men dressed as women engaged in a stiletto-run, in handbag-tossing, and a performing act. On the photo you can see the end of the GayLympics from last year, when the contestants ended their competition with a techno-dance.