amsterdam

I guess my life must seem odd to others. After years of moving about and international schools, I have friends all over the place. Sometimes they get messages from me asking if they have time for a coffee or a drink in whatever city they are in. I guess they think I never work, as I often do end up with seemingly endless time off in random places, and I appear to be able to go out drinking in the middle of the afternoon and then stroll through museums or go shopping. Except of course, it isn’t exactly like that. For every afternoon I spend lounging in Madrid or Moscow, it usually means a Sunday morning back in the office in London, catching up. My friends in London can testify- I am not on an endless paid for holiday. often I don’t get to see anyone or anything when I travel for work, just the airport, the office I visit, and the airport again. From my perspective, it is odd as well. I pop over to different cities, meet old friends, catch up for a few hours and then I am back in London, whilst their lives continue “normally” in their place. When I am with them, time has stopped and we pick up with the last conversation. But of course, it hasn’t stopped, I just haven’t been part of the action. The quick visits also give me a twisted perspective on cities. There are a lot of cities I think I know, because every time I am there I am comfortable and seem to know where everything is….but actually I probably hardly know them at all, I just happen to go to the exact same random places every time I am there. Take Amsterdam. I know the horrible industrial area of sloterdijk ( I am sure the Dutch manage to spell that totally differently) really well, because that is where my meetings always are. I know the train station and Schiphol like the back of my hand because I have been there many times. And I know the very centre of Amsterdam around the train station because that is where I walk to kill time waiting for connections etc. but outside of that, I know basically nothing, and I can imagine that I have probably missed most of the city entirely. But time is short, and habits are comfortable, so I find myself in Amsterdam for the afternoon, and a friend living in Rotterdam pops over to see me. So, of course we meet at the train station (she is coming from Rotterdam, me from good old sloterdijk) and what do we do? Well, I remember (and so does she) that if you walk out of the station and sort of veer to the right, there are lots of “cute” streets with equally “cute” canals and walkways. So, not knowing much else, this is where we hear, after all, the point is to catch up. And the area doesn’t disappoint. We soon find a nice terrace bar on a canal and park ourselves down for a catch up chat/ gossip. The scenery confirms our (foreigner) stereotypes of “dutchness” and we are happy taking it all in. from my friend, who has been in Rotterdam just over a year, I am able to get some glimpses into what living in Holland might be like, although clearly still through a foreigners perspective. I am sure it is an interesting (if I gather somewhat impenetrable) society, and I wish I knew more about it. She confesses to having had a difficult time meeting locals, especially outside the work environment- it is a country where school ties and local intrigue seem to matter dearly.