Thoughts from A-Dam
It is a rainy Sunday morning here in Amsterdam, and I’m spending several hours at the Easyinternetcafe on Damrak to catch up and connect with family and friends. I really don’t miss being on the computer all the time, but this trip makes me realize just how dependent I have become on the internet for so many things — communication, research and news being the top three reasons I normally spend time online. I’m completely behind in my online reading, and not up to speed on world events, even though I’m out here traveling through it. Browsing my favorite websites must now be done in a flash, with no time to linger and read, but I do make sure to check the BBC headlines every time I log on.
You’d think that I’d be reading more books since I am not online that often, but because of my train queasiness, I’m not able to really get ahead with my offline reading either. I am currently halfway through a collection of letters that Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. I bought the book in Baltimore for $3 bucks back in January, and have been carrying it with me all this time. Whatever I finish today will be it, because I think I need to leave the book behind in the hostel, since I just bought two more books this weekend in Amsterdam and cannot afford to become a heavy traveling library.
Speaking of books, we went to a small book fair here in Amsterdam that is held at Spui center every Friday. Their were lots of second-hand English lanuage books, plus a great collection of 45’s, albums and prints of maps from old books. The area is full of bookstores too, and in one of them I bought Bryson’s Neither Here nor There, which I really want to read (it’s about his return backpacking trip to Europe after 20 years) and Rick Steve’s guide to Eastern Europe which we will use along with our Lonely Planet and Let’s Go guides as we head into Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic in the next few weeks.
We also spent time in the wonderful Centrale Biblioteek, where you can get a half-hour free on the net each day. I wrote more about our weekend in Amsterdam here, plus some fascinating talk about a truly international topic.
Tags: Amsterdam, books, Europe 2006, netherlands, Tag Index
Kel
April 2nd, 2006 at 9:00 am
Hi Kel, did you bring any motion sickness meds with you?? Worth trying on the trains.
Take care.
April 4th, 2006 at 2:11 am
I was in that same internet cafe when I visited…all I remember was how much orange they used in the decor (they stuck with it on their website too)
Hope you enjoyed the city. Were the tulips out of the ground yet?
April 7th, 2006 at 5:24 am
Dan, yup, lots of orange but no tuulips yet…Aunt C: no meds, but as the trains get cheaper, they get slower, which is good 🙂