Amsterdam: A Simple Reason To Gogh

For all intents and purposes, he was a flop. His life was one big failure after another: he failed in sales. Failed as a preacher, and failed to sell a single piece of his own artwork in his lifetime.  A social misfit, he had few friends, and quarrelled bitterly with those he had. he was subject to fits of depression, despair and rage, and rightly so. Couldn't they see his genius, share his vision, comprehend what he was trying to say? 

Perhaps not. Like many other visionaries, he was ahead of his time. An e-mail intellect in a snail-mail world. He saw things others missed: color, light, form, composition, value, hue, temperature. He screamed at the top of his lungs, becoming increasingly manic in his work, more excited, more primal, more simplistic in his artistic statement. He despaired that he was yelling into a void that returned nothing but the echoes of his own cries. 

As it often does, despair finally triumphed. He surrendered, body and soul. He left this world and traveled onward into the void. But, he left behind a legacy, a fire so bright that is has awed contemporary viewers and critics alike. Now we understand, as Don Maclean so brilliantly put it in his song Starry, Starry Night:

"Now I think I know, what you tried to say to me, and how you suffered for your sanity, and how you tried to set them free..."

Canal Knowledge, and The Girl with a Pearl Earring

Two of Amsterdam's most prominent attractions are its world-famous red light district and its weed-infused coffee shops. Being addicted to photography, I stuck to my drug of choice. Perhaps not less expensive, but seldom requiring a ride to the hospital, or a visit to a doctor's office. 

Amsterdam had always been a stopover spot for me. I'd been through Schiphol International several times, but always on the way to somewhere else. Finally, I decided it was time for a visit. I had some air miles and did a bit of due diligence on Google, determining that my best bet was to do Airbnb rather than a hotel. I found a reasonably priced, centrally located studio on a canal downtown and pulled the trigger.

 

Since I was a newbie to Amsterdam, Youtube, TripAdvisor, and Google Maps were my friends. In addition, I downloaded several apps onto my phone but didn't use them.  I did end up using Citymapper, which allows you to put the place you are staying in as home base, and then allows you to navigate all over the country, by walking, bus, tram, metro, train, ferry, etc, even telling you which metro car is the best to use, which exit to go to, when to leave, when the next connection was; in other words, a Swiss Army knife for travelers. After I found how user-friendly it was, it became my go-to app for getting around Amsterdam and The Netherlands. 

All the major attractions, the Rijksmuseum, The Van Gogh, the Ann Frank House, and even canal boat trips required the selection of a specific date and time. It's a level of commitment I wasn't used to, but before I even left Phoenix, I had structured my entire visit around those commitments. 

As a solo traveler, I've found that certain requirements make a visit to anywhere easier to pull off. Firstly, I need a nice clean, friendly place to stay. Not too nice, mind you, because then I find I'm more likely to nestle in and avoid the unknowns of a foreign city! So, a good pillow, a comfy bed, a clean room, a bathroom bigger than a phone booth, dependable hot water, adequate towels, etc. Shampoo, body wash, and conditioner are a bonus, but not a deal breaker. Oh, and did I mention consistent wifi? It's a must. 

to be continued...