{"id":92,"date":"2009-10-26T13:44:32","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T10:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisabrounstein.com\/blog\/?p=92"},"modified":"2009-10-26T13:44:32","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T10:14:32","slug":"staying-in-a-fish-bowl-in-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/?p=92","title":{"rendered":"Staying in a Fish Bowl in Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"streetStaying on a boat on a canal in Amsterdam is like living in a fish bowl. \u00a0 Canal tours go by and people look and take pictures. The shower is on the street side of the boat. \u00a0 There is a big picture window in the shower. \u00a0 You literally see people walking by as you shower. \u00a0 I know I could close the blinds but it is kind of a pain in the butt. \u00a0 Once the window steams up a bit it is more difficult for people to see in. \u00a0 Really, someone would have to intentionally stand on the edge and look down to see anything. \u00a0 I suppose if someone wanted to work that hard to see in then who cares. \u00a0 I would just prefer people don’t take pictures.<\/p>\n

In my experience Amsterdam is a \u00a0 rather voyeuristic city. \u00a0 People leave their curtains open and live their lives like no one is watching. \u00a0 Or maybe they are living their lives knowing people are watching.<\/p>\n

\"lisaI haven’t been to the Red Light district, yet. \u00a0 We did go by some red lights near the centre. \u00a0 Although, the red lights were on their weren’t many women in the windows. \u00a0 There was one woman sitting on her stool in the window twirling her hair smiling as people walked by. \u00a0 Like so much of the Amsterdam I have experienced so far, the windows are designed for people to watch and look. \u00a0 The difference is the woman who lives on the corned isn’t necessarily inviting anyone in. \u00a0 The women in the windows with the red lights are definitely inviting you in…for a cost.<\/p>\n

It was a beautiful Sunday yesterday. \u00a0 We slept in as we were up until very, very late. \u00a0 I went for a little walk and took some snaps with the little camera and then pulled the big camera out for some other shots. \u00a0 It is rainy today so I will probably leave the big camera behind.\"vince<\/p>\n

Much later in the day we went for a LONG walk. \u00a0 We went back down to the centre. \u00a0 I wanted to get those little pancakes again. \u00a0 I just can’t describe them well enough to do justice for how delicious they are. \u00a0 As we walked by the Tuschinski movie theatre near the Amstel Canal we noticed a large crowd of people. \u00a0 There were photographers snapping photos. \u00a0 Then a car pulled up and the crowd roared and flash bulbs went off. \u00a0 Another car pulled up and the crowd roared again. \u00a0 I had no idea who it was. \u00a0 It was a Dutch actress. \u00a0 Then moments later another car pulled up and a tall man stepped out of the car. \u00a0 The cameras flashed again and the crowd went crazy. \u00a0 It was Vince Vaughn. \u00a0 He was here for the premiere of Couples Retreat. \u00a0 Just recently I posted on a friend’s Facebook wall that I always think it is great when I see actors out where I am. \u00a0 Living in Los Angeles it happens a lot. \u00a0 It kind of gives me the sense that I am doing the right thing. \u00a0 That may sound silly but I’ll take any reinforcement I can get that it isn’t time to give up my dreams. \u00a0 It was perfect that I travelled around the world and found myself just steps away from Vince Vaughn. \u00a0 Sure I wasn’t here for a premiere of my movie. \u00a0 But there was something calming and great about it.<\/p>\n

\"clockWe walked by some art galleries. \u00a0 Some of the artwork, to me, was like something that was done in a kindergarten with finger paints. \u00a0 Some of the artwork was disturbing. \u00a0 In one window, someone had taken to fawns, cut them in half width wise and then sewed them together. \u00a0 They were hanging together as one, like a siamese two-headed dear, their faces sweet and innocent. \u00a0 There was a fabulous pig statue in one gallery window that I coveted. \u00a0 The good news is all the galleries were closed. \u00a0 No purchases were made.<\/p>\n

We finally ended up at the restaurant that Sima has been wanting to take me to. \u00a0 The restaurant is called De Zotte. \u00a0 It is a Belgian pub and restaurant. \u00a0 Like most of Amsterdam it is small tightly packed inside. \u00a0 After the long walk we ordered beers. \u00a0 There were so many to choose from. \u00a0 They didn’t have the Dutch beer I have grown to love so I ordered something that had a great name. \u00a0 The beer was called Delirium Tremens. \u00a0 It had 9% alcohol and tasted lovely. \u00a0 After half the glass I felt a bit light headed but figured it was just from the long walk. \u00a0 After the first bottle, I knew I was drunk. \u00a0 One bottle was enough to make my head swim. \u00a0 We had dried Belgian beer sausages and bread with pate. \u00a0 After the second bottle we ordered dinner. \u00a0 Sima asked if I wanted to split a meal. \u00a0 I should have. \u00a0 I left nearly half my steak. \u00a0 The fries were great!! \u00a0 I stepped outside my comfort zone with food and tasted Ben’s venison stew. \u00a0 I was surprised I liked the way it tasted. \u00a0 I would never order it but it was good for me to try something new. \u00a0 We also had some pate, again, good for me to try something new that I NEVER would eat at home. The third beer with dinner was probably too much as the first half of the walk back to the boat I felt pretty awful. \u00a0 The second half of the walk back was delightful.\"lis<\/p>\n

As we got close to the Anne Frank house on the walk back, we saw a big police action of sorts. \u00a0 Police lined the street on both sides. \u00a0 They had police vans and police on motorcycles. \u00a0 It seemed like they had a blockade but they were still allowing cars through slowly and they allowed us to walk. \u00a0 There were a lot of people standing around watching them too. \u00a0 Sima asked someone what was going on and they said they were there to keep some squatters out of a building. \u00a0 It didn’t make a lot of sense that they would need that many police for something like that. Also, they way they were lined up it didn’t seem like they were keeping people out of a building as much as they were blocking a street. \u00a0 In the US I might have asked one of the police, “hey, what’s going on?” but here they seemed very serious so, my curiosity will never be satisfied.<\/p>\n

Sima needs to go spend some time in her salon today. \u00a0 I was thinking about going to one of the museums but have decided to go to the Anne Frank house. \u00a0 I wasn’t going to. \u00a0 I have walked by twice. \u00a0 I find just being at the building to be incredibly moving. \u00a0 I honestly don’t know how I will do being in the house. \u00a0 It may be too much for me. \u00a0 I suppose that’s the point. \u00a0 The point is to feel something. \u00a0 The point is to be moved. \u00a0 The point is to remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staying on a boat on a canal in Amsterdam is like living in a fish bowl. \u00a0 Canal tours go by and people look and take pictures. The shower is on the street side of the boat. \u00a0 There is a big picture window in the shower. \u00a0 You literally see people walking by as… Continue reading Staying in a Fish Bowl in Amsterdam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip-to-amsterdam","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lisabrounstein.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}