Hear a bell, run like hell.
Welcome to Amsterdam, where crossing the street can result in a near-death experience.
Arriving in a strange city is a disorienting ordeal; in addition to having its own individual design, each city has a distinct energy that one must adjust to or risk forever sticking out as a tourist. New York, the city formerly known as New Amsterdam, has its legendary hustle and bustle and its reputation as the city that never sleeps. Boston strikes a balance between the old world of the North End and its current reputation as one of America's top college towns. Amsterdam, on the other hand, is a little more of a mystery, one which - after two weeks here - I'm still trying to solve.
From what I've been able to gather so far, Amsterdam is a city of paradoxes. Taxis wind around canal rings lined with gabled homes that date back to the 17th century. Walking around Amsterdam can fool you into thinking that you are walking through the pages of a storybook; that is until you stumble upon the pungent smell of marijuana coming from one of the city's coffeeshops. The oldest church in the city, aptly named the Oude Kerk (Dutch for "Old Church") is within the Red Light District, the home of the world's oldest profession.
While a church and a brothel may seem like unlikely neighbors, the pairing is not as incongruous as it originally seems. Go on a city walking tour and your guide will tell you that of the two, it was the church that profited the most from its location during the Middle Ages. Sailors passing through the city would visit the women behind the windows and then would head to the church to confess their recently committed sins. With the threat of dying at sea a very real possibility, the sailors wanted to ensure they left port with their souls in good standing. The church took advantage of this and sold the sailors indulgences for often double the amount they had paid for their moment of pleasure.
Such a relationship serves as a perfect example of gedogen, a Dutch word for which there is no English equivalent, but which roughly means tolerance for the sake of pragmatism. The fact that gedogen is untranslatable only adds to its identity as a uniquely Dutch concept.
The city is filled with such uniquely Amsterdam idiosyncrasies - they are what give the city its character and they range from progressive policies to charming eccentricities.
Even the most casual observer will notice that many of the buildings along the canals are leaning. While the buildings leaning sideways are the result of sinking foundations, the buildings leaning forward are actually doing so by design. Houses in Amsterdam were taxed according to their width and so many homes are extremely narrow. When combined with steep staircases, transporting goods is impossible to do from inside. Instead, each home is outfitted with a beam and hook just below the roof. A pulley is attached to the hook and large objects are still to this day pulled to the top of the building where they are then pulled in through the top window. The buildings that lean forward were built on an angle to facilitate this system.
Housing is expensive and hard to come by in most major cities, but only in Amsterdam do you find people taking to the water as a result of such a housing shortage. Walk along any canal and you will find a line of houseboats. The legal ones have electricity and plumbing; the illegal ones are not as lucky. Like the coffeeshops, the number of houseboats is beginning to shrink because the city is no longer issuing permits for new boats or shops.
And then there are the bikes. Everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam. While the image of businessmen and women riding to work with briefcases in hand helps paint a picture of Amsterdam as a quaint little city, wander into a bike lane and see what happens. The bike bell is to Amsterdam what the car horn is to the rest of the world.
Riding a bike is what separates the savvy locals from the hapless tourists. While a pedestrian has to contend with cars, buses, bikes, and trams just to get from one side of the street to the other, cyclists rule the road; even a truck will move out of the way for a solitary bike rider. Owning a bike is essential to both surviving in the city and fitting in.
Riding a bike is also the best way to see Amsterdam. A canal tour may be slightly safer, but nothing can beat the view you take in while riding side-saddle on the back of a bike.
I could devote an entire column to my first bike ride, but I will spare you the boredom and myself the embarrassment. As with all new undertakings, my emotional state was a mixture of excitement and fear. Getting my bike was like moving to the big kid's table, but it also meant that I would now have to navigate my way around a still unknown city with ease or face being run off the road. The fact that I can barely fit on my bike only added to my trepidation.
The Dutch, among other things, are known for being the tallest people in the world. Basically what this means is that bikes that fit 5-foot-3 American girls are few and far between. Stopping and starting is a bit of a problem when your feet barely touch the ground.
As I rode down my first hill, dodging trams and pedestrians along the way, I regretted having been so caught up in getting myself acclimated to my new surroundings that I forgot to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday the day before.
Pedaling through my first intersection, I suddenly understood the sailors of Amsterdam's past and their desire to make sure they did not leave port on poor terms with God. In my attempt to solve the mystery that is Amsterdam, it's moments like these when I feel like I'm getting warmer.
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