Amsterdam (and Enschede)

Enschede is a small town in the Netherlands near the border of Germany. I have an uncle who lives there, this is the reason I visit that place.

I travel there by train until the last town in Germany side, Bad Bentheim. There, my uncle picks me up and we continue the travel to Enchede for another 20 minutes.

To be honest, I don’t really know about the city of Enschede. Because I spend my time only for eating Indonesian food! Yummy…!!! I really enjoy my time there as my uncle spoiled me with cooking lots and lots of Indonesian foods. Well, there goes all of my calorie burning activities….

Although I haven’t got a chance to know Enschede more, I do have a chance to know Amsterdam. My uncle takes me there for a day. Amsterdam is a busy city, just like any other capital city in the world. A lot of people, many things to see, and many things to offer. However, in my opinion, Amsterdam is less modern than Berlin. Even the central station looks slum (Indonesian: kumuh) to me. Maybe I should explore more to get the whole impression of Amsterdam.

Anyway, I take a boat trip in the canal. It’s a 1-hour trip exploring the canal that built for controlling the flood in Amsterdam. The boat goes under the bridges and sometime narrow paths around the city. Somehow I am wondering, how come exploring bottom part of bridges can be a major tourist attraction?

In this trip, I also can see the social value of the canal. (I sound like social scientist, eh?!). Well basically I see many people traveling in their boat just for fun; like when people drives car or rides bicycle just to go around. I also see many floating houses and flower shops along the canal. Below is the video that I made during the boat trip.

While seeing these, my mind also flies to Indonesia. I remember one tribe called ‘Bajo’ who live as a sea gypsy. But surely, their wealth standard is far beyond the people of Amsterdam.
I also think about ‘Water Bender Tribe’ from the Avatar cartoon series. But I guess these guys can’t move the boat without paddling or using machine…

Another trip that I have is visiting the replica of VOC ship. VOC is a Dutch trading company that initiate the colonialism era in Indonesia. This ship is huge and made by wood. I can’t imagine how is live back then; cruising for almost 2 years to Indonesia! In one of the display, it stated that the crews never wash! Eeeooowww!!!! Gross…

Other thing that make me amazed, some parts of the ship have lower ceiling; even I have to bend my head inside. Well European suppose to be taller than Asian in general, how come they make shorter rooms??? Were they shorter??? Then how tall were Indonesians at that time???



In the end, I am glad that I can visit Amsterdam although only for a short time. At least I can experience Holland as I don’t travel outside Germany frequently. Or else, I don’t feel like I were in Europe at all as I keep eating Indonesian foods and talk in my language;)