Keep off the grass

I’ve recently had the chance to visit Amsterdam. I’ve had high hopes for the city – it seemed a heaven for a bicycle lover such as me! Alas… Bicycles are so popular there for a simple reason – it’s convenient to move around the city centre on them. That’s that – the infrastructure (cycling roads, lights, etc.) is no different than in Wrocław (or even worse…). And the culture on the road is… let’s say, lacking. The cyclists “rule” in the city centre. Try crossing a road – you can safely ignore cars and trams, there are only few of those and they generally drive cautiously. Cyclists on the other hand speed by like everyone should get out of their way. And you often have to – otherwise a crash is inevitable, because they’d rather ran you over then brake. Of course, not all of them, but enough to deter me from renting a bike there and experiencing the city on bike I’m bitter because I’m an avid cyclist myself and like to think that I’m respectful to others on the road – and would love others to do the same. I was hoping this would be the case in Amsterdam, but I was hugely disappointed.

The city itself is definitely worth exploring – the week I was there was not enough, especially since I was mostly there for work.

Yup, you can play the piano on the train station in Amsterdam.

Some of the people on bicycles are quite colourful.

The street where I stayed.

Yup, definitely a romantic city. For a single person – not as fun ;/

A very popular “selfie” (or “groupie”) place on the Museum Plaza.

Bicycles, bicycles everywhere.

Did I mention the bicycles?

Quite uniform building style – if you’ve seen one “block” of these buildings, you’ve seen them all…

Not too much green in the city centre – no space for it 😦

Anyone remember that scene from The Fault in Our Stars in Amsterdam? It’s this place!

Look, the bench the main protagonists from The Fault in Our Stars sat on! You could even read etched messages like “Hazel + Gus = best couple ever” XD

Too bad they are fake

Seagulls enjoy Amsterdam too!

Go smoke your weed elsewhere, kids.

Not a bad place to live.

Near-miss collisions are often on the canals.

Science centre – would love to visit it, not enough time.

Did I mention the have a boatload of bicycles there?

The main train station.

Oh, look, more bicycles. Neat.

The original party boat. I’m assuming the owners died from all that alcohol. But their legend lives on…

Empty end of terminal in Frankfurt.

Thank you, Lufthansa, for temporarily cancelling your strike – just enough so that I could get back home \o/