Goodbye Amsterdam, Das Es Berlin

Goodbye Amsterdam, hello 9 hour train ride. The train ride and I have gotten to be good friends over the past week. This isn’t entirely sarcasm – I find train rides to be pretty relaxing. I’ve spent most of my time in Europe worrying that I’m in the wrong place or going the wrong way or in any case unable to fully or accurately predict my immediate future for the next hour unless I’m lying down for bed. The train and the bed are the only two places that I know, with very little doubt, how the next leg of my journey is likely to go.

When I get to Berlin, I’ll stare at the map of the Berlin subway systems for several days or until I figure out which way I think is the best to head toward the Berlin Zoo. I will then proceed to test my theory and it is more than likely that hilarity will ensue along the way as I stumble around the Berlin public transportation systems. Once I arrive at the Berlin Zoo I will doubtless shamble around Berlin for an impossibly long period of time attempting to find my hostel. I will be nervous and frightened and I will find much relief when I get there. Things that I most certainly do not expect to happen will most certainly happen because when you’re travelling through areas you are completely unfamiliar with and don’t speak the native language things are simply unlikely to go entirely smoothly. But the point is that here, now, over the next few hours, I get to relax first.

I could have lived with staying in Amsterdam longer than I did. It grew on my the last few days, once I started to feel like it was mostly full of friendly, laid back people. By the time I left I felt pretty safe there. In most cities I felt less secure about being shot or mugged than here (there were cameras on many street corners, and for some reason they made me feel safe rather than watched). As big cities go, I enjoyed it, once I figured out that there was life outside the tourist blocks I stayed in.

I’m not sure I buy their idea that by legalizing “soft drugs” like marijuana helps them better control “hard” drugs like cocaine and heroine with an iron fist. I had no less than four (4) people approach me and ask if I wanted anything from cocaine to underage prostitutes, which averages to about once a day. Although I’m sure it happens, I’ve never had any person openly offer me drugs or prostitutes of any sort on an American street, and the frank openness of their offer surprised me the first two times. Now maybe it’s much harder to procure this stuff outside the tourist areas, but I have to wonder who knows great tips like “just go on over to where the tourists are” if not the locals?