Richard for real

[Imagine a stylish picture of illuminated bridges, reflecting in canals.]

These are some of the places I enjoyed most during my five months in Amsterdam. First food, then some shopping and finally nightlife and other fun stuff.

Talia - Unique Italian deli shop and take-away, everything home-made and extremely friendly service. Free internet and a place to leave your bags if you’re visiting for a day. My second home in the city.

Addis Ababa – Funky Ethiopian place near Vondelpark. Very chill and a great place to go with friends to eat with your hands from a huge plate and try the exotic Mongozo beer.

Vligende schotel – The flying saucer is a genuine vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Small, but warm and cozy.

Volkskeukens – Most of the squats serve meals one or more evenings every week. Check the Radar to see what’s on. Fresh home-cooked vegan food in an environment typical for Amsterdam. The price depends on your willingness to donate.

Bakkerij Oost on Molukkenstraat (between Insulindeweg and Tidorestraat) has no website, but invest in keeping their prices low. Nowhere else city can you get a Turkish pizza roll for just one euro, on freshly baked bread. Yum!

Dappermarkt - Huge street market that sells everything, at a reasonable price. Don’t forget to look behind the stalls for the shops that line the street. The side street have some cool stores too, like the Afro-Food shop. Sushi n Sake on Dapperstraat also has really good food, and Ben&Jerry’s.

Bierkoning - For all your needs in beer (and cider). 1000+ different types of beer in a store the size of a regular apartment.

United Nude – The flagship store in Amsterdam has some of the coolest shoes I have ever seen. Architecture + fashion + engineering.

Nukuhiva and VEGA-LIFE – Great shopping alternatives for fair fashion. Not to far from each other either.

Amsterdam public library – Computers, books, architecture, music, killer view, designer furniture, cafés, piano (free to play for visitors) and a funky Vapiano restaurant. Top score!

UvA Science Park study center – The best university location to get stuff done. Motivated tech students working away around you and a super smooth interior, plus long opening hours.

Trouw - Hard hitting club in a former industrial building. It’s basically just one big room, but that’s no match for the sound system. They say the best sound experience is actually on the dancefloor podiums.

AIR - Takes the trophy for most confusing wardrobe system: automated lockers that can only be paid for with a special AIRcard loaded with credit. Instead of chaos when everyone’s leaving, it’s chaos all the time. If you don’t care too much, just throw your stuff on top of the lockers.

Busbar – The squatters at De Hallen set up the coolest party in town on Friday nights. If an old tram depot with pools of muddy water in it was not post-apocalyptic enough, why not build a make-shift lounge inside and park an old bus with a bar and sound system in it next to it? Words cannot do this place justice.

Sauna Fenomeen – After a long day in the city, or before dinner at MKZ, this squat sauna is the perfect place to relax. Turkish steam sauna and a dry Finnish one, attached to a vegan café.

Wow… eight days on the ground here in the Venice of the North and I’m starting to feel at home. Here is some randomness:

A bike is essential. I was without wheels for about five days, and living some five kilometers from the center of town this was a nightmare. Some three hours of walking a day, in combo with playing indoor volleyball barefoot during exchange student intro week, had my feet pretty destroyed. It’s ok now though. And after an 8 euro spray paint investment I now have one of the coolest bikes in town, albeit an “omafiets” (granny’s bike).

Turktown rocks. I live in the east of Amsterdam, in the Zeeburg region. This is a very multicultural neighborhood and it is awesome. No tourists and genuine shops and restaurants everywhere. Best so far is Bakkerij Oost and their 1 euro turkse pizzas. Get two and it’s like a full lunch.

Couchsurfing here is awesome too, with a load of great characters and a thriving community. I was at my first meeting this weekend and it was crowded, like 50 people. Going there partly to practice Dutch, I ended up speaking a lot of Russian. Well next time… There are also couchsurfing language classes that I will try to attend.

Tot ziens!

I’ve read more cultural theory than usual lately and this little observation of mine got stuck my head:

The majority gets uniform uniqueness. The minority gets unique uniformity.

The idea here is that a majority of people in today’s society strive be unique, and have a personal style or whatnot, and in doing so end up looking very much the same, but all with their own little tweaks. Then there might be a smaller group of people who are try to mark their difference to this group that ends up being (almost) all the same. These people will find something that clearly sets them apart from the mainstream and apply this to themselves so meticulously that they end up being more uniform as a group than the mindless followers of trends they are rejecting. The harder the minority try to cut themselves from the hype, thus creating a (counter)hype of their own, the more uniform they become internally as a group.

And while thinking about this, go read up on hipsters as the ”embodiment of postmodernism as a spent force” on Wikipedia.

as seen at the City Planning Office, Helsingborg

On my neverending quest to take web-based social media (yes there are other kinds, book clubs and whatnot) to the streets I bring you my latest invention the twitter hashtag “randomlunch”. (If that was an overload of mumbo jumbo, go to twitter.com and do some homework, I’m sure it’ll come in handy in ”who wants to be a trillionaire” 2045)

how’s #randomlunch meant to work then? it’s simple: if you want company for a meal around noon at a location of your choice just drop a tweet containing #randomluch #location. for example: “I need advice on turbo chargers and i can teach a mean chocolate cake recipe. #randomlunch #oakland

To me this is just awesome, but there are some advantages that might even appeal to other people:

get new perspectives on things

get distracted

ask for some neutral feedback on something

shock yourself out of your everyday rhythm

meet people who can help you or whom you can help

cure your loneliness, or someone else’s

I’m going to try tweeting for lunch buddies at all possible times over the next week or two, but of course it’s no fun if it’s just me doing it. So join the revolution and kick your old eating habits. Let’s create a hashtag hype and have more inspiring lunches!