AGO 2022 · DOM
21
Domingo, 21 de agosto de 2022
Spending a weekend walking solo in a new city is one of the activities that makes me better disconnect from the day-to-day.
Fly the Thursday night. Work from the hotel on Friday. Spend the weekend walking and exploring. Come back home Sunday night (at least if this flight stops getting rescheduled).
As I recently changed jobs and was not going to take a break during July and August, I decided to make a short trip to Amsterdam. Probably the place on the top of my list of "how the fuck I haven't been there yet?".
Every time I travel to a northern Europe city, I always ask myself how it compares to Spanish towns. Every time I do, I feel that in Spain, people have to make an extra effort to create cities designed to be utterly dull and make them unique. Not a cute random sandwich place run by an old couple in the middle of nowhere. Not a scrapyard with some sketchy decorations and big tables to have a drink with friends while listening to some music. Not that old warehouse where startups could create their space and artist could do their thing (NSDM). Not that old dentistry school building transformed into a place with the classic European mix of food, drinks, and hard-techno parties (Raidon).
That's more uncommon in Spain. Poblenou and other neighborhoods might have some interesting spots here and there, but it looks like we have a rush to make our cities denser and less forgiving. No chance I could open a small taco bar with some electronic music in the corner of the three chimes old-factory in Barcelona.
Some random notes about these three days in Amsterdam:
This is a longer update than expected, but the flight was delayed 2 hours, so I had plenty of time.
Fly the Thursday night. Work from the hotel on Friday. Spend the weekend walking and exploring. Come back home Sunday night (at least if this flight stops getting rescheduled).
As I recently changed jobs and was not going to take a break during July and August, I decided to make a short trip to Amsterdam. Probably the place on the top of my list of "how the fuck I haven't been there yet?".
Every time I travel to a northern Europe city, I always ask myself how it compares to Spanish towns. Every time I do, I feel that in Spain, people have to make an extra effort to create cities designed to be utterly dull and make them unique. Not a cute random sandwich place run by an old couple in the middle of nowhere. Not a scrapyard with some sketchy decorations and big tables to have a drink with friends while listening to some music. Not that old warehouse where startups could create their space and artist could do their thing (NSDM). Not that old dentistry school building transformed into a place with the classic European mix of food, drinks, and hard-techno parties (Raidon).
That's more uncommon in Spain. Poblenou and other neighborhoods might have some interesting spots here and there, but it looks like we have a rush to make our cities denser and less forgiving. No chance I could open a small taco bar with some electronic music in the corner of the three chimes old-factory in Barcelona.
Some random notes about these three days in Amsterdam:
- - I feel that nowadays, there are more weed clubs in Barcelona than coffee shops in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, they are more visible and accessible doh.
- - It's 2022, but some places in Amsterdam have problems with Visa and Mastercard. Credit cards are not popular in the country, but Visa Debit doesn't work either. I'm not talking only about small establishments. The most popular supermarket chain in the city, Albert Heijn, doesn't accept them, so you get 20 auto-pay terminals empty and a long queue for the only cashier. First time after many years, I heard someone mentioning Maestro.
- - Too many bikes are abandoned on the streets. I was surprised that there were almost only two types of bikes. Or you have an old comfort/city bike or a Bird/Vanmoof electric one.
- - Vegetarian food was terrific. I always asked if veg restaurants flagging themselves as vegan/vegetarian was not backfiring them. I'm sure many of my non-vegetarian would love some of the places where I have lunch, but seeing "vegetarian" will make them skip it. This was the first time I found a place to test my hypothesis, Madre. I had to check online to know if it was only veg. I have some great Birria Tacos, by the way.
- - Sometimes I think that fake meat brings an inevitable change in food consumption patterns, which is quite visible in some cities like Amsterdam or Barcelona. I had dinner at a vegetarian burger place in a very touristic street that was full while the steakhouse in front of it was empty (observer bias, I know).
This is a longer update than expected, but the flight was delayed 2 hours, so I had plenty of time.