Amsterdam: City of Freedom and Romance

My visit to Amsterdam, Netherlands was around the beginning of autumn. Having just finished traveling through Iran and Turkey, the Netherlands greeted me with rather chilly weather and cool breezes, which meant I had to wear long sleeves even on clear days.

The "long sleeves" I had were actually very thin summer clothes that I had brought to shield myself from the sun in hotter regions, so when the sun began to set, I had no choice but to return to my accommodation. 

True to its reputation as a famous international city, the streets were filled with foreigners of various skin colors, as was the case at the immigration hall. 

What briefly made my heart sink at the immigration hall was when several people from the groups of foreigners waiting in line ahead of me were directed by the immigration officer to step aside one by one while undergoing inspection. 

Although they had smiles on their faces, I could read the confusion in their expressions. 

 Since I hadn't come here with any specific plans and hadn't prepared or researched anything in particular, I was beginning to feel anxious that I too might have to return due to insufficient documentation or some unexpected issue, just like them. 

Fortunately, however, the immigration officer greeted me in Korean as soon as he checked my passport and let me through immediately. 

 Luckily, the Netherlands was a country where I could enter with just a passport...

 This is the exit of Amsterdam Schiphol International Airport. The airport was quite large, so it was rather difficult to find a place to meet my friend. There are buses here that go to the city center.

And September in the Netherlands is quite chilly (especially at night), so make sure to bring autumn clothes.

 Amsterdam train station. The interior of the trains here is very clean and modern

The change of seasons gave me a new feeling. After spending three months in a hot country where temperatures ranged above 40°C during the day and over 30°C at night, coming here and suddenly facing cold, heavy winds while smelling the scent of autumn felt like stepping into a new world, not just experiencing a change in weather. 

If you know the feeling of drinking in the cold air on an early morning after spending the last days of summer in Korea, you would understand my mood. 

I didn't particularly like that feeling. But here, I was filled with excitement, so I didn't feel bad. Because of this, I thought it might be nice to travel to another country around the time when seasons change in the future.

 A view of downtown Amsterdam. A river flows under the bridge.

Though the white summer sky was turning a deeper blue to welcome autumn, the city still maintained its summer colors. 

Flowers adorned fences and surrounded trees throughout the brick-built city, while water f lowed silently beneath them. 

The rivers and canals visible everywhere had no rapid currents, only peaceful flows that, like the footsteps of the locals, slowly drifted somewhere. It was a serenity rarely seen in crowded metropolises.

A panoramic view of downtown Amsterdam. Many people are using bicycles.

 Bicycles stored on the street. Oh, bicycle thieves are notorious in Korea, but here all the bicycles are openly parked.

Trams passed through the middle of the downtown streets, but without any honking, people leisurely moved aside, and the fastest moving things there were bicycles. 

"Here, you need to watch out for bicycles. Most accidents you might experience will be from bicycles."

The serenity of this metropolis made people look so relaxed that it seemed as if it was created not only from the beautiful and leisurely scenery of the city but also from order and discipline maintained over a long time. 

My friend warned me to be careful as bicycle accidents happen from time to time, so I must always be cautious around paths where bicycles pass when traveling here.

 Is this a residential area where people live? It seems like it probably is...

I was amazed thinking that people actually lived in each of those narrow, tall-looking buildings. 

Since the cost of living here is very high, perhaps those who aren't wealthy (though they would still be considered much better off than the average in other countries) live in such places, but aren't buildings in wealthy areas like Gangnam and other affluent neighborhoods in our country also very expensive despite being cramped spaces? 

I couldn't go inside those places myself, but while looking at real estate information with my friend who was searching for a new home, I realized that the structure of homes here was somewhat special. 

One thing I noticed was that homes here almost always had corridors that might feel narrow by our standards. This made the houses look even smaller.

    

 LGBT flag on an Amsterdam street. I don't remember well what's inside. I didn't go in

 Are those men a couple? Or are they just people holding hands? In Korea, it looks a bit awkward when adult men walk holding hands.

In the city, I could commonly see various races, couples of different genders, as well as LGBT flags on the streets. 

 

I remember holding hands with friends until my first year of middle school, just because we were close, but then my friends asked me if I was gay.

In our country, if men hold hands with men publicly, they receive somewhat curious glances, but if it were in Moldova or Ukraine, they would have received even more genuine attention. 

 Anyway, in this place, there was an atmosphere where people didn't really care about such things. 

 I once saw a YouTube video roughly titled "Korean experiencing racial discrimination in the Netherlands," and after watching it, I showed the video to my friend living in the Netherlands and asked if racial discrimination was severe there. 

while watching it, I had thought "I should definitely avoid Western Europe," but as my friend said, I never had such an experience. 

"Unless you deliberately draw attention with a camera in crowded places, most people won't care about you." 

 

That was exactly right. 

Of course, if I were to live here for a long time, going to restaurants and living closer to the locals, there would certainly be a sense of discrimination, but Amsterdam, as experienced during a short trip, was just a free and peaceful city.

 A park in Amsterdam. It's truly beautiful.

A quiet moment in the garden behind the Rijksmuseum, framed by elegant ironwork

The magic of Amsterdam Central Station glowing at twilight by the water.

The feeling I experienced here seemed somewhat insufficient to capture all the content in just two words "freedom" and "romance" as in the title. 

The harmony between Gothic-style late medieval buildings and modern/contemporary architecture, the cultures of freedom found throughout, yet the order and serenity maintained amid everyday life 

it feels regrettable to leave out the expression 'paradox.' It was a city that gave the feeling of coming to a paradoxical world, like stepping into a wonderland from a fairy tale. 

Finally, I will conclude my writing by sharing one more paradoxical case that I felt.

 My friends and I watched soccer while drinking beer at a bar in Amsterdam.

 "Hey, you can't smoke here." 

"Sorry, but isn't this an ashtray?" 

 "Yes, it is an ashtray. But smoking is not allowed." 

 "...? Sorry, then I'll go outside to smoke."

 A special place in Amsterdam. I did not go in, 100%

 Amsterdam tourist souvenirs. I absolutely did not buy any.

The iconic front of the Rijksmuseum, where Dutch art meets grand architecture.

Well, that's the kind of place it was. 

 The End