Isn't is funny how the mind maps places you've long forgotten about and brings them up like handy online versions of old paper maps you threw out long ago.
It's a bit like playing the piano - as a kid my teacher taught me an invaluable trick that still works to this day... 'Relax, close your eyes, and let your fingers find the keys'... True, you might not remember how to do something but your fingers (I guess that's your subconscious) sure as hell will.
Anyway, to get to my point, I had a one-day stopover in the beeeeautiful 'Omshdome' (or Amsterdam in my English accent) and was walking around like a little tour guide thinking 'woooow', I can't believe I know the way to get everywhere... 'You want to see Anne Franks house? Right this way my love'. 'A tour of the canals and the art gallery district? Ahh, well that would be right over here'...
We hopped off the plane nice and early at about 5am and spent a couple of hours exploring as we waited for the first few cafes to open up for breakfast.
Walking down the main road, Damrak, suddenly everything popped right back into my head like a scene from a movie... 'Oh yay, this is Dam Square where I once befriended some hippies and spent the day talking about philosophy and politics... I'd totally forgotten about that! :) ... Oh I've eaten in this restaurant before – and sat right here...'
I haven't been to Amsterdam for about 10 years now but have fond memories from my days as a poverty-stricken student living in the north of England and yearning for a backpacking experience. It was always a lot cheaper to hop on an Easyjet plane to Amsterdam than it was to catch the train down to London... and so every now and then, Amsterdam became the sum total of my backpacking on an 'extreme' budget experience, lol.
And what a wonderful experience it was! Amsterdam has to be one of Europe's most beautiful cities – the canals that wind their way through the city, the art galleries all over the place, cute little cafes, vintage boutique shops, the real young-traveller vibe of the place...
And then for me there's always been a little something extra about Amsterdam that I really loved. Every time I stepped out of the train station and looked around, I'd have a real feeling like I'd come home... The windmills, the clogs (in the tourist shops only, unfortunately! lol), the accent... Maybe it just reminded me a lot of my German oma's house in Friesland where I holidayed as a kid – a coastal region that spreads from Germany into Holland, with plenty of old fashioned windmills all over the place and shops selling wooden clogs... and that infamous Frisian dialect that sounds just like Dutch. (Incidentally, I also happen to be distantly related to the Dutch royal family - oh yah indeed! lol - if that makes a difference with this cultural identity ticker-tape parade! ;)
About a year ago on another stopover through Amsterdam I realised I could read and undertand Dutch. I had a real 'woah!!!' moment, as I thumbed through a various books in the airport book shop and started wondering if maybe I was Dutch in a past life.
Reading Dutch – for those who have never tried this – is a little bit like experiencing the mad ramblings of a highly dyslexic half German, half English person (in a nice way of course! ;) no offence intended! Lol). You know what they are trying to say but everything is spelt wrong.
I've spoken abut this to both South African and German friends who say they have the same thing – that they can also mysteriously read and understand Dutch – although speaking is another puzzle altogether.
I tested my Dutch / Frisian Plattdeutsch skills out with a shop-keeper the last time I passed through Amsterdam.
'Tag', I said for hello.
Then when he asked me something I added a 'yoo' for yes (haven't a clue what he asked me though! Lol)
And then a 'Dank' when we finished.
I was almost jumping up and down with excitement when he carried on chatting away to me in Dutch completely oblivious to the fact that I'd just taken a wild guess at disjointed German and Plattdeutsch words... Anyway, next time, maybe I'll try adding some more phrases and see how that goes – hopefully I won't sound too crazy! lol
No comments:
Post a Comment