Amsterdam

It is already the third time this year for me in Amsterdam. The more I come the more I like it. Though I still have trouble navigating. Nowadays I always go for bicycle rides. It does not help much with finding my way but is definitely my favourite pastime there. I love the thing that you can go anywhere on the bicycle - even more that you can go in the evening for a drink and then ride back home not fearing that the police will take your driving license away (like in some other countries were I spend most of my time now). The variety of people and generally the relaxed atmosphere makes me a bit depressed when going back to my highly regulated country where for my own safety I am forbiden to ride my bicycle back home after a nice dinner.

We have had a great dinner at a Thai restaurant where for some reason I started talking to the owner and embarressed my brother. I somehow asked the guy whether he brought himself a girlfriend from Thailand - actually he did but a boyfriend not a girlfriend. I apologized for somehow assuming that it should be a girl and my brother bluntly told me that I have been hanging around too much it those highly tolerant countries like Russia, Poland and Peru...Somehow the openness and variaty of possibilities to live managed to be replaced with some sort of highly unified view of the world hammered into my head by the surrounding environment. I started forgetting that the world is so colorful - I still feel very bad about it.

Whenever I make it to Amsterdam I also try to go to some nice art venue - this time we went to see the Worldpress photo exhibition - good place to see it since the Dutch created the event. I must admit the photos were great and the setting even better. They were on display in the old church in the middle of Amsterdam. I was surprised by the fact of many photos either taken by Poles or having to do with Poland. As soon as such exhibition will be hosted in a church in Poland and at the same time there will be a gay marriage ceremony taking place, I will think about returning to Poland for longer (this is what was going on during our visit there). Until then somehow things are still very depressive here. Somehow Amsterdam manages to remind me why I should not stay in one place - especially a place where I have spent anyway too much of my life...