How Is It Mid-February?
- Feb 19
- 5 min read
I've been out and about! Most notably to the Rijksmuseum, one of the biggest museums downtown and famous for their Rembrandt collection. The Netherlands has a fantastic subscription called the Museumkaart (museum pass). €75 a year for access to 500+ museums in the country. I think some of the admission tickets are simply discounted, but for the big ones I'm immediately interested, admission is fully comped with the pass. Admission generally costs about €25, so only three visits in a year pays for the entire pass.
The day after my pass arrived, I booked a visit to Rijks, and spent the entire day wandering the halls, taking self-guided tours, and generally reveling in the art around me. The building is gorgeous in and of itself; is spacious and invites wandering; and packed with beautiful and amazing artwork. I had lunch at the cafe, which was of really high quality (it had better be for the cost, ahem), and poked around the giftshop, where I bought a couple postcards from the current exhibition, Metamorphosis, and an adorable magnet with Rembrandt's The Syndics.
Rembrandt's The Night Watch is housed at Rijks, but is currently undergoing restoration. Instead of being on display as usual, it's behind a large wall of windows which allows visitors to watch the process. Very cool, and I hope I get to see it in its restored state when the process is complete.
The Rijks was fantastic, and I can't wait to go back and explore one of the many, many halls I didn't get to see my first go-round.
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Also notable this past two weeks were a craft circle get together, where I sketched out some painting ideas to pursue once I get in The Zone again, and my first time volunteering here. I had a very humbling interaction with a refugee here who asked me for help while I was entering the train station and he was leaving. What followed was 45 minutes of difficult communication between two people with no shared language, different alphabets, and general ignorance of the country. I took him to a university building where we were able to hash out where he needed to go, but the directions to get there were so complicated, it was absolutely inevitable he was going to get lost on the way. He was open about approaching people, though. My hope is that he found an authority to ask on his way. Between the university lobby person and myself, we wrote in English and Dutch the explanation of what the fellow needed and where he needed to go.
I hope he made it there safely. I'm confident he did eventually, but really I hope that it wasn't an excruciating journey. The area for refugees right off of the plane is hours away and many transit transfers. There is nowhere locally they can be directed to for help: he was just handed a paper with a few stops written out on it. He'd gotten off on the wrong stop, and it was impossible to explain to him how to get back. The only way to truly help would have been to take him to the location directly. But round trip it may have been an eight hour journey. I don't even know his name.
The US isn't the only country by far who treats refugees poorly. It is inarguably crueler than many places, don't misunderstand, but the Netherlands could certainly do leagues better than what they do now. The helpless anger I felt at understanding how impossible a task was before this man, who had already been through enough to flee his home, and who had been travelling for who knows how long was the kick in the pants I needed to look for volunteer opportunities here. I initially looked for organizations who work with immigrants, but most of them I found currently require a high degree of Dutch spoken language. I'll keep an eye out for ones that would accept lower level Dutch and fluent English. But in the meantime, I found plenty of groups who help feed communities.
As such, I had a blast helping at a community dinner with a handful of other volunteers, and served about fifty folks ranging from a literal baby all the way to elders, who I can never accurately age because people here seem to be healthy an active way beyond the age that is standard in the US. So I really have no idea. But elders absolutely!
The cooks prepared three full course, two of which were made from scratch, and were perfect for a cold wintery day (desert was ice cream and a fruit topping, so nothing hand-made there, haha). The general atmosphere was cheerful and friendly, with neighbors catching up with one another and people who were clearly regulars not only catching up with people from other tables but also coming to chat with the volunteers who ran the get together. People stuck around to help clear tables afterward, and some of them sneaked their way into the kitchen to help with dishes or cleanup there. We had plenty of food; everyone who wanted seconds or thirds were satisfied, and any leftovers made their way home in to-go boxes. The vibes, I would say, legitimately felt like a holiday gathering for folks who have no family in town, or a small scale celebration of something or someone that tied a few dozen people together. An actual community meal together. It was a really nice evening.
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And those are the highlights from these past couple of weeks! The sun is out longer and longer each day, and I'm reveling in the extra light. We're still getting snow or freezing rain here and there, and biting wind seems to be the standard this month. But it hasn't been a bad winter overall, and the daylight hours really make a difference offsetting the cold wind with bright sunlight.
I have many more museums to see and all the motivation needed to see them, so I expect next update will include another one or two for me to share. If you're a museum lover and planning on doing a round of them in the Netherlands sometime, there is a temporary pass for visitors that can be purchased at several of the museums. However, for a bit more, there is also the I Amsterdam City Card, which includes a bunch of museums, and transit, and canal rides, and bike rental options. Amsterdam is definitely a city where a little bit of looking ahead can mean you stumble into some absolutely great deals for great experiences. It's not all overpriced tourist-bait, I promise!!
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Be well, my friends, and thank you as always for reading. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and I'll see you in the next one.
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