Back in Amsterdam

I took a train to meet up with Carolien, Aukje and Anook, all my Dutch friends I have talked about in previous posts. On the train ride I reused the ticket that didn’t get stamped during my last trip (yes, free ride!). I’m not sure why, but I felt inspired to write a song on the way, which occupied my mind on the 3 hour ride. It’s about someone that travels for a living and doesn’t make many connections – think ‘Up In the Air’.  After some edits, here it is.

When I got to Amsterdam, we went to a random restaurant near Anook’s house, where I learned a new thing about her. She likes to make friends with elderly people. I never figured out why she does it, and yes, it is a nice thing to do. So this guy in his 80s was at the restaurant/bar around 10 pm and she immediately went up and started talking to him when we entered. She gave him her number, which I thought was hilarious, and came back to us to report that we were having lunch with the old-timer tomorrow. Yes, WE.

The night wasn’t that exciting, pretty much the standard Dutch drinking and the standard Dutch weather (rain). We turned in early and now to the good part – where we met up with Jan Mortyn (pictured at left with Anook and Carolien). This wasn’t just some random old guy, he was relatively famous. Let me backtrack a bit. We went into the restaurant and sat down for lunch. He spoke very little English, so Anook and Carolien translated for me. He told us stories about his multiple wives (from multiple countries in Southeast Asia) and multiple children (he wasn’t sure if it was 7 or 9). A few things he repeated, so we could tell that he was a little senile and maybe making the whole thing up. He said he fought for Germany in WWII against the Russians at the Eastern Front, was a mercenary and then journalist in Vietnam, was injured by a grenade, and spent most of his time since then as an artist.

By then we were ALL skeptical and just thought he was crazy. Then I started Googling him on Carolien’s phone and his online gallery came up. It had a bio section went over all of the major points he told us about, so we started to give him more credibility. Further investigation on the website showed that there have been multiple book written about his life, a play (which he said is being turned into a move – I believe him now), and even a 7 page article in the Dutch edition of Playboy from 1990. This guy was legit. He asked us what we were looking at and we showed him a few of his abstract artworks from the site. He was surprised, and didn’t even know he has a website.

We finished up a 2 hour lunch and he invited us to an exhibition in another city a few weeks from now that I think the girls were going to take him up on. After that we went to the Heineken Experience, the site where the company was founded. The tour was ok and kind of long, but the best part was the pub at the end of it. Before we knew it the day was over and we had to head back to Utrecht.

My remaining days in Utrecht weren’t all too exciting to read about, but very relaxing.  Aukje was kind enough to let me crash at her student house for free. The bathroom was small and community kitchen a bit dirty, but I got over it. One day we went to Kasteel de Haar together since she didn’t have any classes. The next day I visited the Dutch royal family’s summer residence, Het Loo. We did some shopping together and ate at a few good restaurants.

On my last day, Aukje and I went on a canoe tour of the city’s canals. I didn’t want to do the typical canal tour by boat, it was much more fun to paddle yourself. Although the water was gross in a lot of areas, it was a relaxing 2 hour trip. The weather was nice and I got to soak in Holland one last time. Aukje walked me to the train station and we parted ways. Carolien said goodbye earlier in the day and at this point we just laughed and said, “Yeah, yeah, see you soon, blah blah, whatever,” since it was about the 5th time we’ve said goodbye. So at this point, I don’t believe in saying goodbye to friends you meet in random places. See you soon, Aukje.

I took a train back to Brussels and met up with John (my replacement at work) for dinner. He let me sleep in his hotel room before my early morning flight on Thursday. I checked my email and at this point, it looks like Australia is going to happen! I’ll be home for a week and then will fly out on the 5th. G’day, mates!