Hey lady, gimme ur phone I gotta call in this invasion.
Tropenmuseum
This morning, we visited the Tropenmuseum, which showcases scholarly ethnography… or the history of colonialism.
The exhibits were very interesting, and beautifully presented… it would have been easy to spend days and days learning about all the samenesses and differences of people around the world and across time.
The world’s first monument to gay people, a triangle of pink granite. Which manages to encapsulate our collective guilt over the Holocaust and the general problems of homophobia all in a single compact space. It’s a wonderful monument to have, but I’ll admit to some guilt fatigue as we visit… An admission I feel guilty making.
Houseboat entryway
Photo school
This is one of those situations where I wish for more talent with either the camera or the editing software. But since I can’t show you what I mean here I’ll tell you instead.
Imagine one of those pictures that’s in B&W except for the red leaves on the tree. The background layer is slightly fuzzed around the edges. The caption has something profound about the transience of it all. Young girls cry a little when they look at it, and the Hallmark royalty checks provide a small but long-lasting reminder of one’s artistic achievement.
Cats
One thing the guidebooks didn’t tell me to expect was the cats. Every restaurant and lots of other places seem to have a resident cat. These are not mangy scary feral cats, these are uniformly big, well fed, and supremely contented.They are all willing to be petted, but they are also willing to just sleep.
Outside central station
Despite the cloudy weather and the indifference of the crowd, this girl gave an energetic and entertaining performance. On the one hand, I was very happy to watch her because she really just got up and started doing tricks on her hoop, avoiding the endless build up that so many street performers seem to do… They can spend half an hour attracting the crowd, and then give a three minute show. On the other hand, I was sad, because as a result of her focus on her art rather than her showmanship, she only earned a couple of euros for what looked like some pretty hard work.
This building, a block or so down the canal from where we are staying, seems to exemplify a lot of the architecture here… The basic forms are still pretty much boxes, but they have been jauntily inventive in surface treatments and decoration.
Twilight on the canal
More bikes
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 