#birds in amsterdam

[bestamster-dam-tripofmylife]

Day 4: In which we discover Amsterdam has birds

It’s already Wednesday?? Yes, still-jetlagged Ally, yes it is.

Today is a site visit day! Which means there’s no class meeting. Which is probably good, because I forgot to do the readings anyways (whoops). Our morning visit was the the National Library (also called the Royal library), and the afternoon visit was to the famous Anne Frank House, with lunch in between.

This was my first experience riding the train here. As the days go by I slowly have been getting used to the public transportation system here (especially reading stuff in Dutch), which is reliable, covers a lot of ground, and is ridiculously on time. America could never. As Trent always says, you could actually set your watch to the bus schedule here, and it’s true. If it says the bus is coming at 16:14 (yay for military/24hr time here), it will come at 16:14. Not at 16:13, and not at 16:15. 16:14. That in itself would be enough to make me want to move to the Netherlands (and it is, and I do). 

While riding the train I sat next to a very good friend I made on this trip, we’ll just call her R for the time being. R is my new food and dessert buddy, and she’s probably the only other person I’ve met who is as obsessed with chocolate and sweets as I am, which is A LOT. While at a train stop on the way to the National Library we saw a bird hanging on the platform I hadn’t seen before. Actually, I thought about it, and although I had been hearing birds I really haven’t seen much of anything as far as wild animals/fauna in our neighborhood.

I wish I had a picture of the bird (alas, I do not), but here’s the view from the train! I wasn’t expecting so much rural/country views, and I loved it. 

So R and I are going back and forth, debating what kind of bird it is (it looks like a black crow but not like in America), and suddenly the lady across from us chimes in and tells us “it’s a very common bird here, the local crow” (so we were close). I notice the lady has a healthy amount of wrinkles, but is still beautiful, and speak with a clear British accent. We start conversing with her more, and she is interested in the fact that we are library science students, and guesses right away that we are going to the National/Royal Library. We ask about her.

“I’m going to the National Archives,” she replies. And suddenly she is telling us this crazy family story of hers, it feels like it should be a movie script. We find out that she is meeting a cousin of hers there because they got permission to look into some records for family research, to find out what happened to a cousin of the lady’s father. This cousin was born out of wedlock to a Jewish father and a Christian mother, but only his father claimed him and gave him his last name. And then World War II hit. He was in the military, and presumably died because he never returned home to his mother, but the details are unknown and no one ever told his mother about his death (which makes sense, because he did not have her last name). So his mother lived her life and died always waiting to see if he would come home (which of course he never did), never knowing what happened to her son. Did he get captured and killed because of his Jewish last name? Did they not tell the mother because there was no tangible connection between her and her son? They don’t know. So this lady is going to find out what happened to him, even though his parents have already passed. It was so sad to hear about, and to think that if the mother had claimed her son instead of the father, he would not have had a Jewish last name, and maybe he would’ve come home. 

And of course, this once again got me thinking about the history of anti-Semitism in this country and in the world that is still in existence today. Especially having this conversation plus visiting the Anne frank House in the afternoon, which is a totally different post.

Bonus (to end on a light note): Some other ducks we saw, they look like normal ducks but they’re really big, like the size of geese! I think they may be a species of coot, but I have yet to do further investigating. You can also get a sense of the city with the canal and the buildings in the background.

Tot ziens!

[vintagewildlife]

Amsterdam albatross By: Unknown photographer From: WWF Threatened Animals 1986

[amir2000photography]

Ring-necked #Pheasant #birds in #Amsterdam #winter #nature #photo #photography #ringneckedpheasant #fotograaf #photography #canon #eos5dmark4 I love the #Netherlands #dutch life📷

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

🌹✨🌹

still doing my fic crop rotation so here's a bit from the post-amsterdam fic, aka tell me something true

“Well, that’s fucked,” Jamie said, and Roy schooled his expression, nodded, braced for whatever came next. Wondered if he should hug him again, if it’d only remind him of a different set of hands. “Reckon you can balance on the back of my bike, coach?” Jamie waved a hand in front of his face. “Roy?”   “Yeah,” he said, vaguely. “Sound!” The lad bounced away to where he’d left his own bike a handful of meters down the path. Was he supposed to bring it up again? Wait for Jamie to say something? They hadn’t talked about Wembley, afterwards, but now he wished they had, if only so he’d have some sort of blueprint. Jamie glided back over, one foot on the bike pedal, the other dangling out into the air in a way that was probably forbidden somewhere in his contract. “You can sit on the rack, yeah?” He held the bike steady. Roy climbed on, because what the fuck else could he do? They were in the middle of some random park in Amsterdam with his fucked bike and fucked knee and he needed to get Jamie somewhere safe and quiet and indoors before it all caught up to him — he’d been spacey and unreactive in the Wembley dressing room; stood there swaying in his kit while Roy maneuvered him into a jacket and shoes, herded him out to the bus without bothering with the shower. He couldn’t ask Jamie to navigate them back to the hotel in that state. “Hold on, coach!” Jamie said, craning over his shoulder. Tentatively, Roy wrapped his arms around his waist, waiting for him to flinch or shy away, but he just made an impatient noise and grabbed at Roy’s wrists to hasten the process. They set off.

[clarabellerphotography]

Rock dove / pigeon

Location: Amsterdam, NL

[fentonphoto]

Amsterdam sunset with swan. @iamsterdam-blog @travelgraphics @visitheworldNetherlands

[iconsfinder]

[daaedoodles]

stumbled across a hurt no comfort angst wildies fic i wrote last year and i am devestated holy shit

[kerovous]

New habitat... by Mau and Tweety Via Flickr: The Netherlands: Amsterdam

[heybiji]

🎶 I'm showing several signs of increasing mental instability

Talking to my wife would be... well

That would be awfully nice 🎶

[gordopickett]

John should have told his dad no, kept riding mechanical bulls, & finished saving up for his bike trip. He wasn't the only person in the world, or even the US, who could have done that job. There are government agencies literally dedicated to exactly what he was doing.

He should have been riding bikes & watching Spanish birds with Alice instead of getting shot (multiple times), jumping from rooftops, getting electrocuted (multiple times), getting hit by cars, losing teeth, losing fingers, & spiraling deeper into the abyss of depression & PTSD.

I need an alternate timeline where John tells his dad no & goes off to live his best life in Spain with his wife instead.

[amargotrobbie]

Margot Robbie getting ready for ‘Amsterdam’ Premieres (2022) 

[amir2000photography]

Eurasian #wigeon #birds in #Amsterdam #duck #winter #nature #photo #eurasianwigeon #photography #duckphotography #fotograaf #photography #canon #eos5dmark4 I love the #Netherlands #dutch life📷

[justabarbiegirl05]

Daniel Pemberton serves so much cunt everything he touches is a masterpiece

[clarabellerphotography]

Common Wood-Pigeon

Location: Amsterdam, NL

[pamietniko]

the cutest countryside 

Amsterdam, Netherlands