Home Sweet Amsterdam

You Belong in Amsterdam

A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam. Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city).

The irony here is that I went to Amsterdam a couple of years ago after not being there for about 20 years, and I completely fell in love with it.

In fact, I told Fantasy Boy that his dad and I were going to retire to Amsterdam. He was distinctly put off by this and asked wouldn't we miss him? Wouldn't we want to be with grandkids? I answered warmly, but firmly, that this was no problem - he could marry anyone he wanted, as long as she were Dutch.

Fantasy Boy seemed to feel this was extremely limiting, whereas I thought I was being quite generous in the matter.

There are parts of Amsterdam that I definitely didn't like - the seediness and crime in certain mainstream areas are fairly discomfitting, but I suppose I'd develop street smarts after a bit.

I was sure I'd end up with an Italian city, as Italy is probably my favorite place in the universe, but I have to admit that Amsterdam called to me in a very clear way.

What's Cooking

I've been down with a bad cold, so I haven't been up to cooking much of anything. I think I'm going to open cans of soup for dinner and let the boys make themselves some type of pasta.