BERLIN

Iva Nova
My favorite heroins of Slovenian folk punk swaying people off their heels in Berlin, at Kafe Burger. A coincidence of space and time. What delicacy, what luck. What a good call Norman.

Local Anarchy

My Amsterdam friends live in a great neighborhood in the southwest ring just a few blocks from Vondelpark. In addition to the park, another favorite place was the locally-owned wine/cheese store located midway down my friends' street. The store's shelves are filled everyday with cheese rounds of different textures, hardnesses, ages and aromas. I bought a great cheese knife there, one with a specially designed, wooden handle and blade that efficiently cuts thin slices of soft, medium or hard gouda (The knife was one of the few souvenirs I brought home with me, aside from my Czech-made sulfur spring sippy cup that is).

In their neighborhood you can also find the OCCII squat. Like many squats of it's kind in Amsterdam, it offers all kinds of cool activities including childrens' theatre, live music, dance and performance art, as well as being the location of libraries for alternative info, independent presses, and some renowned cafes, restaurants and music rehearsal spaces.

According to Dutch legislation, a house or building must be empty for a year before it can be “squatted”. There is a housing and public space shortage in Amsterdam so sqatting is still fundamentally about needing a roof over your head. But it is my impression that the squatter's movement in Amsterdam is less political than it was in the 80s and is now more of a social and cultural movement. Amsterdam is attracting more youth from the eastern countries who see squats as serving not only as a living space but as way to connect and integrate themselves into the social fabric as community volunteers. And if a group of progressive thinking people can make a claim to their squat as a community center, providing neigborhoods with events and opportunities that the community values, then the squat may acquire a better status approval and become more likely to get city support in keeping their squat. At least this is how it was explained to me. I just know the OCCII was damn cool and I would support it with my volunteer hours if I was actually a resident. As a traveler, I was certainly happy to spend my hard-earned euros at the bar and enjoy alternative music. That's what community is all about, and if squatters are turning abandoned buildings into living culural organisms then I can only shout out : Viva la Squatter's Movement! (Which is basically the statement seen here on the yellow banner.) And then I go home to Vermont and ask how do I start a squat in Burlington? Heck, everyone knows how bad the housing and public space shortage is there!

Thanks to Beth, I am able to recall some finer details of the night we visited the OCCII to see music as part of a benefit featuring three different hardcore punk bands. We had a bit of time finding the entrance, but with a little help of some street guys pointing us away from the sauna, then some spanish-speaking guys, leading us toward the front door, we finally found our way in. To continue to describe this place, I must quote Beth, because it was just as much a discovery for her as for me and she describes it as an informed local who can compare it to other places in the city.. so in Beth's words:




"The bar was actually quite extensive, offering a few different types of beer including a very tasty local brew, scotch, jenever, wine and port and all the drinks were very cheap by Amsterdam standards. The music was loud, fast and raw, bringing back some of my fondest memories from living in Albany, going to all-ages hardcore shows as a kid. After the last band finished and the slam-dancers had retreated to the corners of the room to smoke, people started sweeping up and, upon getting into a conversation with one guy, I came to find out that the place is entirely staffed by volunteers. In fact I was encouraged to join the collective, either helping clean up and man the bar during shows, or help cook in the squat's soup kitchen. I mean, who knew? I certainly didn't! Two years I've lived around the corner from this place, lamenting about the lack of affordable live music in Amsterdam, and it was right around the corner the whole time..."

Awesome huh? This is truly a success story about finding the local scenes that they don't tell you about in the guide books!

As for the anarchist element in Amsterdam's squatter movement. That's a whole other chapter I have yet to write about.

A Czech Flu

So here are more Amsterdam photos just to keep my travel logs moving along while I lay in bed with some kind of Czech flu...So much for the healing properties of Grög!

I Could Live on a Houseboat

I think I could live on a houseboat for awhile. I would keep my kayak on the deck along with my fruit trees, herbs, arugula and mustard greens. I left Amsterdam today. It was sunny and nearly 60 degrees F. Oh, how I wish I could stay.

Endless Improvements

I heard Beth swear in Dutch today. She is miffed by the endless obstruction of Amsterdam's ongoing construction. It seems the city never rests in it's effort to improve what's "already good enough," says Beth. I agree, it is a pain having to get off your bike or to leave the bike lane, or find another side street to get around all the construction. And it's not like the city provides detour routes or markings for bicyclists. Now the idea of marked bike lane detours may seem a bit overkill for people like me from the States; but when you spend your day, your week, your year, commuting by bicycle like so many Amsterdamers do, you might welcome being treated equally to a motorist in a construction zone! But for Beth, the issue is not really about providing detours. The issue is whether the constant improvements of city streets are really needed. As for my opinion on the matter? I really can't give an informed one. I'm simply grateful to my friends for making it possible to spend every day on a bicyle while I'm here..

The Amazing Healing Properties of Grög

I have returned to Amsterdam after visiting Berlin, Dresden, Praha, Karlovy Vary, and Harrachov in the Krkonose Mountains of the Ceska Republica. I might have lost 5 lbs the first week while bicycling all over Amsterdam, but quickly gained it back the last week in Ceska Republica with my friends's family in Praha. I enthusiastically abandonded my vegetarian ways, to survive... (knock on wood- because I mildly fell off Beth's bike today and wracked my wrist and neck a bit).... on a diet of good food, good people, music, minor language challenges, history, post-communism, and forgetting about my real life for awhile. But best of all, I return home cured of all ailments by the amazing healing properties of grög and the life enhancing, river-fed brew of Zdrave' Kvasnicove" Pivo.