Ashamed in Amsterdam

I was truly a tourist in Amsterdam. I mean, truly. I’m so embarrassed to admit it, but I got on one of those canal cruise tours…with a bunch of old people. The excuse goes something like this: I was only in Amsterdam for a layover, awaiting my flight to Rome. I had six hours, and had heard that it is amazingly easy and quick to get into the heart of the city within that amount of time. This is definitely true. Within an hour of landing, I had gone through customs, stored my luggage in a locker, got on a train, and was at Amsterdam Centraal station. I got off the train, walked around for a bit, and then decided what the hell, I’ll get on the boat. Since I only had a couple hours, I figured a one-hour boat ride was probably my best bet to see the city. That it was…but…god I felt like such an ass! It’s a funny thing to say, but I was embarrassed to be on the boat, even though the only people who knew I was on the boat were those with me…on the boat.

Here’s my deal when traveling: I love traveling, but I hate being a tourist. Rarely do I even visit the “must see” places anywhere I go. I enjoy much more just being in a place, wandering around, seeing what I find. I do not want to travel with a checklist of things to do and see. Whatever happens is what happens, and that’s how I like it.

So during this canal cruise—which, by the way, was narrated by a recorded audio message telling my fellow cruisers and me what we were seeing—I found myself wishing I had earplugs. The city was absolutely beautiful. I mean, beautiful—so vibrant with color, really quiet, bicycles everywhere. But I really wanted the narrator to shut the hell up, because I didn’t really care what kind of roof I was seeing, or which government official lived in that house, or whatever else was said that I tried to tune out. I also wished I could say, “Stop, wait, can we stop here!?!?” several times. I move slowly when I travel, because I really look at things. I ponder colors, textures, buildings, people, activity…and I like to take photographs. I found myself crying inside as I passed by many things while in the boat, thinking, “Arghhhhh!!! I want to look at that more! I want to photograph it!” And not, “I want to snap a quick photo from the boat,” which I did because it’s all I could do.

All in all, I’m still glad I got on the boat. And I’m glad I bothered to go into the city at all. I debated whether it would be worth the trouble, thinking maybe I should just wait it out in the airport. But I decided to go for it, and am happy I did. The boat allowed me to see more than I would have seen otherwise, but I can’t help thinking that maybe if I’d just spent two hours walking around (hopefully not getting lost), I would have had a more authentically Audrey experience. Oh well…c’est la vie…lesson learned! Or rather, confirmed.