I have met a beautiful soul in rainy Amsterdam - Netherlands | Diary of a Refugee from Ukraine
Just a regular rainy day in Amsterdam, as usual, with crowded streets, bike lanes, rail stations, and bursting sounds of transport and people everywhere. For more than a year I have been staying in the Netherlands and still I haven't seen the entire Amsterdam yet. I think this sounds familiar to many people that you never get the chance to explore actually where you live for a long time. I had a scheduled meet-up with someone, in Amsterdam. I was going to meet her in person. I was excited because I have known her for a while through blockchain, Hive blockchain. So, I left home without seeing the actual location, well I was overconfident because I knew that the location was in Amsterdam, what could go wrong?
After taking the train, I looked at the location once again and realized, I had taken the wrong train. LOL... Well, surprisingly I was not panicked because this happened to me before. And like usual, my therapist told me once that you will never get lost in the Netherlands, you just have to spend more time on transportation and traveling if something goes wrong; that's it.
So, instead of 30 minutes to reach Destiny, I had to spend around 30 minutes extra. The final destination arrived and I texted her that I arrived and waiting for her. No more suspense, well I went to meet one of the beautiful Hive souls @corvidae. She flew to the Netherlands all the way from Portland to stay a few hours in the Netherlands. After the meet and greet, my first question was How is Pilot, where he is, with whom he is now? Because I knew Pilot was her world and actually our conversation on Hive started because of Pilot. I have known @corvidae for a while, since 2020 when I adopted Gigi, my dog. She left a lot of tips for me and we used to talk a lot about Gigi and Pilot on the blockchain. Well, our furbabies are the main reason for our meet-up. That's why people say, two unknown souls become friends easily because of your furry companions.
Ann was not alone, she was staying in Amsterdam with her friend Sreya who also speaks Bengali (my language). I found out later that her ancestors are related to my ancestors. What a small world. We started talking and it felt like we had known each other for a very long time. We were not unknown in fact I didn't feel that we were meeting for the first time. Ann was tired because of 9 hours flight, she couldn't rest at all so we took some time to figure out what we were going to do next. Ann is really a soft-spoken, polite person; I have never met such polite individuals in life.
Finally, after a long conversation, we decided to take a walk in Amsterdam Central. Her hotel was in Amsterdam West so from her location to Amsterdam Central, it took 45 minutes by tram. When we reached the center to experience the nightlife of Amsterdam, the rain started. Unfortunately, when it rains in Amsterdam, you can walk but you cannot experience the beauty of the city because rain can be annoying when you want to see locations properly.
Our first sightseeing point was Dam Square, it's a very common area for me and people from all over the world to come here to see the historical Dam Square, royal palace, church, and Madame Tussauds Amsterdam. Ann was taking the photos while I was just walking here and there. Why I didn't take any photos!! I don't know, probably I was acting more of a local with Ann. LOL...
Rain also disrupted our photography time but we didn't stop because our schedule was packed. Ann had to travel again in the morning so we tried to keep our exploration short and simple.
Later we decided to see canals near Red Light District. Oh gosh, it was a weekend night and the crowd was insane there. Nobody cared about the rain, all were enjoying the activities of the Red Light District. I assumed that the entire tourist community was there at that moment. We couldn't even walk properly.
I managed to take some photos and edited them in the Dark theme. Probably you will have difficulties understanding the photos...
As I said, we barely could see anything in Red Light District because of the rain and crowd. We spent some time on a bridge at De Wallen, Ann took some photos and then we decided to head back again to Amsterdam West. Maybe one day I will go to De Wallen again to take photos of vibrant and spicy nights in the Red Light District.
Saying goodbye was not so easy with Ann because I felt like our meetup time was small and I wanted to spend more time with her. But it is what it is, I was really happy to see her finally. She came all the way just to meet me and it was all I could expect from her who never saw me before. Thank you @corvidae once again...
Because of Hive, again I was able to meet a beautiful community soul. I came from Ukraine because of War so this meetup means a lot to me.
Love
Priyan...
I am @priyanarc.... An architect, a dreamer, and a passionate writer who loves to write about life. I try to present my own perspective and experiences. Please leave your feedback and criticism because it's the only way I can know and reach your mind and thoughts easily...
Find me on:
All images used are captured by the author...
Sounds like you had a lovely meeting with your blockchain friend, despite the weather. How unusual that you also found out that you had shared ancestors!
It was really nice meeting someone with a similar mentality and language, she was @covidae (Anna's friend). Anna is really an awesome woman, I am sure whoever will meet her in person will say how much polite she is in person.
That is lovely to hear. Those real connections we make are what makes our lives worth living 🥰 !HUG
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @fantagira.
(2/3)
Completely agree with you, thanks for stopping by...
This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens. HP delegators and IUC token holders also get upto 20% additional vote weight.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @steemflow by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited.
Thank you so much @steemflow and @indiaunited for this support...
Thank you so much @ewkaw and qurator...
wish u guys well
Thank you...
Congratulations @priyanarc! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 2500 posts.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
Sometimes taking the wrong train can lead to unexpected experiences and memorable encounters..This is also part of learning if I am correct.Your your time in Netherland and have a lovely moment to remember.
That is true but sometimes it causes extra stress when I am in a hurry. If I jump on the wrong train or a bus, I normally panic if there is a time shortage. But when I have enough time, I like to see new station :D
I hope my small life in the Netherlands will stay in memory forever...
I'm sure it will cus you will be able to do that
It was a great meeting. I definitely agree with you about not seeing the whole city where you live. Especially when I was with my husband, even though we went places in Istanbul every day, there were still so many places to see in the city. I'm sorry you got on the wrong train, but mistakes like that happen a lot in a new place, I got on the wrong train in Norway and I couldn't stay as calm as you did. I panicked a lot...😅
Me too but I try to calm down because otherwise I know I will be lost and won't be able to figure out easily where to go. But the positive fact about the Netherlands is it's a very small country and transportation is always available. But I know what you meant because I sometimes panic a lot...
Wonderful your encounter with that soul connected to yours. I'm so glad you enjoyed this meeting. 🤗❤️
I am also happy seeing her. Hive community is amazing and because of Hive, I was able to make some real-life/ online friends as well. I still cannot believe I met her in person :D
I'm pleased that your meet up went well for you all. It's very easy to catch the wrong train. I get quite confused at train stations, so when I get on the correct train, I shock myself!
Then I am not alone I guess who easily becomes stressed if something goes wrong. I thought due to my anxiety issue, I felt the same. But on that note, my psychologist did a good job by giving small tips that stay in my mind. The meet-up moment was really nice and I didn't even realize how fast time flew away...
Trust me, a lot of people get anxiety over different things. I have a friend who was really stressed taking a train journey that was only 15 minutes long. She's a lot better at it now, but if anything went wrong she would poo her pants. I was trying to be polite there .... 😁
😊😊😊 Soft-spoken, yes, that's me! So often I hear "what?? and "speak up, I can't hear you!" I'm glad you appreciated this aspect of my character.
I think my favorite part of the trip was when we were talking on the train ride back to my hotel, once we got away from the noisy, angry drunk girls and the crazy singing guy in the priest gown, lol.
Ah, that part I totally forgot to mention, those drunk angry girls were super loud and excited. You remember one of them from the group was offering drinks to the Blind as well, lol... I remember that priest gown guy quite well because he is constantly saying "Cocaine is for rich people" :D Hahahaha... That's Amsterdam :D
Wasn't the priest also carrying around a toy VW Bus is a box? LOL. I wish we had more of that kind of nutty people wandering Portland streets.
Oh yes, I remember that as well. We could have seen more if we had time :D. Just like that lonely shoe...
Wow, it was indeed a great meeting, I'm so sorry you got on the wrong train. You're so right about living in a city for so long and not getting to see most of it, I'm in that shoe presently.
Yes, I don't know what could be the reason but maybe because we live there so we don't think about seeing the city properly. We travel and try to explore most of it but when it comes to our city, we don't even pay attention...
When you figure out suddenly that you caught the wrong train; that feeling is stressful and shocked :D ...
I am very glad that you were able to share and have a good time with such kind people.
Best wishes to you, take care.
What a special meeting you had! I love the crow photos from @corvidae. They are awesome!
I have to secretly laugh when I read your blog. You've been living in the Netherlands for a year now and you're surprised that you haven't seen Amsterdam completely yet? Let me tell you a little secret, I have lived in the Netherlands all my life, and I dare say with certainty that you know more about Amsterdam than I do. I've been there maybe 3 times in my entire life, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I don't live directly nearby, I live in the countryside of the Netherlands in North Brabant where public transport is not a given, (5km to the nearest bus stop, and 5km to the nearest supermarket, so you have an idea of the countryside), and just thinking about a trip to a city like Amsterdam can make me panic. This even happens when I have to visit Den Bosch (the nearest big city to me). A visit like that takes so much out of me that I already get upset. And then I need a few days to recover. Let's just say 'something about anxiety'.