Amsterdam - Van Gogh and 'Coffeeshops'

After spending our time at Madurodam, we head off to Amsterdam itself. I really like the buildings in amsterdam. There's a lot of water in Amsterdam. Big canals with houses built alongside it. I like the whole look of this place, I can't help but include all this nice scenery.


Houses built alongside the canal

Same layout through the area. Water and houses

Bright and cheery day!

Just more and more pictures of the canals and houses.


One of my favs. Postcard photograph!

Similar big windows as like those seen in Rotterdam












Such coffee shops are seen abundantly in Amsterdam. Except they aren't the innocent coffeeshops you see back home. A coffeshop is somewhere u can obtain weed, as compared to normal eateries like a restaurant or pub. They put weed into just about anything. In the coffee shops, you can get weed joints, cookies, cakes, milkshakes, etc. In the small shops about Amsterdam, you can get weed candy, lollipops, chips anything. Before I came to Amsterdam, I didn't know that you could intake weed this way. Be careful though, consumption by mouth can be more potent than smoking, even if they are in the guise of innocent lollies. They also take a longer time to take effect as opposed to smoking, usually about an hour, so don't start taking more and more in the beginning, just because you think that there is no effect!

Somemore sightseeng...





Arriving at Amsterdam, we went to visit the Van Gogh Museum. Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch painter, generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art history.The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. He discovered impressionism and liked its use of light and colour, more than its lack of social engagement. He especially liked the technique known as pointillism (where many small dots are applied to the canvas that blend into rich colors only in the eye of the beholder, seeing it from a distance) made its mark on Van Goghs own style.


At the Van Gogh Museum


Postcards at the Giftshop, showing pointillism





Sunflowers, a series of still life oil paintings that Van Gogh painted, is one of his most famous works. One such picture was shown in the museum, but we were not allowed to take photographs of it. This is off the net.






Another two famous paintings one should know by Van Gogh is Cafe Terrence at Night (right) and Starry Night(left).

After the Van Gouh Museum, we decided to explore Amsterdam a little more.


Checking out Amsterdam's night life, particularly the coffee shops


This coffee shop was recommended by Dom's Dutch friend. However, its so popular that a scene in Oceans Twelve was shot here. It's crowded and looks more fancy than the other coffeeshops around. We decided not to go in.


Just another Coffee shop, called Homegrown Fantasy.

Day3-Zaanse Schans and Red light district

Rotterdam - another sexual encounter

Zhiqiang, Dom, Jenley and I decide to go off to Netherlands for the weekend. Zhiqiang said that Netherlands was well-known for the tulips that usually bloom in Mid-March. Although it was still early March, I was still hopeful that we would catch some early bloomers.

The Plan: Stockholm --> Rotterdam --> The Hague --> Amsterdam --> Brussels--> Stockholm.

However, as the plane flies across Netherlands, we see that Netherlands is covered all in snow. So any hopes to see tulips are completely dashed. Any potential budding tulips are covered under a feet or more of snow. According to Dom, I'm not sure if he was just speaking nonsense, it only snows a few days in Netherlands every year, so we were really kind of unlucky. So much for escaping from Stockholm to a warmer place. We arrive at Rotterdam Airport.

It doesn't take very long for all of us to fall in love with Netherlands because it's such a pretty place. Once we got off the metro at Delfshaven, a more historic area of Rotterdam, we see rows of old buildings built alongside the quay. We noticed that most of the houses have very big windows. According to Qiang, this is because, in the past, the people were taxed according to the size of their doors. Therefore there were some modifications made to the style of architecture in Netherlands. People started building houses with small doors, but big, low windows, so that they would move their furniture through the windows instead. These windows also serve another purpose in the red-light district.


Historical Delfshaven


Big windows


Alongside the Quay



After Delfshaven, we walk to Euromast brasserie, where its said to provide a dazzling view of Rotterdam. However, it's not worth to price to go up and we think we have seen enough of Rotterdam from the plane, so we head on to our next stop.


Euromast

Kijk-Kubus are actually these crazy-looking houses that look like cubes balanced on one of their corners and these are actually houses for the locals. However, one of the houses was opened for viewing, sort of like a show-house for visitors curious to know how its like living in such an apartment. However, it really isn't anything great inside. You just see regular furniture u see in a house and can skip going in.


Kijk-Kubus aka Cube house


looks like upside-down windows to me


Cube houses. Homes with a twist.

After Cube House, we go to Museum Boijmans. As luck would have it, there happens to be a 'Alles Dali', Everything Dali exhibition going on there. Jenley is very happy because she likes his works. There happens to be some function going on in the museum today, so we were allowed to go in for free and save our 12 euros.

One of Dali's most famous work is the rainning clock. Besides paintings, Dali also works with fashion, photography, advertising and design.



Dali's unique photographs (with Dom trying to be a part of them ^0 ^)

There is no photoshop edit involved in these photos. He suspended the objects with thin string. The woman had to jump repeatedly, the cat and water was thrown up hundreds of times before Dali obtained the effect he wanted. By then, the photographer had used up something like 60 rolls of film.

In Netherlands, you can reuse the bus tickets as long as it is within the hour. And because they always stamp a later time, you usually get to reuse it if it is within one and a half hour.After Museum Boijmans, we realised we could make it in time to reuse our bus ticket and rushed off to see the Erasmus Bridge. The weather wasn't all the fantastic and we weren't in the mood for a stroll on the Bridge. We took some quick photos and took the tram to the city centre to window shop and to find dinner.


Erasmus Bridge



At the city centre, we shop around. Since I've been on exchange, I haven't gone shopping for ages! So we window shop around a bit. Naturally, I get attracted to this chocolate shop. I can feel Easter's approach with the dozens of chocolate rabbits and eggs displayed. Just looking at the pretty easter goodies for sale make me happy. haha!






Just a nice church we passed along the way looking for food.

Dinner is pizza!

Haha, sorry for the crude heading. It's just simply... the truth is sex sells. And this story is quite interesting and I want to make sure you guys read this instead of skimming through my words.

Okay, so late at night, we finally head back to Stayokay Rotterdam for a good day's rest. There were 4 of us but we checked into a 8 man bedroom. We asked if there was anyone in the room yet and the lady said that we were the only ones in the room now but anyone who checks in later could probably be put in the room. Fair enough... We head into the room and occupy the 4 beds furthest from the door, so that we do not get disturbed if other people enter the room later on in the night. We're probably asleep by 12 midnight.

Late at night at I have no idea what time, I am awakened by someone opening the door noisily. Crap... I kind of guessed its some other people who have checked into the room, but I don't bother and fall asleep again. However, after a while later, I am awoken again, this time by the sound of the bed creaking away. (hostel beds are not very sturdy yeah?) and what's this? I hear some moans and groans. I've just woken up and am rather stunned and blur at first. And then the woman's moaning gets louder and louder and the situation becomes clear to me. The newcomers to the room are having sex right there and then in the room! Cannot believe it... How can you have sex while there are another 4 strangers sleeping in the room. By this time, I see and hear and know the other 3 are awake as well. I have no idea when they woke up, but by the time I'm awake, the couples' noises have already woken the rest as well. We are either too polite or too embarassed to move from our beds though. I just try to block out the noises and try to sleep. In the morning, when I wake up, almost everyone is up and about already. When I try to get out of bed to go to the toilet, Dom tells me to wait a while. According to him, the couple areout and about somewhere outside in the coridor and both of them are totally naked! Argh! In fact, Dom speaks of how he innocently helped open the door for the lady and there she was standing totally nude in front of him. It's rather hilarious, but I definitely don't want to bump into them out there. In fact, I think dom said he opened the door for her twice or thrice.. hmm.. lucky guy? She's supposedly has a rather good figure.

After a short wait, Dom and I decide to head for the toilets together. I go into the ladies cubicle while Dom waits for the male cubicle. After I'm done and out, Dom is still waiting his turn and we wonder who is taking so long inside. Then we hear the sounds. Some moaning and groaning come from behind the door and we realised that they are at it again, this time in the toilet! We return to our rooms after washing up. Zhiqiang then updates all of us with the timings. Poor Zhiqiang was awake since they came into the room at about 5.30am and heard everything from zips to the loud moans that woke me at about 6.30am. I think we only got up for breakfast at 8am in the morning.

After some time, the two of them return to the room, thankfully with undies on. The girl suddenly seems shy, and hides behind the blankets. The male on the otherhand, stands there in this undies and starts making conversation with us, asking us where we are from. And he says something like... "It's so funny how you guys keep apologising when we help you guys open the door. We should be the ones apologising for disturbing you from your sleep." And we all mumur something like.."it's okay..." What else can we say!? And we go on making conversation and he says he's from Stockholm! and we say that by coincidence we are from Stockholm too and start asking him where is his exact location in Stockholm. Then it turns out that he was lying and they are actually locals who just needed a place to stay for the night. Ahah...

Day2-Amsterdam

Measurement Systems Project

Today, we finally had our lab demonstration and individual oral presentation for our Measurement Systems module. Now I can formally say adios to our lab set up.

Basically, we have a 3 different motors connected to a piezo-electric accelerometer which transmits current to the voltage convertor and then to the voltage amplfier and finally to 3 cascaded filters. After that the signal is received and read via a software we design on Labview and we can identify the frequency of the motors through the Fourier Spectrums displayed.

A picture for memorysake.