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Its hard not to fall in love with Amsterdam at first sight. From the first canal you will see, as well as the very next canal which is identical to the previous one you just past, Amsterdam will give you a sweet rejoice about the decision you made to move here and not in rainy London or some other grey city in the UK, which lets face it, they already told you the weather was lousy!
You hear music from all nearby squares, you see colors, smell the atmosphere -and the paranoia kicks in for you that understand what the smell is(!), walking and feeling Amsterdam's sensuality hugging you, either on the Red light street but also on other smaller streets of the center or even on the tram, where that nice looking guy is checking you out but you don't have a clue about it, yet! You are now a European, you tell your self and smile, but deep down inside you know that you still have a long way to go.
Days pass by and you change. You don't realize it at once but this special European oxygen you are breathing here (the air is safe here after all, no one is spraying you - or are they?) has began changing the way you think. You no longer swear, you don't honk, you don't fight on the street. I mean, what's up with these people and they are so calm? What kind of medication are they on? you wander at the moment you are trying to get across the street while fighting and balancing through trams, bikes and tourists.
Because lets face it, tourists now "annoy" you! They don't know how to cross the street, they stand 30 hours in front of Madam Tussaud’s, filling up the sidewalk or are always in danger to be hit by anything with wheels or electricity! But you were well trained for all that chaos already. How can Spui street compare with Thessalonikis Tsimiski street at 2am on a Saturday, where as another Kostas Douvalidis, you were jumping over railings and through 3 rows of cars that were waiting for the light to go green, plus the 2 more rows of double parked cars and all that in no time and without an accident.
Here you find the time and calm you need to do things for your own yourself. You can relax in the afternoon, light up a cigarette, open the window, close the window (cause you realized how stupid that was!) and put on some nice music on the background. You can go out for a walk and discover bands and sounds that are hidden but also in plain sight and spread throughout the city. Rock, Funk, Soul and even Jazz, played by passionate musicians that "sell" their passion for 50 euros per night, in the small music "nests" that house them or on the huge spaces that advertise them. The city can take you for a trip anywhere you want. The people can take you, the sounds can, the smells can, but after all, everybody is here for a different reason. Have you found yours yet?
The photos were taken from my good friend & photo-ninja Thrasos Panou.
Born in Volos in 1980. As a kid was filled many concerns about life. Sports lover, naturalist and big fan of travelling. He has majored in multimedia development and the past few years he's grown passionate for photography and photo editing. His purpose is to offer the world the best images one can shoot and edit. Believes that everybody has an artist inside. It only takes for one to believe in himself. You can find about more at Thrasos website: Thrasivoulos Panou Photography
