Low Down

Was overwhelming over Amsterdam. It is going to be back soon. In the meantime for the past couple of weeks everyone cools itself as much as possible, whenever it's possible. You may swim in the North Sea - but it is for the really brave ones, the water is a couple of degrees cooler than the air, it is a risk of getting a thermal shock, someone with a fragile health condition may end up with a cardiac assert or a stroke! Drink liters of water constantly, unfortunately, You will not have an opportunity to cool Yourself  at an open swimming pools - scarcely You find some in Amsterdam. Mostly because Holland is exposed to the sea, has got lots of canals, lakes, rivers. The lakes and the rivers are the places where You can swim and enjoy the summer's heat! The tips I follow every summer: I drink a lot of water, do not sunbath at noon, wear light clothes, at any circumstances do I cool myself in the canals or the city fountains - some tourists do, I hope they do not catch ...

 How to spend a day? I woke up in the morning and decided to go to Eurooport. The most far fetched corner of Holland widespread, consisting of thousands docks and shipyards. I saw only a tip of an iceberg, by no means , fascinating, worth to see. The ships were incredibly beautiful. Modern, old, super-yachts, all kinds of. Why was it so important for me to go and see this spot? Holland ’s culture and history are both rooted into the seas’ waves. The seas shaped Holland , built its prosperity, opened it to overseas entrepreneurship. I read a lot about history of the country I live in, I self-study Dutch. All aspects are important. A bit of History Holland was not that goody-goody as it might have seemed in XVII century, the wars, the constant wars with England over East Indies forced Dutch to use much more of its ingenuity to built a fleet, the naval forces much stronger and powerful to crush Britons. They finally succeeded, placing Prince William III of Orange on the English th...

It was Rod Steward's song sang once upon a time. It must have been a song about a broken heart and fatal love, the one You never forget or forgive - depends on personality traits! I am not going to write about an unhappy love, even though I'm alone I'm happy and lonely doesn't mean - being alone, not at all.  I am going to write about a cut and a Dutch medical service - which in my case was brilliant . I'd call it fantastic.  There was a time, some time ago I  badly cut my finger or rather it was my ring (not a wedding ring, to be precise ) which did it. All the blame is put on the ring - it suffered as well - it itself must have been cut asunder by ...a saw. Believe me or not it was the most horrifying experience I have ever had! The ring surely will be given to the jeweler to be fixed, my finger, though, had been already put together - it is fixing, bandaged all the time, soon I will be happy-go-lucky! At the ER The nurse too...

Is expensive, in comparison to other European capital cities - only Stockholm and Helsinki appear to be much more expensive, I'd call it 'bloody expensive'. For an average person Amsterdam will be associated with sex & drugs - mostly, but believe me it's more than have stands here or there. For me it's a modern capital with cultural cache, very easy-going to live, to stay, to be, attracting entirely everyone, immigrants, tourists, dwellers. History lovers will see in Amsterdam a risque debauchery.  Amsterdam is know for its canals, more than 400 of them twisting around it, crosses it and make shot cuts at every corner,  not surprisingly 2013 year is so important for the Netherlands, Amsterdam will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of so-called  Grachtengordel - four concentric canals which were built in 17th century. In 1999 UNESCO enlisted them at World...