Nah.
Rotterdam is definitely in my top three favourite cities I've ever seen though. Hands down. The architecture and the history and the fashion (and shopping) and the atmosphere.
Lets go through my day instead of jumping right into the amazingness that is Rotterdam.
I left Marike and Lasslo's today at around 11:30am. This was my first adventure in the Netherlands without a guide (other than Amsterdam). I took Marike's old bike and rode to the train station in Delft (that Google has no idea how to get to properly) and parked it and everything (and it wasn't stolen! My #1 fear of the day!) I then proceeded to the train ticket booth to purchase my ticket. Now I had expected to pay with Visa like I had all my other tickets. But the station in Delft only likes Maestro and I had no change. So I was a little panicked. After venturing around Delft for almost 45 minutes, I finally found a little toy store tucked in an alley way where I could exchange my 20 euro bill for some coins to buy my ticket. Walking back with my change, it occured to me that I could have just bought a ticket from the lady in the booth for 1 euro more....oh well. Live and learn right?
Rotterdam is only 12 minutes away from Delft, so I arrived fairly quickly. But on the train, I realized I hadn't eaten yet as I was so excited for my first excursion (that I had gotten a good night's sleep for) in the Netherlands. "Well, I'll just grab a quick bite at the nearest little European-style cafe I see when I get there," I thought.
Wrong.
I left Rotterdam Centraal to see cranes, dirt, fencing and piping. The only building I could see was the domineering Nationale Nederlands building.
Now it is important to understand that I was expecting a cute, little Dutch port city with maybe a few larger buildings, but still typically Dutch. My biggest miscalculation was the Rotterdam Blitz on 14 May 1940. The German attack on the city leveled it completely. However, the silver lining to this brutal, cruel and very unnecessary attack (the German's had already successfully negotiated the Dutch surrender before the Blitz) lies in the modern architectural Mecca that Rotterdam has become thanks to the municipal government in Rotterdam (and now the Dutch national government thanks to the recession) pumping a ton of money into the development of a world-class economic capital.
Anyways, still overwhelmed by this mammoth building that seemed to be staring me down, I searched for signage indicating where I could find information or a map. As a result, I stumbled upon the Manahattan Hotel, which smelled oddly like my Bubbie's house at Rosh Hashannah (don't ask me why). After I was provided with the cheap tourist map that only tells you a few of the street names, I was off!
I decided for some reason against using the map. Maybe I was lazy, but I stumbled into the shopping district in the middle of the city. While I was perusing the various selection of stores that I had never heard of, I stumbled upon the Rotterdam City Information Centre--again architecturally stunning for an Info Centre. The Info Centre had this amazing 3D model of the city with three projectors above it. There were three consoles that corresponded to each projector and you could get city history or tour routes and development plans by touching the screen and the projector would project your console's colour on to the 3D map. Ingenious! (Mom, I expect Coquitlam to have one within the year!)
After playing with my new toy for 15 minutes and creating my own little light show, I stumbled upon some similarities on the paper maps in the Centre, the map I got from the hotel and the 3D map. They all had the same "Roaming Rotterdam" path marked out. Well I thought that was a sign I should take on the 15km trek!
Unfortunately, the Info Centre wasn't on the route, so I just went to the closest, most interesting looking thing on the map--the Erasmusbrug. This gorgeous bridge was built in 1996 and is the most stunning bridge I've seen to date. It definitely beat out the Bay Area Bridges. This one was just too cool.After spending a lot of time just staring at the bridge (it seems dumb, but I was dumbstruck by how beautifully awesome it was), I ventured across it to see the new developments on the otherside. Most of Rotterdam looks to have been built in the last 3 decades. Across the Erasmusbrug was the KPN Tower, which looks like its falling over and being held up with a giant's toothpick. This is about the point where I started gawking at the buildings surrounding me.
So, dragging my jaw along the floor, I ended up at the Netherlands FotoMuseum.
I told myself before I left for my trip that I wasn't going to go spend my trip inside museums because I don't believe that's where the culture is. I don't want to be a tourist. I want to be an experienceist. So I was going to experience a city, not a museum.
But this museum just looked like I would like it and appreciate it. So I paid the student discount rate of a whopping 3.50 Euros and wandered the "Everyday Life in the 70s" exhibit.
The first collection I saw was by Kohei Yoshiyuki called "Park". He took photos in a park in Japan where young male prostitutes would look for johns. The pictures included men crawling on the ground to attract customers and a larger man covering what I assume to be a prostitute with his pants around his feet. At first glance, I thought "oh great. Here is a great representation of gay culture in the 70s." But it is what you would have to do back then, especially in a very conformational culture like Japan.
But it represented more than that.
It was a struggle. Yoshiyuki had to hide his camera equipment (equipped with infrared..I can only imagine how much that would have weighed) and attempted to capture precise moments where people could defiantly and--I can only imagine--sometimes violently unleash their sexual tension.
I was stuck on this collection for a while. Little did I know that Yoshiyuki would be laying out a theme for nearly all the collections to come.
One particularly moving collection was by Ana Mendieta. She poured a red blood-like liquid on the floor in her apartment in New York and let the blood run under the door and into the street. She sat across the street and photographed peoples reactions. None of them bothered to knock on the door to see if some ghastly domestic dispute had gone wrong--if they could save someone's life. They all just looked and left.
The most witty collection was from Laurie Anderson (not sure if the link is to the same one, but she's the only one I can find on Wikipedia). This brilliant woman called her series "Fully Automatic Nikon (Object/Objection/Objectivity)." She decided that she would use her camera as a weapon against misogynistic men who would call out to her in the street. She would be the object of their desire, she would object, and then ask to take their photo--objectivity.
Can you find the connection yet?
All of these exhibits had to do with sex and power, which isn't really what I thought about when I thought of the 70s. But the world was being turned upside down: Vietnam, Men on the Moon, the Oil Crisis, Watergate, the Iranian Revolution, etc. Power was one of the most uncertain things in the world at the time.
It still is.
But in the 70s, people had no idea what to expect or how to keep the power they had or gain the power they didn't have. Yoshiyuki showed us how to create power. Mendieta showed us how we can choose to ignore what is within our power (or our responsibility, as Marike points out). And Anderson shows us how to take away someone's power.
All of this was done through exploring our most primal instinct: sex. You might be thinking that Mendieta's pieces are a bit of a stretch to fit in to the "sex" category, but her intention (according to the museum blurb) was to create the air of a domestic dispute gone wrong. When the chaos around us is gone, we are only left with our primal, animal instincts: eat, sleep, drink, fuck. When we attempt to establish power, people will look to all those things because they are the only things you can truly control. Eating disorders can be caused by the feeling of loss of control in life. My Dad has been known to go to sleep when he's frustrated (my mom loves it when he does that in the middle of an argument). I don't think alcoholism needs any explanation. And well, these exhibits show us how we can try and change our power structure.
That was my educational growth experience for the day--and it was a heavy one, now that I've written it all out. Whew.
After the FotoMuseum, I made my way back over the bridge to the Kunsthal for an espresso in the cafe to keep my energy up. From there I walked the Museum Garden and throughout the city. To list all the buildings that caught my eye and made my chin graze the sidewalk would take hours.
I just think that when I make enough money, I'll fly a large group of friends out to stay with me in my new designer skyscraping hotel that I'll have constructed in Rotterdam. They'll be free to spend the day in Rotterdam, but will have to report in their best party gear for a night on the town. Sound good? Awesome! Keep checking the mail for your invitation, plane ticket and room key.
Meanwhile, back in reality, I took the train back to humble, quiet Delft and sat in the Markt square to ground myself after being in the bustling modern metropolis. It amazes me that within 10 minutes I can go from modern skyscraper to quaint village cafe in the same country. The contrast is so wonderfully odd and enlightening. It feels like every environment that I need to thrive is only a stones throw away.
Well this post got long quick. They always seem to do that.
I'll have to post again later on the increased ability to use common sense in Europe, like I told Marike I would.
But for now, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I go have lunch with Leo in Oss and then I stay with Leo and Carla (Marike's parents) for a night before heading to Leuven to start my course.
Cheers!
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