I have two updates in my travelogue, following this summer.
Ohrid is a city in Macedonia and also the name of the big-ass lake the city is situated at. Said big-ass lake was marvelous and easily my favourite part - but I tend to be attracted to places where landmasses end and waterworlds continue. It's even more wondrous since Macedonia seems a reasonably mountainous region, yet the hills and such have a mild profile, nothing rugged or sharp to behold, ondulating until they sink into the lake region.
I was there with business during a wind & brass instruments' competition, but the lengthy, week-long stay and the schedule allowed for plenty of free time to visit the surroundings. Touristic opportunities make it so that the shore is packed, yet tasteful enough - with numerous restaurants and clubs, boats and taxiboats sailing from the harbour, a few small beaches. I imagine it's what other Baltic towns by the lake or out in the Adriatic, like say Dubrovnik, might all present, more or less.
A long stretch of the shoreline can be walked both ways from the harbour, on one side a promenade leading to the Galicica National Park, with a couple of beach clubs or resorts along the way, on the other side the cliffs above Kaneo Beach, leading upwards towards the city's Samuel Fortress. The fortress itself is simple, left just in its shell, but offering the chance to gaze further down that beaut of a lake. The old town gave me such a strong impression of Alfama in Lisbon, with perhaps even more see-saw and bending paths; in fact, the roads and small houses sometimes blend and interconnect in such a way, at least twice I think I entered someone's garden by accident, thinking it was more like a belvedere. Ohrid is also remembered for its Christian historicity, having been once dubbed the city with 365 churches, one for each calendar day, and I reckon I encountered around a dozen in my walks. Not entirely essential to check inside, but still worthwhile seeing at least a few, since they're very old, 5th century even, basilicas and such. Unfortunately, this still being a Balkan city, the urban side of the town is nothing to write home about, quite as plain as it can get, but it was not significant, since the lake shore is clearly the main focus. I'd say around three days of sightseeing in the old town, plus a boat trip to Saint Naum, further down the lake, near the border with Albania, covers the city's potential. It's not much, but it was charming enough. And also that lake. Did I mention the lake? Yes, the lake. Lake. Such lake.
Amsterdam wouldn't have been really anywhere near my personal next choice, when it comes to big city holidays - there's something about it, or Venice, or Milan, or a couple others, that seems just too popular and oft-visited as to fully attract me (right now I still have no inclination to visit Venice, for instance...) - buuut since my parents decided to go there this year (they did on their own Paris and Rome the previous two years), I said what the heck and joined them and thus checked it off my list. Don't worry, it turned out better that I make it sound with this introduction. It was a good to great city, if somewhat varying between these two, depending on which place you visit.
We stayed in a super convenient location near the three big Museums and Concertgebouw and Vondelpark, from which we could afterwards branch out in different sides of the canal web-like centre. This is quite the biker town and you'll get rekt if you aren't careful, but I'd say that after a day or two, you get used to it, just like getting used (...hopefully) to cars driving the "wrong" way in England. Vondelpark (the small sized Hyde Park of Amsterdam, if you will) made for seven consecutive blissful early mornings spent in it, having my yoghurt and Pepsi on a bench, taking photos of doggos and ducks and joggers, putting some good old Focus or Supersister on the headphones... all a perfect fit.
Really though, this side of the city (and probably further towards the outer skirts) felt so relaxed, natural, easy-going, harmonious, it sort of contrasted heavily with the feeling of entering a genuine Babel once inside the canal quarters. We were rather unfortunate to arrive during the final days of the annual Pride events (don't think my parents did it on purpose, at least), which meant that the centre was insanely packed and loud and tumultuos. We didn't actually catch those parades by the canals, but there were still a lot of parties afterwards, on every street or in Dam Square. At first, I viewed it as amusing and eventful, but two hours later, you were guaranteed to start getting migraines.
Speaking of which, I tracked down Llama at one of these gay parties.
Even after the party was over, the city remained a bustling place. A bit too much at times, for my own taste. There are really a fudgeton of tourists, inversely proportionaly with how much space there is to move around and be able to breathe, with countless narrow-ish canal streets, tourist attractions and so on. My last evening promenade in town probably summed it up best: there were places like Leidseplein or Rembrandtsplain that were so packed, it felt like an inferno, but then you'd reach a canal where a jazz festival was being held, in the open, free for all to stay and listen to, and then you'd realize just how creative the city can get in certain ways.
There are in theory a lot of museums and places to fill up your schedule. The three main significant museums were all ok - Van Gogh would probably be the swaggiest, given its tremendous collection; the floors were organized in a bit of predictable fashion, with time periods and life narratives and such, but it hardly matters when you find yourself starring at
The Potato Eaters or one of the sunflower paintings - plus Van Gogh's own sprawling, frantic, everchanging stylistic impulses made up for it anyway. Stedelijk is a solid contemporary museum, if a bit heavy on covering De Stijl, lines-and-squares abstractions, plus it really depends what temporary exhibitions there are. Lastly, if you can prioritize what you want to see the most at Rijksmuseum (which we did) instead of perusing through absolutely every room (which we didn't), you're bound to have a good time. Personally, right now I only recall the Vermeers and Rembrandts from that place, but it was enough, since they're just breathtaking. We also notably covered some Bansky and Dali exhibitions at MoCo and a Gordon Parks gallery at the Museum of Photography.
There were furthermore places which I turned out describing as "very decent", despite them not usually constituting a serious attraction for me. I don't usually care for the inner room decorations and silverware within palaces, yet the Royal Palace was straightforward and decent enough. I don't usually care for memorial houses or famous house museums, yet Rembrandt's House was quite well put together and, yes, Anne Frank's House was decent.
BTW, booking in advance (which we did), at least for Van Gogh and Anne Frank is
absolutely mandatory, otherwise you will simply suffer tremendously at those queues. I think we reached Westerkerk the day before we had Anne Frank's House scheduled and we saw a line that almost circled the big church once. Insane in the membrane.
Brief escapes from the city included a trip to Zandvoort, on the seashore (very pleasant), the windmills at Zaanse Schans (pleasant, pastoral, worth a few hours, if again, way too freakin' crowded) and to Muiderslot Castle and Pampus Fortress, out in the sea gulf - all within short, hourly bus or train distances.
If you're into canal cruises, whatever, I'm personally averse to them in general, but had to please my parents and, surprise, it was flat out boring and I didn't feel there was anything I couldn't have covered on foot - and even did.
The one thing I can't truly give a verdict on is whether I got a distinct, unique pulse from this city. With its water veins and red-brick homogeneity of houses, it felt at least 80% Hamburg - which I liked, perhaps even a bit more than Amsterdam; a bit more spacious and open. The other 20%? Well I guess there was also a whiff of british vibe to a few quarters. Did I enjoy my stay there? Absolutely (well, in my own way at least; I don't tend to show it...). Did it sometimes fell under the weight of its popularity? Kinda. Could I imagine myself ever living there? If I'd ever strike gold, the thought would be entertainable. Did it get the balance between an in-demand hot spot and a veritable inner jewel of a town? Eeech I'd say the jury is still out on that one. With a bit of travel experience in Europe, it might, just might fell short of being all-around memorable and distinct.
Power rankings updated:
0. On top of the Vesuvius, during a surreal foggy, cloudy weather in slow anticipation of a seething rainstorm, whilst listening to
Zeit
1. Florence
2. Lisbon
(=====================good friggin' luck beating the above, thus far===================)
3. Paris (I'm including Versailles in here)
4. Budapest
5. Bruges
6. Vienna
7. Algarve (Lagos, specifically)
8. Hamburg
9. London
10. Rome
11. Amsterdam
12. Prague
13. Siena
14. Berlin
15. Pompeii
16. Paola
17. Ohrid
18. Maribor
19. Sagres
20. Oostende
21. Cosenza
22. Fatima
Too transitory to count: Antwerp, Belgrade, Cascais, Munchen, Szeged
