*Amsterdam, a home away from home

reflections of a time past

Sometimes I lose track of what is and what isn’t familiar.  I can wake up in my own bed, surrounded by all of the elements involved in my habitual routine, and it takes me a moment to figure out where I am.  Other times, I can be thousands of miles away from home and feel as if I fit, I belong to the space I occupy.  All of us are, to an extent, just fumbling around this rock getting on with our lives, some of us possibly contributing more to the greater human experience than those of us photoblogging or whatever, but I’d like to think that certain places call us, mean more to us, regardless of our personal histories, and for some reason beyond my personal comprehension, just seem to make sense.  Like a familiar smell transporting me back to childhood, or meals reminding me of past occasions, Amsterdam has always just felt like home.

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*Amsterdam’n it.

It’s funny.  When I mention to folks that I go to Amsterdam on an annual basis, many of them get a glazed look in their eye, the corners of their mouths curl skyward which is inevitably met by a slow motion head bobbing.  I’ve gotten so used to this response that I have a pre-baked answer regarding the trade show I attend, the beauty, history and culture engrained in a city that has lived many lifetimes, survived many events, and how even though I’ve been fortunate to visit this amazing city 10 times now, I have still only been into one solitary coffee shop and I’m taking a Slick Willy on that one.  Of course Amsterdam will always spur a distinct visual to a specific demographic, which makes me realize I might be hanging out with too many mental teenagers… 😉

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