FOMO

When you live in a city, you might not take the time to look at it in its entirety. And why would you? You know you’re going to live there for some time so that means you’ve got all the time in the world, right? Wrong. Very wrong. In fact, I realized I was spending more time thinking about exploring other European cities, that I forgot to explore the city I now call home. Therefore, I began dedicating more time to exploring Amsterdam, because as time passes, the fear of missing out increases. For this reason, I decided to spend an entire weekend exploring the city.

The first day of my Amsterdam weekend began with a trip to the MOCO Museum, an immersive and illusive museum experience. Many of the works in this museum were from Banksy, a very famous artist in Western Europe. The museum itself was just a large vintage house, with every floor having more art pieces. However, if you step into the basement, you will find yourself immersed in rooms that make you feel like you’re hallucinating. I will admit museums are not really my cup of tea, but I knew I wanted to go to all the famous ones so that I could at least say I went. The next museum I went to was the Nxt Museum (pronounced ‘next’). Now this one was pretty cool. There were many holographic images throughout the walkthrough, and it was very interactive. You could dress in AI generated clothing and they even had a room where you could sit down and play video games.

After these museums, I decided to try out Fort Negen, a very famous Dutch bakery. The reason why they are so famous (and the reason I went) is because they have ice cream croissants. The croissant is cut in half and the breading is removed from the inside of the croissant. Then it is filled with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet. I must admit that this was extremely delicious and right up my alley. However, this was not a full meal, so I visited one of the more famous locations in Amsterdam, Rembrantplein, and ordered a full pizza to myself.

The second day of my weekend started off well, but did not end on a similar note. I began my day by eating breakfast and then biking 15 minutes to the Rijksmuseum, which is by far the most famous museum in the Netherlands. It has the largest collection of works of art done by some of the world’s most famous Dutch artists. I saw many famous painting including the original self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. The museum itself is insanely massive and I was able to spend a couple hours there. As enjoyable as this experience was, my day only went down from there. And so did I…

Now, before I tell this story, I just want to say that I am okay and it’s fine if you laugh. As I was biking back from the Rijksmuseum, I was obviously on the bike path. However, for whatever reason, there was a parked vehicle on the bike path ahead of me, so although I was a bit annoyed, I decided to go around. At that point, I was biking on a busy road, meaning that this road had trams running through it. Now, I don’t know if trams are the same in every city, but in Amsterdam, there are tram rails on the road. As I was going around the car, I saw the tram rails, but I thought I could manage to squeeze between the rail and the car. However, as I was getting closer, I realized I was going to need more space, so I moved a bit further away from the car. However, I panicked a bit because I thought I was going to hit the car, so I moved even further, and by that point it was too late.

I saw the rails and I told myself to brace for impact. I felt the front wheel of my bike dip into the tram rail and when I tried turning, my bike was completely stuck. Therefore, instead of the bike turning, I did, and I quite literally flew off (the fact that I was going at super speed didn’t help either). I hit the ground so hard that I bounced off it and landed again next to the sidewalk. A guy on his bike stopped on the other side of the road and asked if I was ok. Another lady in her car also stopped to ask if I was ok. I was bleeding and in so much pain, but it was so embarrassing so obviously I said, “yes, I’m okay, thank you” and got back up. Afterwards, I immediately biked to the nearest pharmacy and got some alcohol and creams and antibiotics to help fix my wound. I now have a pretty large scar on my right wrist, but I am grateful it wasn’t worse. I really ended my touristing week with a bang.