Amsterdam

438 years after the United Provinces of the Netherlands declared independence from Spain, the Spanish are back.

It seems 2 out of 3 tourists here are Spanish, with the remainder split between Israel and the UK. With most workers in the service industry being either Spanish or Dutch-Moroccan, there are hardly any ethnic Dutchmen to be seen in the tourist areas, a familiar sight across 21st-century Western Europe of abysmal birth rates and Schengen-boosted workforces. At least I get to practice my castellano while looking for someone to speak Dutch with me.

Even Mickey Mouse needs a cigarette break sometimes

Sidewalk urinals

Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities in Europe.

It's my third time here, after visiting the city during my Eurotrip in 2016 and with my family this past August, each time being totally different. This time, I've come with 4 army buddies and I'm yet again amazed by the diversity of what the city has to offer - it satisfies everyone from older European groups who want their dose of herring and Impressionism, the Israeli couples who come to shop and the young Brits who want to get high as kites and get lost in the Red Light District - without feeling fake. It's incredible to see how the city, despite a rather concentrated touristic center, can adapt itself to the different crowds and how the same street (Nieuwmarkt for example) can have a radically different vibe at different times of day. The urban planning nerd in me loves the solutions the Dutch have found for dealing with the more "problematic" types of tourists: there are posters with advice for responsible drug use and numbers for sexual harassment hotlines, urinals on the sidewalks to keep them clean and massive police presence in all tourist areas.

Despite its touristic diversity, in recent years Amsterdam has decided to try and change its image abroad. Home rental platforms like Airbnb have all but been banished from the city in response to skyrocketing housing prices, coffee shop and prostitution licenses have been capped at current numbers, the police is crusading against hard drugs and large fines have been introduced to try and combat "antisocial" behavior - €95 for drinking in the street, €105 for texting and biking, and €140 for littering and public urination. The difference in the feeling on the street between my visit in 2016 and now is huge, with cleaner streets, much smaller numbers of dealers of hard drugs and quieter tourists. The Red Light District feels like a small police state with huge posters explaining the fines on every lamppost and canal railing.

When Amsterdam feels like Singapore

Yotam, an army friend who came to Amsterdam with me, and I have been getting our hair cut together since the beginning of 2019, each time in a new city (I should really be writing a blog about these haircuts). We seized the opportunity to continue the tradition abroad and get our haircut in a hair salon in De Baarsjes, the primarily Moroccan and Turkish neighborhood in which we're staying. It was my second Moroccan haircut in Amsterdam and much more successful than the first one in 2016, though I did have to nod politely when my barber Bouz went on about how the American people are lovely but "the regime is Satan".

Dam Square, the main square in the city, is in full festive cheer mode, Christmas tree and all. It would really be postcard material if it weren't for the pro-Palestine/anti-Israel information booth set up in the middle of the square which attracted a counter-demonstrator with a large Israeli flag. After a few minutes trading insults the first time we saw them, the Moroccan man running the stand and the counter-demonstrator ended up literally walking in circles around the booth, calling each other a "jobless antisemite" (ironic considering the speaker somehow found hours in the middle of 3 consecutive days to engage in this lovely verbal battle) and a "Zio-Nazi Arab-hater", with large numbers of tourists simply staring at the duo. If that isn't a metaphor for discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I don't know what is.

See if you can spot both the Zio-Nazi and the jobless antisemite

Arriving home this afternoon, I have just over 48 hours to rest and repack. I'm leaving for Kenya Tuesday night and the change in scenery is going to be dramatic.