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A new fan of The 'Dam
I recently got back from a lovely weekend trip to Amsterdam. Although this was not my first visit, I had visited the city once before as a child with my Grandma and cousins, this was my first visit as an adult.
On this trip, I saw more of Amsterdam including the required visits to the many tourist traps. Boy, was I impressed! I enjoyed the trip a million times more than I had expected. The 'Dam was the bomb!
A city of many colours
Right away I was struck by how multi-racial and multi-cultural a city it is. As a black woman, I’ve visited many European cities where I would never be mistaken for a local. But in Amsterdam, many times I was spoken to in Dutch; I obviously looked as though I could be one of them! Walking around the city alone, I felt totally ‘at home’, not at all like a ‘foreigner’.
Picture left: Me enjoying a cocktail at La Margarita, Reguliersdwarsstraat 47
I must admit, surrounded by these different races and cultures, there was a part of me that felt a little ashamed for having pre-conceived ideas of Holland - i.e white European. Me, of all people? Me, who has on a number of occasions laughed at and made fun of those Americans who upon meeting me have said, “You’re Black… and you’re BRITISH?” Shame on me. I'm just as bad.
South America in Amsterdam
Another interesting part of the trip was learning a lot about a country I didn’t know much about – Suriname because of my Dutch friend Omar. Omar's parents are from Suriname, in South America, near Brazil and Guyana, for those of you who like me, hadn’t heard of it before. Pre-Omar I hadn’t (knowingly) met anyone from Suriname. Yet, here I am in Amsterdam and Suriname is everywhere. There are Surinameese restaurants, cafes, shops and billboard posters for ‘Suriname Airways.’ After Omar took me to eat at a Surinamese restaurant, that served strange but delicious food (more on that in a future post), I wanted to know more about Suriname.
About Suriname
Suriname used to be a Dutch colony gaining independence in 1975. It’s the only Dutch-speaking region in the Western Hemisphere that is not part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Suriname (Surinam in English) has an extremely diverse population – Maroons (West Africans), Creoles (Mixed), Indians, Arawak Indians, Jews, Indonesians and Chinese, which explains why the restaurant menu contained so many African and Oriental influenced dishes.
I fell in love with the beautiful picturesque city Amsterdam, and marvelled at the large number of nationalities and cultures living within it. Plus I was so impressed that absolutely everyone could speak perfect English. This trip also introduced me to the nation of Suriname.
Mad about Suriname
Since coming home, I’ve Googled ‘Suriname restaurants in London’ but can't find any. So if anyone knows of any nice Surinamese spots in London, please share the love. If not, I’ll have to hop over the channel for my next fix of Saoto Soup – Omar, get your tourist guide hat ready!
Picture: Saoto Soup.
Travel Tip: The next time you’re in Amsterdam, check out La Margarita, a Caribbean/Mexican/Colombian fusion restaurant with great food, great cocktails, fantastic service and Latin salsa music. I loved it!
Finally: MSN and Lonley Planet name Suriname as one of their top ten travel destinations for 2010.
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