Do's and Don'ts During Your Stay in Amsterdam For Steem Fest - Part 1 a Safe Bike Ride to The Art Book Shop

Amsterdam Pandemonium

So in two weeks from now Steem Fest will take place. Exciting right?! Being born and raised in Amsterdam it kinda feels as my duty to provide a bit of insight into what to expect from this marvellous city. There are lots and lots of things to see but at the same time, it's easy to get lost in the abundance of Red Light, coffee shop, Nutella cookie store, Van Gogh Museum and beer biking pandemonium that Amsterdam has to offer.

Image source

Image source

This post is intended for those who are staying a bit longer than the 3 days of Steem Fest which I assume will be the case for most people that fly in from a longer distance. And even if you're staying for those 3 awesomely action-packed Steem Fest days this still might be some good information.

Biking in Amsterdam

So If you decide to rent or borrow a bike and go downtown it's good to know that
bikers in Amsterdam have a different status in traffic compared to New York or
London. According to my friend who runs a driving school since 2007 and build his own motorbikes by hand it is decided by law that motorised vehicles have more
responsibility than non-motorised vehicles. i.e. if a car hits a bicycle the bicycle is never in the wrong (even if you pass a red light!).

My friend who runs a driving school. Image Credit C'est moi.

This fact provides a bit of a strange dynamic which in the last decades has led to a
certain arrogance or prince like behaviour among bikers in the city. I myself am one of those and it is not necessarily a bad thing. Just watch out for the cab drivers, they tend to care less about your prince status.

The video below is a very good tutorial how to behave on a bicycle in the city of Amsterdam. This video was initiated by iAmsterdam, famous for their huge colossal sculpture which travels through the city. The video is played in most of the televisions in hotels in Amsterdam.

Art Book shop

There are two bookstores that I highly recommend checking out. They are very small and easily overlooked. But once inside you can find some of the best photobooks, or art theory and philosophy books, even zines and DIY comics. The first is located in the heart of the Redlight district and called San Seriffe. They focus on art and theory publications and have extensive knowledge within these fields.

San Seriffe Image Credit

The other one is in the Negen Straatjes area and called Boekie Woekie. It is run by a man and women from Iceland. Their store is pretty overwhelming because everywhere you look you see books and zines. Leaving you in a situation where you're not sure where to start. But that's really no problem.

Boekie Woekie Image Credit

The people in Bookie Wookie are chill, mellow and relaxed. I'm sure that if they had more space they'd place some comfy chairs. Perhaps some fresh sencha served with a brown sugar coated rice cookie. But I'm losing my point here.

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I have a lot more stuff I'd like to share with you guys. Takes a bit of time to get it all together in between the production of the documentary and raising a little Kylo Ren.
Thank you for reading! Looking forward to see everybody at Steemfest!

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