I feel like I’m in some sort of weird limbo here, it’s not a holiday and it’s not quite home. I’m in Amsterdam when I’ll be living in Utrecht, I employed but I don’t actually start until Monday so I’m not really sure what to do…

So I walked, I roamed and rambled, it’s been 12 years since I was last in Amsterdam and I can’t say I remember all that much, least of all how to find my way around, it was rather haphazard, I’m not even sure if I found Dam Square, or indeed if there is a Dam Square…

I did see quite a lot of rubbish on the streets, it had been Queen’s Day the day before and the partying went on til all hours, it being a public holiday yesterday, there was no-one out cleaning up, it didn’t make the best of first impressions.

I saw bicycles, so many bicycles, not being ridden but just parked and piled up onto each other, every railing supports a family of bicycles, outside train stations you’ll find vast swathes of bikes, mainly old bikes, not like the nice shiny ones we have back home. It’s hard to imagine so many people cycling, maybe they just lock them up and forget all about them…

All of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a flower market, it was almost overwhelming, the range of flowers and bulbs available, I kept wishing I had a garden when I could plant them all, I even considered buying several types of flowers just to use as still-life but maybe I’ll wait until I move into my new place.

I know this is Amsterdam and anything goes but what surprised me as I browsed in the flower market were the amount of “Cannabis Starter Kits” there were on sale, I could buy seeds or the plants themselves, just like that, with my tulips and tigerlilies…

On one of the streets you’ll find a little cinema, one that’s been there in that places since the Golden Age of Cinema and possibly before, it was so beautiful that I thought I’d sully its beauty by watching Iron Man in it but it was a good match as during the boring bits I could lean back and gaze in wonder at the cinema’s interior, it’s all Art Deco and afterwards I took a stroll around, I wish we had a cinema like that in Dublin, I’d be there every week for any film at all.

Coming out of the cinema, the city was different, the dull grey light was gone, replaced by a the colours of a spring sun, I found myself gazing at the perfectly lit roof of the Hotel De Europe, I didn’t take a picture (there were electrical wires in the way and trams trying to knock me down) but it got me to searching.

Searching for the perfect shot, the shot to round out the day and I was drawn to a funfair in the middle of the city, a fair like many others all over the country set up for Queen’s Day and I tried to capture the motion and excitement.