Bird Attack

SANY0739
Originally uploaded by sarahkatina

Whitney came to visit and we walked everywhere - home from school, down to Leidseplein (a popular nightlife area in the south center of the city), back from Leidseplein, to Waterlooplein (a flea market where I bought some really cool, really comfortable boots that I can wear everywhere!), to the Bloemenmarket (flower market), to the UvA library, to the Red Light District, through the Jordaan (where we hung out by the Homo Monument and got Indonesian 2 Go, and where I had the best milkshake of my life in a coffeeshop). I have eaten more sprinkles/butter/chocolate on bread in the last two days than anyone should ever eat in their life, probably. It was so good to see Whitney though, even so briefly.

So, let me tell you the story of this bird. It was our dream to eat Indonesian food, and another dream to eat on a bench by a canal. We found an Indonesian 2 Go restaurant and so packed off to the nearest bench on Prinsengracht with our food. First, we noticed a bird like this (a heron? birdwatchers among the audience, please share your wisdom) sitting on a car across the canal from us, and had a conversation about how we thought it was so cool that it was so brave in the midst of all the human activity. Then it looked at us, and flew over. Then it spent a long time looking at our food. Then four more swooped down. Some of them fought with each other, and I stood up and huddled with my food in a corner, while Whitney sat frozen in fear to the bench. Then an old guy showed up and started tossing what looked like dead baby ducks at them, for them to eat. That took the focus off of us for long enough that we could get away unscathed. And probably, what happened was just that this guy always feeds the birds there and we happened to choose his turf to eat our Indonesian food. In any case it was a big ruckus, and a little scary. I have seen The Birds. I am wary.

We were also part of a few other ruckuses during Whitney's stay: the first night, we witnessed a high speed chase! (man on foot, police in car). Yesterday morning, we were swarmed by rowdy schoolchildren on the tram! And yesterday afternoon, the birds! We also contrived to be part of a perceived ruckus at a bar/disco called "Pirates" (see Flickr for the garish sign), but in reality that ruckus was just the sound of a poor DJ interspersing girly Latin techno with the sweet sounds of Will Smith circa 1995 and JOHN DENVER circa 1971. Not the way to get the club hoppin'. So just three ruckuses, ultimately, for us.