Amsterdam was fantastic. We managed to travel with no issues and the trip was a welcome distraction from the day-to-day ‘normal’ life. As most of you will know, culturally, Amsterdam is different that the major cities in the UK. You can’t walk for 5 minutes without smelling the pungent aroma of weed or see someone weaving their way around the crowds, in a daze.
The bike culture is also mesmerising, with cyclists surrounding the roads, mixing with the cars and trams. You have to look every direction to make sure it’s ok to cross a road or put your foot on a path, just in case. It appears, to the tourists, to be a dangerous place, but to the local population, it’s just normal. The only accident we saw was involving a cyclist, in a daze weaving about and probably a tourist – not a great combination!
We over indulged in food and drink, but we did a lot of walking (sometimes in circles) and saw everything we wanted to see, so probably net zero when it comes to calories. We enjoyed the canal boats and hearing the history, seeing the amazing buildings and understanding why Amsterdam is how it is. All in all, it was exactly what we needed.
Then yesterday, we (Sandra and me) went for a walk along the beach to enjoy the sunny weather and relax again before getting ready for work today. We walked from Alum Chine to Bournemouth pier, and back, but stopped at the pier for an ice cream. We were stood in the queue and a couple joined behind us, chatting away, and then an older man asked them if they were in the queue. The younger man responded with “Yes of course we are in the queue, you’re older than me so should know that”.
The conversation started to escalate with the young man getting really aggressive and threatening to punch the older guy. It was so quick to get out of hand and everyone was standing watching in disbelief as the younger guy kept getting angrier and more abusive. I put my hand on the young guys shoulder to calm him down and then the older guy said something and it all went mad again. So, I stepped back.
This went on for another couple of minutes before the younger guy walked away after threatening to cut the older guys organs out and drink his blood and then run him over with a car. Seriously!
I have never experienced something so trivial get to such a violent state in under 5 minutes, ever. I spoke to the old guy after and he was still shaken but still had his pride as he didn’t back down or allow this person to intimidate him. I can’t imagine what would have happened if there had been no witnesses. The young man was still ranting and looking to come back, even after he was 200m away.
This played on our minds, for a while, and I kept saying “We should have done more” and Sandra was saying “I should have got my phone out and videoed it” but, you just don’t think straight when something crazy, like that, unfolds right in front of you. I was wishing I was Ant Middleton, 6 foot tall, ex-SAS and an MMA expert, but I’m not.
I have a feeling that most of have experienced things that we thought about afterwards and ran it over and over in our minds thinking “I wish I’d have…” but the reality is, we didn’t.
If we had got our phones out or got in-between the argument, it could got worse and ended up with a different outcome, possibly not so positive. Fortunately the walk back to the car helped us vent and dispel the negative energy, so we returned home in a suitable mood to watch the football.
A good decision, to do what we did, in the end then ????
I hope your week is full of happy, respectful and polite people, and, you offer the same to others.