Life, with the garden
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands • • • Visit: June 2013
Fourth stop on my 2013 Europe-by-rail-trip: Amsterdam.
Hortus Botanicus, the old botanic garden in the Dutch capital, started as an herb garden for doctors and apothecaries in 1638. Now, it has a tightly planted, wide selection of trees, a couple of great green houses and, what made me most excited, a butterfly house! There, I managed to capture a Flying Dutchman together with some tourists, among other colorfully-winged creatures.
In addition to the butterfly house and three nice greenhouses representing different biomes, the garden also has a snug, tightly planted outdoor part, with trees and shrubs and flowers. A tiny Giant Sequoia, for example. Only a whisper, though, compared to the ones growing in their natural habitat up in the Californian mountains.
Hortus Botanicus is a small botanic garden, and the forested parts of it were quite wild. But being in the middle of the city, it made a nice respite in the intense city architecture. Some green for the eyes. I liked it. Especially the butterfly house.
As for the rest of Amsterdam, I had an amazing time strolling around on the small streets, enjoying all the colorful details and flowers and surprising architecture and being inspired by great art at big museums. And also: being hosted so marvelously by Alison, a friend of my mom’s friend Morena. She made me feel at home, with food and movie nights and conversation.
It can do so much when a visiting a new place, the kind of people that you meet there. And for some reason, I’ve met so many good and interesting and just awesome people when I’ve traveled during the last couple of years. It’s not as if I don’t meet any cool people when I’m home, it’s just rare. It’s probably because I’m much more open to the new when I’m traveling.
Maybe I should try to get into the traveling state of mind in Stockholm too. Because, despite all the good that meeting people while traveling brings, having to constantly say goodbye is frustrating and painful. It forces me to start planning new trips as soon as I return home.
Katja Malmborg 