(Yes, I am aware I nabbed the title from Alice B. Toklas's autobiography)
My first trip abroad was to Amsterdam. I remember my parents' astonished halt at the door of the hotel and myself peeking behind them. A narrow and tremendously steep staircase led upwards directly from the threshold; I had imagined an enormous hall. Our room was in the upper floors, full of beds sprung to bounciness, with sink-in mattresses and pillows. During the holiday, which was long (a whole week?), I often lay on my bed, and formulated a thought I still remember:
"Just to think...I am
In the Universe
On the Earth
In Europe
In Holland
In Amsterdam
In existence
Here."
I wondered, whether "in existence" should in fact be at the top of the list - is existence larger, more all-encompassing, than the universe? - but couldn't form a final opinion on the matter. I followed the curlicue patterns on the pink bedspread with my finger and experienced a delicious existential awareness. I would be eight in the autumn.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
What is remembered: Amsterdam, part 1
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3 comments:
oh, anna, you make me nostalgic for time spent in leiden, my brother used to live there, lordy, those steep narrow stairs, who could forget them?! amsterdam is such a hip first place to visit when you are eight! i love your child's view of what it is to exist, i think we have all had those moments as children, and you put it into words deliciously.
I'd guess the (my existence) - to - (universe) hierarchy would be reversed for 98% of all 8 year olds. You were already "thinking globally..."
(I remember the ladder-like stairs in Amsterdam too.)
You were certainly more savvy than me. My first trip abroad was to the Netherlands, too. I just couldn't work out what made a continental breakfast continental.
At last I've jumped head-first into blogspot. Does that make me a real person now?
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