So I’m in Amsterdam (start of a hectic travel week) and tonight Turkey played the Czech Republic in the third match of their group round in the Euro 2008 Cup. Turkey won 2-0 - exciting, yes, but I was thoroughly unprepared for the outpouring of apparently half of the population of Turkey living here in Holland. After the match my friend drove me back to my hotel, and we encountered honking cars with Turkish flags, traffic jams, overall insanity.
I loved the energy but was just amazed to see that energy in Amsterdam for a win by a national team that wasn’t the Netherlands. My friend informed my that something like 50% of all Amsterdam residents under the age of 25 speak Arabic. This astonishes me. Wild, interesting, kinda cool, and should make for an interesting handful of decades watching how the assimilation (or not) goes (see also Paris, London).
And this is why having friends in other cities and traveling is so damn cool. and important. and fun.
