Reflections Of Amsterdam - Time To Say Goodbye

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Time To Say Goodbye, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Mobile phone cam shot of the lovely Miss D reflected in a puddle outside the Sloterdijk Station in Amsterdam. I've added a bit of contrast and saturation. No Photoshop, no tricks :)

The lovely Miss D has decided to leave the best city in the world and move to another continent...you will be dearly missed Girl :((

To ease her pain of leaving Sin City a bit we've had drinks&smokes with a group of people last night in a bar on the fringes of town and ended up somewhere in the Red Light District in the early morning hours, totally wasted out of our minds...I have a vague recollection of racing through hordes of tourists with a bunch of other tanked up, smoked out Dudes on our bikes, on our way to the next party place to be, laughing like maniacs, ringing the bike bells every few seconds, shouting, yelling and in general acting like retarded children in best 'Thank God It's Friday In Amsterdam' style, we had so much fun :))

Now I'm sitting here at my PC, with a smile on my face and a major Hangover ravaging the inside of my hurting, tired body and I'm sooo glad that it's weekend, the sun is shining and I don't really have to do anything but chill out and take it easy :)

Have a supernice weekend!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Dharma Bums

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Dharma Bums, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited shot of tourists outside a Buddhist Temple, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. Shot with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop :)

Did you know that we have a beautiful Buddhist temple in the middle of the city? It's the 'Fo Guang Shan He Hua Temple', it was built in the year 2000 and adds a nice colorful dot to the best city in the world :)

If you have the time, go to the Temple and enjoy the nice relaxed atmosphere, just around the corner from the busy Red Light District and it's wicked temptations, the Dharma Bums are already there :)

Almost weekend!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Suit Dude

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Suit Dude, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited shot of people and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. Shot with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop :)

The Suit Dude looks like he's somebody who gets things done, but at the same time he's somebody you can have a laugh with, he can be your best friend, but if you cross him, he'll f**k you up so badly that they'll have to f**k you down again when he's done with you...that only happens rarely though, because he's a nice guy and only cockblock's others when it's absolutely necessary! In conclusion, a guy most of us could like and probably spend several hours with in a contained environment without feeling the urge to pull his somewhat scruffy shirt over his head and give him a head-wedgie :))

The kid to the left seems scared stiff by the awesome powers of Suit Dude...or it could have been me hunching over the puddle, I know it looks kinda funny when I do my wicked thing, but yeah :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flash Was Here!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flash Was Here!, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone cam shot of a van and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop :)

I really like the colors of the van, they remind of the Superheroes that I've admired when I was a wee little wicked Reflectah, my favorite was SuperS@mman, then the Flash, then Batman...I still sometimes wish that I was superstrong or at least that I could fly, it would make thing so much easier in certain situations :)

Once puberty started peeping over my horizon, Wonderwoman and Superman's sister suddenly became more interesting, hehe ;-P

Who was your favorite Superhero when you were a kid?

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Monday Morning Maniac

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Monday Morning Maniac, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited shot of a biker and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. Shot with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop :)

Monday Morning, 06:30....In an hour I'll sit on my Bike again (if it's back from barricading off Central Station, that is, hehe ;) and throw myself into the maelstrom that's called 'The Race Of The Monday Morning Maniac'...it seems that everybody has lots of excess energy stored up from the weekend and is trying to get rid of it by outbiking every other person going to work... the last one at the office has to get coffee for everybody else I guess, or something :-P

Have a great start into the new week :))

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Please Don't Go!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Please Don't Go!, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited puddle reflection of my bike in front of the 'Victoria' Hotel in Amsterdam. Shot with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8, no editing whatsoever, no Photoshop, no tricks :))

The tourists are either leaving Amsterdam or they're not even bothering to come here anymore at all, must be the worldwide recession or something...

In an extremely childish attempt to keep the remaining few tourists from leaving the best city in the world, Bikey has positioned itself in front of the Amsterdam Central Station, deliberately blocking the path of all innocent visitors that try to make their way home to their own countries...

You see one girl cornered and totally boxed in between Bikey and a light pole, helplessly staring at the Bike'ish barricade, not knowing which way to go and how to overcome this obstacle on her Odyssey to leave Sin City...if only she had listened to the warnings of her Elders&Peers, that told her not to play with fire and safely stay home in her own little world, but no, she just had to go, tststs!

What a sad, pathethic attempt to keep the money flowing into the city coffers, shame on you Bikey, that's not how you treat guests! I'll have to have a serious word with my steel horse...and if you see it standing there, don't feed it any sugar, it's been a baaad horse, hahahaha ;-D

Reflections Of Amsterdam - When In Rome...

Reflections Of Amsterdam - When In Rome..., originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Puddle reflection of a girl with bike in front of the Amsterdam Central Station. Shot with a Panasonic DMC-FZ8. I've added a bit of contrast and saturation, but no Photoshop or magic tricks were used to create the wickedness in this photo :))

This girl seems to have a rental bike or at least one that very much resembles the MacBike style, which reminded me, to remind you, that if you come and visit the best city in the world, please follow the example of the young lady in this shot and rent a bike, it's good for you and for World-peace :))

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Biking For Worldpeace

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Biking For Worldpeace, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Puddle reflection of bikers and buildings in Amsterdam. Shot with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8. I've added a bit of saturation to enhance the colors, otherwise this picture is unedited, no Photoshop, no magic tricks :))

These ladies are not actually biking for World-peace, but they have chosen for an environmentally friendly way of personal transportation that does not cause any toxic emissions, does not kill people on a daily basis, while taking up large quantities of urban areas for parking and requires no national infrastructure of gas-stations, I think that's pretty close to supporting World-peace...did you know that in theory bikes always get priority in traffic in the Netherlands?! In reality it often doesn't work out that way :))

Have a nice weekend!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Light Up The Sky

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Light Up The Sky, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited puddle picture with cigarette. Shot with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8. No editing at all, no Photoshop, no magic tricks :)

Dedicated to Hans van Voorst, for loving Amsterdam almost as much as I do :))

This wicked reflection is a bit different, it has a whole cigarette in it, not just the usual butt :)

I really like how the sky seems to be full of smoke coming from the ciggie, while of course it is soaking wet (the Lucky, not the sky...for a change, haha ;) and will (most likely) never burn again :)

Needless to say that you shouldn't throw your butts or whole smokes in the streets, use a trash can, it makes you look pretty and smell like a flower, hehe ;-P

Enjoy your day!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Hidden Treasures

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Hidden Treasures, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited puddle reflection shot of buildings in Amsterdam. I made this one with my Panasonic DMC-FZ8, not Mobie! No editing at all, no tricks, no Photoshop :))

Just like the hidden worlds inside the wicked puddles in the best city in the world, Amsterdam itself has many beautiful, weird, interesting and pretty sights&sounds that the typical visitor often misses, blinded by the humongous amount of museums, drugshops, boat-tours and half-naked Prostitutes shaking their thangs at them...

Not that there's anything wrong with going for the classic 'Amsterdam XXXperience' but still, I can't help but feel that our guests would even appreciate Adam just so much more if only they knew what a charming, stunningly gorgeous city this is, once you take your eyes of the obvious entertainment options and start exploring the backstreets and city-surrounding areas, preferably by bike, discovering the true hidden treasures of Sin City :))

Thank God it's Friday...and I'm off today, yay :D

Have a great day!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flying Dutchman's Wife's Friend

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flying Dutchman's Wife's Friend, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of a friend of the wife of the Flying Dutchman, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop, as usual :)

I think I'm going a bit overboard here with this whole 'friend&wife' of the Flying Dutchman thingie, but I can't seem to stop...luckily for all of us I ran out of funky puddle shots of this specific location (actually, that's not true, there are hundreds more where these babies came from, hahaha) and tomorrow I shall post a completely unrelated wicked puddle reflection, no Flying Dutchman, their wifes or friends, I promise :)

Almost weekend, yay :D

P.s. Always wanted to have one of the funkycool 'AmsterS@m' shirts? With the voucher code FREESHIPPING, your orders will ship for free this coming weekend (from July 16-19) when you order at least 2 articles from the AmsterS@m Shop :))

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flying Dutchman's Wife

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flying Dutchman's Wife, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of the wife of the Flying Dutchman, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop, as usual :)

I assume that this lady in my puddle is not the actual wife of the Flying Dutchman, but she walked by the same puddle within seconds, so there was some kind of connection between them, even if it was just a very brief and unsatisfactory one :)

Today is Wednesday, so here in Holland we'll saw the week in half today, hahaha ;-P

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flying Dutchman

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Flying Dutchman, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of a biker and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop, as usual :)

The biker passed by so fast that he's only visible as a shadow, hence the title...in case you've never heard of the Flying Dutchman, read this :)

It's been a hectic, stressed out week/month/year already and it's only Tuesday...lately I sometimes feel as brittle and unreal as the bike in the puddle, it's about time I get a nice long vacation I think...the way things are looking though, I'll have to be very patient for now, instead of chilling out in the best city in the world, and keep humming to myself 'Everything's gonna be alright' for most of the day, or I'm gonna hit somebody with my bike soon, hahaha ;-D

No, seriously!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Eye Spy

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Eye Spy, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of buildings and the Munt, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no tricks, no Photoshop :))

It's a sunny/cloudy Monday morning and I bet there are tons of puddles out there that look like the one above...I'm going to take a quick shower now and then go puddle hunting, yay :))

Have a great day, almost weekend, haha :D

Reflections Of Amsterdam - nodnoL ♥ I

Reflections Of Amsterdam - nodnoL ♥ I, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Mobile phone shot of tourists, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. I've added a bit of contrast&saturation, all other wicked effects are purely natural, no Photoshop :)

I like this group of teenage tourists, they clearly demonstrate that they'd rather be somewhere else (London, perhaps?! ;) and not in the best city in the world...that is such an outrageous, alien concept to me, that I've decided to totally violate their London-loving privacy rights and splash their bored faces all over the Interwebs, hehe :))

Of course they could also simply be some Rock/Rap/Folk stars that take a short break from their tight World-Tour schedule to hop through some genuine Amsterdam puddles, after having heard all the wild stories from their parents about the great times they've spent here centuries ago...in that case I apologize sincerely and say 'Thank you, come again!' ;-P

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Ginger

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Ginger, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of women biking on the Rokin in Amsterdam, reflected in a puddle. No editing at all, no tricks, no Photoshop :)

As you can see, I've chosen for an insulting title this time, 'Ginger' refers to the lady in the front, with the red hair. I know it's inappropriate and so wrong to call a red-headed person 'Ginger' but I like the ring of it...and if I wanted to hurt her feelings, I would have named this picture 'The Ginger Minger', something that has an even cooler ring to it, but is utterly unfriendly to say to/about somebody, I'm sure she's got a great personality, hehe :))

Anyway, it's raining, my bike is in the repair shop to get a new chain and I wish it was Friday evening again, the best time of the week :)

Have a relaxed Sunday, enjoy!

P.s. Speaking of red, I've uploaded some new pictures to my RedBubble site, have a look and make me rich, hahaha :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Urban Racer I

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Urban Racer I, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of biking girls and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no magic tricks, no Photoshop :)

I couldn't decide which one of these two 'Urban Racer' pictures to post, so I uploaded them both, I hope you're not too bored with my choice :)

The sun is shining, it's weekend, yay :))

Yesterday the chain of my bike broke again, while I was biking really fast, and I had to jump off at full speed to avoid crashing into cars and stuff and to recover the greasy old oil-bleedin' chain from the middle of the road...not sure why, it's dead now and I'll have to get a now one today, it was some kind of deep-seated biker reflex I guess, never leave any parts behind, haha :)

Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to support the 'A Safer Amsterdam For Bikers' and the 'aiAmsterdam - Give The City Back To The Amsterdammer' campaigns :)

P.s. I've made a wicked video of the church in the background some time ago :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Urban Racer II

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Urban Racer II, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of bikers and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no magic tricks, no Photoshop :)

I couldn't decide which one of these two 'Urban Racer' pictures to post, so I uploaded them both, I hope you're not too bored with my choice :)

The sun is shining, it's weekend, yay :))

There are two initiatives going on at the moment that I fullheartedly support, the 'A Safer Amsterdam For Bikers' thing (sign the Petition!) and the 'aiAmsterdam - Give The City Back To The Amsterdammer' campaign (dito!).

As their names say, they support the very worthy causes of making life for us bikers safer in the best city in the world, and fighting back the unbearable flood of rules and regulations our insane city council is spewing out like there's no tomorrow, and that only seem to be in place to ridicule and humiliate us once free people...it's very refreshing to see that so many of my fellow Amsterdammers agree with me :))

Have a relaxed weekend!

P.s. I've made a wicked video of the church in the background some time ago :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Safety First!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Safety First!, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone reflection of the Amstel Hotel and some people, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing whatsoever, no tricks, no Photoshop, as usual :)

Thank God it's Friday!!!!

Yesterday I passed by the Amstel Hotel and saw these traffic controllers yelling at everybody passing by "You may ride on the side walk!" in this really annoyed, aggressive tone, so when I was done shooting this picture, I walked over to the lady you see above and asked her why she doesn't put up a sign saying "You may ride on the side walk!", so that she wouldn't have to say (or rather yell) it every few seconds, but she said she wasn't allowed to do so...I wasn't sure who to feel more sorry for, her or the people on the bikes that she almost yelled off their seats, hehe ;-)

A little later the chain of my bike broke or rather literally exploded, when I gave Bikey a power push...that has never happened to me before, ever, and I've been riding bikes since I was a wee little 3 year old wicked Reflectah! I googled for solutions to this misery and found out that seemingly this is a mishap that only occurs once in the lifetime of every biker :))

What was even more amazing was that I then bumped into the only person I've ever met in my life that happens to have a tool that is specifically made to fix a broken bike chain, and lucky me, he had it on him! Wow, what are the odds?! I should have played the lottery yesterday, I'm sure I would've cracked the Jackpot, hahaha :D

The chain seems to be fitter now after my fix, even though it doesn't look that happy anymore, hehe :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Wavy Gravy

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Wavy Gravy, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of a biker and buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No tricks, no editing, no Photoshop :)

I like the waves the wind has blown into the puddle, it adds an interesting, pretty effect. I also like that this pic goes really well with the one here to the right, it seems almost, at least color wise, as if they were shot in the same spot, but they were not. Wicked shizzle for sure :)

Have a nice day, almost weekend, yay :D

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Elder Statesman

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Elder Statesman, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of a biker in front of the Haarlemmerport building, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No editing, no Photoshop, no magic tricks :)

"The Haarlemmerpoort is the only gate left of old Amsterdam. These old gates used to surround the city. Others built included: Leidsepoort, Muiderpoort and Utrechtsepoort. They functioned as guarded entrances to the city and as exits out of town. The gates led to the cities with which their names matched: The Haarlemmer Gate led to Haarlem and the Leidsepoort to Leiden. Until 1825, Amsterdam was located inside these gates. Following another city expansion, the gates and the town ramparts became useless and were taken down. In 1840, the Haarlemmerpoort was restored in the classical style by architect C. Alewijn. The gate was then named after King Willem II, after he made his entry into Amsterdam through it in 1840, the year of his coronation. Unfortunately for Willem I, the people of Amsterdam still, even today, call it Haarlemmerpoort."

Reflections Of Amsterdam - And When The Rain Begins To Fall...

Reflections Of Amsterdam - And When The Rain Begins To Fall..., originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of my bike reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No Photoshop, no editing, no tricks :)

Tonight the wet season has started and it's raining cats&dogs in the best city in the world...good for the plants and puddle pictures, bad for the people, we all just got used to having a 'real' Summer this year, boohoo! I guess we'll have to do with the sunshine in our hearts then, at least for now, it's supposed to get all lovely again this weekend :)

Have a good day, take care but take it easy!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - AmsterDamnTasty!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - AmsterDamnTasty!, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of buildings reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. The puddle is also the host to a used pizza cardboard plate that somebody disposed off in the wrong way. No Photoshop, no tricks :)

I've said a lot lately about pollution and garbage in the streets, so I won't repeat my speech here, I'd rather compliment the anonymous pizza cardboard plate thrower on his/her excellent pizza cardboard plate throwing skills, it clearly landed in a sweet spot there and now it's famous on the Interwebs, hehe :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Happy Traffic Jam

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Happy Traffic Jam, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of bikers creating a traffic jam outside the Amstel Hotel, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No Photoshop, no editing, no magic tricks :)

I really like the big smile of the dude to the left, he's probably just really happy to have made it alive through the throng of bikers duking out who gets to go first, just a few meters behind him, haha :D

Nobody ever said us bikers are smarter than the rest, we're just more environmentally educated and in touch with our bodies, relying on them to carry us wherever we need to go, instead of burning compressed Dinosaurs+Trees to move our lazy asses around!

I guess that does make us better people than, let's say, a car owner or worse, heehaw (I wrote 'hehehe' here, but my spell-checker underlined it in red and advised me to use 'heehaw' instead, so there you go) ;-P

Get your ass off that heated/aircoe'd car seat and hop on your bike, on beautiful summer days like today, it adds a very satisfying layer of quality to your life, so do it, do it now, do it, brouhaha (again, the spell-checker, replacing my 'hahaha' with 'brouhaha'...who are these people and in which Universe do they live...I mean, seriously 'brouhaha'?! Wtf?) :D

Have a relaxed Sunday, take care but take it easy :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Puddle Princess

Reflections Of Amsterdam - The Puddle Princess, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of a beautiful girl+bike and the Amstel Hotel, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam. No Photoshop, no magic tricks :)

I get a lot of questions lately where I find my puddles, since it's very hot (luckily :) on most days in the last weeks...and the answer is very simple, there are beer puddles, cleaning water puddles, 'preventing-bridges-from-overheating-waterspraying-installation' puddles (like the one in this shot!) and the occasional undefinable 'Mystery' puddle that I usually make a big detour around, I'm not willing to bath my hands in unknown substances for just another pretty picture, in this sinful city nothing good can come out of such a mindless act, hehe :)

I don't depend on rain anymore to assist me with creating my wicked reflections, I've moved on from the simple 'at the mercy of the rain gods' model, towards a multi-liquid approach, that will help me to guarantee a steady stream of puddle pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

Thank God it's Friday and I'm off today :D

It's another superhot, beautiful, perfect sunny day in the best city in the world, enjoy

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Talk To The Hand!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Talk To The Hand!, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Mobile phone shot of tour posters of 'The Game', in front of some windows reflecting other buildings, in Amsterdam of course :)

The Game is one of my favorite Rappers, his personal story is very interesting and he's a talented man that made his way into the Rap Biz the classical way, he was a Drug dealer, he got shot several times, loves his Mamma and he is from LA , haha :)

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Haarlem's In Da House!

Reflections Of Amsterdam - Haarlem's In Da House!, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.

Unedited mobile phone shot of the lovely Miss J from Haarlem (in Holland, not NY :), reflected in a puddle at the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam :)

I was taking some wicked reflection shots (don't ask me where the water came from, it seemed to leak out of the side of a building :) when the lovely Miss J, who was watching me from the window of a Bar with her friend, came to find out why I was hunching over the puddle. I showed her the pics I had taken already and then shot her lovely puddle smile too :)

It was very nice talking to you Miss J, the photos are in your Inbox :))

I'm off tomorrow, so for me it's finally weekend, yay :D


Uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah on 2 Jul 09, 7.45PM CEST

Reflections Of AmsterS@m - Columbian Soccer Hairstyle

Reflections Of AmsterS@m - Columbian Soccer Hairstyle, originally uploaded by AmsterS@m - The Wicked Reflectah.