Rotterdam Rhapsody: Rain, Ramen, and Seriously Weird Art
okay, so i’m pretty sure i’m running on fumes and lukewarm coffee. 3101950… that’s the timestamp, i guess? 1616740907 - doesn’t mean anything, honestly. just a number staring back at me from my phone. i landed in rotterdam yesterday, and it’s… intense. like, aggressively colorful intense. the air smells vaguely of saltwater and something vaguely sweet, maybe waffle batter? i just checked and it's...there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. the humidity is clinging to everything - 82% - and the pressure’s sitting at 1012, which feels… heavy.
i’m a touring session drummer, so my priority is finding decent rehearsal spaces, but honestly, the whole city is a giant, slightly unsettling soundscape. the buildings are all these weird, angled things - like someone took a bunch of Lego bricks and just… stacked them. it’s beautiful in a deeply unsettling way. i spent the afternoon wandering around the markthallen, which is basically a massive food market. i ate a ramen bowl that cost me like, seven euros and it was genuinely the best thing i’ve tasted in weeks. someone told me that the best yakitori is at ‘katsu’, but i haven’t found it yet. i’m relying on drunk advice, mostly.
there’s this one guy, bartholomew, who runs a tiny gallery near the hofplein. he’s a total weirdo, wearing a velvet suit and talking about the ‘emotional resonance’ of rusty pipes. i bought a small sculpture made of bottle caps - it’s… something. i overheard gossip that he’s convinced the city is being subtly influenced by a collective of pigeons. honestly, i’m not ruling it out.
seriously, the weather is a mood. it’s like a perpetual drizzle, but not a sad drizzle. more like a thoughtful drizzle. it’s the kind of rain that makes you want to buy a bright yellow raincoat and just… exist. i checked TripAdvisor and the top-rated thing is ‘the cube houses’ - which are, you guessed it, cube-shaped houses. it’s… a lot. i’m considering just building a fort out of cardboard and calling it a day.
if you get bored, amsterdam is just a short drive away, but honestly, i’m trying to avoid the tourist traps. i’m more into the gritty, the overlooked, the slightly unsettling. i found a street artist painting murals on abandoned buildings - he was using spray paint and stencils, creating these incredibly detailed portraits of… well, i’m not entirely sure what they were of. just faces. lots of faces. i heard that he only works at night, fueled by black tea and existential dread.
my gear list is basically just my drumsticks, my laptop, and a rapidly dwindling supply of ibuprofen. i need to find a decent coffee shop. seriously, the caffeine situation here is… questionable. i’m thinking of investing in a portable espresso machine. or maybe just a really, really big mug.
this place is a trip. a chaotic, slightly damp, wonderfully weird trip. i’m gonna keep exploring. and probably eating more ramen.
check out this local board for events: https://www.rotterdam.nl/en/events
and for more food recommendations: https://www.yelp.com/
and of course, the official tourism site: https://www.visitrotterdam.com/
seriously, go check out the cube houses. just… do it.
You might also be interested in:
- https://votoris.com/post/chasing-static-in-dandong-a-photographers-frozen-moment
- https://votoris.com/post/so-paulo-a-digital-nomads-messy-love-letter-to-chaos
- https://votoris.com/post/acapulco-de-jurez-what-your-wallet-really-feels-here
- https://votoris.com/post/santa-marta-nightlife-best-bars-safe-zones-my-drunk-map
- https://votoris.com/post/belas-on-a-budget-threadbare-sheets-and-mango-lassis