Amsterdam w/ Mike Morton

There’s no place quite like this spectacular standalone city in The Netherlands. This quirky Dutch capital is renown for its quintessential curving canals, hard-core bike culture, cannabis coffee shops, awe-inspiring architecture, with a multitude of museums, cultural centers, and so much more. My buddy Mike is going to show us around amazing Amsterdam on this week’s episode of FYI.

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[Music] nice job Amigos and thanks for Learning and laughing with us here every day on the show with no[Music] name news flash we interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you this breaking news attention all show with no namers as of January 2024 the show with no name live stream will be available exclusively to my patrons if you'd like to continue to watch the show Daily and participate in real time join us at patreon.com SL Alberto Alonso and what is patreon you may ask well as many of you know I've been teaching for over 20 years I've taught all kinds of people from famous folks to young kids and with a background in acting I love communication I have a radio show that's been on the air for 15 years and a very successful podcast called FYI I've also written five books and have appeared on numerous TV and radio programs but the thing I'm most proud of is this curious community on patreon that we are creating every day together and I really think you should join us for as 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scheduled program so what are you waiting for learn and laugh with us in our curious community over on patreon.com Alberto Alonso see you there there's no place quite like this spectacular Standalone City in the Netherlands this quirky Dutch capital is renowned for its Quint essential curving canals hardcore bike culture cannabis coffee shops a inspiring architecture with a multitude of museums cultural centers and so much more my buddy Mike is going to show us around amazing Amsterdam on this week's episode of f Yi welcome to for your info a Eng L you got it you got[Applause][Music][Applause][Applause][Music] it hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of f Yi and if you haven't heard a topic that you want to hear about it's because you haven't let me know yet just let me know you can find me on social media and I'd be happy to add it to the list today we're going to take a look at a fascinating topic a place I love and I'm going to talk about it with one of my good buddies one of my good pals so ladies and Gentlemen please welcome my buddy Mike Morton hello everybody what's up Mike welcome to FYI yeah good to be here absolutely now you've never been on FYI before have you nope it's my first time I have been on the show with no name several times but my first time on FYI it's good to be here the first expression that pops into my mind here is this isn't your first rodeo that's correct yeah you know me I love my idiomatic expressions and we're going to look at tons of them today here when we talk about this damn City okay I I'm I'm starting with the bad jokes already dad jokes you can tell you're a dad now Alberto yeah well you know I I think I've been telling dad jokes my whole life they were just called something different corny jokes before so Mike what makes you well first tell us about you who are you Mike Morton the mystery man um I'm from America I grew up in uh from Florida North Carolina that area East Coast but I've lived abroad actually more than half my life now I hit the Tipping Point in September uh so I've been 23 years abroad so yeah I've actually been in Europe longer living longer than uh in the States but um but yeah I I know Alberto he's a very close friend uh from when I lived in Madrid I moved away 12 years ago to a lovely city called Amsterdam which we're going to talk about a lovely damn City Malo you know it's going to come up many times you moved to Amsterdam 12 years ago I can't believe it dude time really flies and tell us you were in Spain but not just in Madrid you lived all over Spain too right correct yeah I I lived in Madrid mostly but I also lived in Alicante and I lived in um abiza several times and in Dora for little stints yeah I love Spain it's great to be back well that was my next question you read my mind do you miss Spain yes but I do I do come back frequently because I do love Spain and yeah I see I'm actually trying to buy a place on the Costa Blanca now yeah I see myself living here uh in the future at least part-time great wonderful but we're not here to talk about ESP we're here to talk about Amsterdam the city that Mike now calls home and has called home for the last 12 years and Mike if I'm not mistaken you're even more qualified to talk about this because of your ancestry yeah corre that's right um the only ancestors I can trace back definitely to Europe are Dutch and they moved before it was even the United States they moved to um New York which at the time was New Amsterdam in 1660 so very very long ago but um yeah I do have Dutch ancestry that's cool man so you I don't know it's almost full circle you know it's uh the story you could tell this it seems like a Broadway play the All-American Musical and as you said I mean you just the Van Wick Expressway New York just screams Dutch it's a Dutch City it was called New Amsterdam as you just said and you can even see that in the logic the way people apply logic but we're not going to talk about the people yet either first let's take a look at the intro because I like to sprinkle a lot of words in the intro and also we can chat about the different things that we're going to bring up I started off by saying there's no place quite like this spectacular Standalone City in the Netherlands now Mike you're going to have to forgive my ignorance here the Netherlands Holland is that the same thing that's uh most people um don't know this but yeah the Netherlands is the country but Holland are the top two provinces actually but people often just say it like call the whole place Holland or or Spanish people say hollandz you know like for if you're Dutch hes yeah but they are the Holland is really just the top two North provinces actually Ah that's a great trivia question hey you might see that at my next trivia tonight now I also said this quirky Dutch capital and quirky is like uh it's it's Unique it's strange it's got its own way you know yeah absolutely um yeah everyone has their opinions and ideas about Amsterdam but it is a very unique place a very unique place and Dutch we have an expression in English to go dutch why don't you explain to the listeners what it means to go dutch yeah that's uh that's a funny one the Dutch have a little reputation for being a bit stingy um yeah so but to go dutch is an American expression that means if you're on a date with a girl or whoever um you split the bill you split it 50/50 you go dutch or double dutch yeah right right now is it true or is this some kind of um stereotype I have to say it's it's often true well stereotypes come you know I don't like to generalize myself but usually stereotypes come from a certain place it doesn't mean everybody's like that now we're also going to talk about the quintessential curving canals and man what an amazing City huh I mean Venice is like that too there aren't many cities that you get around by boat actually I'm from Fort Lauderdale Florida which they call the Venice of America um so it's very similar but yeah in Amsterdam they're canals everywhere they're man-made canals 400 over 4 400 years old yeah they they had a golden age back back around the mid 1600s yeah they made these uh these canals and BR also all around the country there's so many canals not just in Amsterdam but you can really go anywhere in the country by boat it's it's it's quite impressive and we're going to talk about that in the bonus part in the bonus part we're going to look at a lot of fun facts also we're going to look at Mike's and my memories together in Amsterdam where you picked me up in your boat I think it's the best way anybody's ever picked me up at the station in my life but we're not going to talk about that yet we'll talk about memories and fun facts in the bonus episode and just a quick reminder Amigos every week you can have access to a bonus episode where you can get tons of extra content you can get PDF documents with all the vocabulary and you can even get classes with me weekly review classes where we look at the key vocabulary from every episode and if you're in our highest group our Interstellar students well you can even get all that and a private class with me so consider joining us on patreon.com Alberto Alonso oh and how can I forget there's a brand new chat feature so we can keep in touch every day that's right you me your classmates we can all keep in touch and share things because sharing is caring so if you want more information go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and join our curious community and I'd love to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students Marta Lena Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria and Mila and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a private class with me every every month Garmin Isa Baco David and Edgard if you guys want to find out how you can become a part of our curious Community for as little as €3 a month go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso now where were we Mike we were talking about the intro right okay so we said the curving canals which by the way I'm pretty impressed by you knowing your dates you're really to use the Expression you're really know your stuff yeah I I'm I've always been interested in history and and and very curious and you know I've traveled a lot especially where I live I always want to know as much as I can about the place great great you're in the know what can you tell me about the hardcore bike culture cuz there's no other word for it they are hardcore about their bikes oh yeah they love to uh bike around town and um and you have to be careful because they might run you over they if you're on the bike lane and you're walking in there as a tourist you yeah they will hit you you have to be careful um but yeah and you can be it's quite a small City so you can really um bike anywhere in the center in about 15 or so minutes which is nice and of course you can't talk about Amsterdam without talking about Cannabis weed ganja wacky tobacky let me ask you Mike is it true does everybody get high all day every day there or is this some kind of miscon ception well yeah there are many coffee shops and they uh sell weed and it's it's not even actually legal it's decriminalized which uh like is different CU like in America the Le states that are do have legal recreational use of marijuana they have a lot more options like more Edibles and more things than you would think in Amsterdam but yeah the thing is people it's mostly tourists or or or foreigners that smoke most of the weed when the Dutch because it's readily available I think that they smoke mostly when they're younger is what they said and then they just it's not interesting anymore so they don't smoke as much when they're older yeah they outgrow it is the word that comes to mind yeah cuz it's like here in Spain I noticed it with alcohol you know in the states kids who are like 19 they go nuts on alcohol when here well you can have a glass of wine with your family when you're 14 if you don't abuse it it's like a taboo thing right exactly yeah I think uh yeah like us uh Americans we kind of go a bit nuts with the drinking but my Spanish friends will they can stay all night and not get wasted when you know they still drink but they haveit bit more control I think in general sure about the alcohol well I remember trying a space cake and we'll talk more about our own memories together but uh speaking of I don't think I have any memories of that I think I blacked out didn't you tell me after I ate it Alberto that was the strongest space cake in Amsterdam I'm like things that could have been brought to my attention earlier Mike yeah my bad sorry Mike's that friend guys but let's talk a little bit too about the awe inspiring architecture I mean those pictures of those buildings with their facades they're very thin facades isn't there a reason for that yeah um actually before uh they they taxed the homes on the side the width of the buildings and being cheap Dutch people they would often just make very narrow houses and build them up to pay less tax and uh and also that there's very always notorious steep stairs in these houses and they often have hooks in the front where they would put pulley uh to lift the furniture in through the windows because they could not fit them in the in the stairwell and I heard too that like the the houses get wider as you go back so they had to pay less so if you look at it most of the houses in the front are really like thin and and then as they go back they you know they get wider is that true too yeah you often see that as well but oh man they they thought of every anything to save a buck right yep so also their museums their cultural centers and we're going to talk about some of the great places you should see and Mike's going to even give us some tips off the beaten path eloro menos cin you know and we're going to take a look at that in the bonus part but Mike we just talked about Amsterdam we said a lot of different things but what is Amsterdam to you in a nutshell well I've lived in London and Madrid and so I'm a I feel like a city guy and Amsterdam for me has everything I want in a city but in a very small area so it's very manageable you can walk uh a lot of places like bike anywhere and so but there's also lots of action uh there's always cultural things there's lots of uh yeah like different festivals and things and so there's always something going on but it's also I like the smaller size of it if you manageable right yeah we often call it a city Village a city well you know there it reminds me maybe of Granada in Spain like it's a city but you can manage it it's not like Madrid or Tokyo or New York where you're like oh wow this a this is a beast yeah I mean honestly I I moved here to to Madrid from London and when I at first I found Madrid like almost smaller compared to London but after living in Amsterdam for 12 years I find Madrid actually quite big again like it's almost intimidating even though I I lived here for so long it's my perspective has changed yeah it's more of a rural City I guess the water does that too the canals that all of that and and the canals that's not the only water you have there you get a lot of rainfall every year if I'm not mistaken and it gets dark really early tell me a little bit about the weather weather because we're all talking about how beautiful it is in the canals and 1600s and blah blah blah but the weather is let's be honest pretty crappy isn't it yeah yeah unfortunately it's my least favorite thing about the place uh the days this time of year especially the days just get shorter and shorter and it's dark and the rain yeah so and it changes a lot you never know what you're going to get uh even in the summer it could be 12° at some point you know like oh it's unpredictable weather iffy weather yeah yeah it changes uh like that so the drop of a hat as we say and really living in Amsterdam you I be especially having a boat and biking I become addicted to checking the weather apps oh right so constantly you need to know if it's going to rain or what's going to happen yeah so and what time does it get dark like around four I remember once I visited you in the winter and at 400 p.m. it was Pitch Black yeah I I really don't like that I mean in New York it gets dark early

you know at 5: 21:00

00 p.m. it's curtains you know but there I was like it's four Mike and you're like oh yeah this welcome to the winter but I also remember being there in the summer and you know going swimming in the amstell river yeah that that's where the name comes from Amstel Dam Amel Dam great a little atmology this is the thing though you know it's it's a it's bad in the winter uh with the short days but you get very long days in the summer so

we're outside until 10: or uh 10: 21:31

30 and there's light and it's it's a lot of yeah I love the Summers there and I noticed that people who have really harsh Winters really appreciate that sun whether it's the spring Sun or the Autumn Sun absolutely this this is what I noticed because I had that when I a long time ago when I lived in London if the sun's out everybody's outside but then I mean in Madrid of course it gets cold uh in the winter and and but but we still have our our we don't play around but there's still Sun you know and so I think living in Spain you take it for granted sometimes but in the Netherlands if it's sunny it's like you must be outside and everyone's outside and happy and doing fun things so right right they really really make the most of it they soak up the sun and every little little last Ray of it and that's great that's that's C you know what what do you want you got to be appreciative in life and you really can feel it if it's really nice weather people everyone's just like happy it's like such a good vibe I can feel it I can there's like a great vibe in the air and we're going to talk about festivals also our memories at Queen day and King's day but right now we're going to talk about one of the things I love the most you just got to take a look at my gut over here and you know I love to eat Mike I remember going to a Dutch restaurant with you and Dutch Cafe C but let's talk about Dutch food what is Dutch Cuisine if you had to say it like what's their paa their GPO their I don't know churo what are the what are the things that you know you see there they are their Staples to use a good word sure um one of my favorites is for breakfast is a a dish called out smiers which actually is the same word bless you oh it's it's the same word they use for a bouncer like outside out of a bar or a cloak out smer I don't know why they call it this but it's it's basically like bread or toast with eggs on top and cheese and some uh Meats like roast beef or bacon uh it's very tasty you know and um and then for sweet stuff they they have these things called PES uh which are like mini pancakes but they're so good they put white uh like powdered sugar and syrup on them and they're really really tasty yeah they I I remember them having a lot of dairy good good Dairy like good butter good you know their their dairy products up there were great the the milk was delicious the ice cream they love cheese it's a thing that's true right the Dutch people are also very tall in general and there's a rumor I don't know if it's true but earlier last century they had some kind of hormones in the milk that encouraged the people to grow taller oh my goodness wow now we're we're not gonna conf confirm or deny that here but it could be a fun fact because it's true there's sometimes I'm walking in the Metro la Latina in Madrid I'm like how's a Dutch person GNA walk through here yeah they're like you know they are like you know okay I understand the Subway's underground and the ceilings are lower but I'm like the average Dutch guy is going to bump his head over here it's uh it's the first place that I've lived that I actually feel kind of short like I'm a normal kind of height average short yeah I'm not tall but I'm not short but there I feel short so the food I mean what's your favorite what's something you're like you know what I'm so glad I live here cuz like Spain if I left Spain tomorrow I would miss hamon dearly what would you miss dearly like oh no I can't have that like every day or every week something that you really like yeah probably the out smers as I mentioned before smers okay yeah I mean it's just such a it's like comfort food yeah it's Hardy sure sure and I remember yeah they they had some really good beef we had roast beef a shout out to our friend Jerry ah Jerry's the best you want to send him a shout out let's hey let's if you guys are in Amsterdam you got to stop by the cafe yeah he he he asks about you sometimes well what's the name of the cafe tell okay yeah uh Water Cafe waterl Cafe it's in vline which means waterline um we ate there every day because it's delicious Good Vibes great little Plaza yeah I love that place I still go back I I I moved to a different neighborhood but I still go back there like at least every other week just to say hello you're local you're local well shout out to Jerry and we'll be back I know I'll be Mike's definitely going to be back sooner than me but I'd love to take my daughter there cuz I think it's a good place CU we get the idea of prostitution the red light district but it's also a great place to bring kids too I mean there you don't have to go to those areas where there's marijuana or drug use in general or you know Riff Raff you know kind of people that undesirable we we know what I'm talking about the people who are there looking for trouble yeah I mean the red light district it's an interesting place but yeah it has a bad reputation but the thing is Amsterdam is not only uh coffee shops weed and and and the the ladies of the night is a lot more to offer it has to offer to anyone and I yeah I think a lot of people just think of it that way which isn't fair because it's really great great City now I want to talk a little bit about sports because I know they're really into sports not only watching sports but they do Sports as well they're sporty people am I right here yeah I mean they uh especially biking but um there some of the best uh kite Surfers and wind Surfers come from there because there's a lot of water and there's a lot of wind so um yeah some of the top kite kers and uh wind Surfers are are Dutch as well and let's talk about football obviously because that's our favorite sport the Dutch have notoriously or no I shouldn't say notoriously have been really good at soccer for being such a small country of course they I mean you know I mean we can go through a list can just go through a list of amazing you know not just players coaches players who have contributed to this game and it's a big culture there like uh I support Real Madrid Madrid M Madrid yeah I also like Ajax uh which is the the team from Amsterdam and um there's so much yeah they play in Johan cro Stadium now I mean there's so much culture there m and uh there always has been like uh they wear their colors the orange I mean it's it's cool man you can you can see that they got the fever oh yeah you know what like so the rival team to ax is fyord and uh they're so hardcore they actually they have like clubhouses they actually burn down each other's club houses God often think I think that's uh going a little bit overboard yeah of course but it's just show you how passionate passionate or extremists right oh my goodness oh my goodness that's crazy so Sports is a big thing and do you ever get into the debate with them about the final Spain versus Holland do you ever like does that ever come up because I imagine they realize now that they were totally out of line they were totally violent and didn't come to play football and Spain came to play football that day I actually uh yeah I have had this conversation many times and and they hate it it's a sore spot right they really hate it because they know they deserve to lose exactly and I see it that way and I lived in Spain at the time but um and I tell them you guys were bullies and you didn't deserve it and you know you were trying to hurt people not not score goals yeah yeah like now you know of course like I would support the Netherlands in a in a match but uh not that match I I stick by my opinion there another thing I wanted to talk about before we head off to the bonus episode is businesses there are tons of companies that are set up there why are so many companies interested in having their headquarters or at least their European office in Amsterdam or in Holland I guess yeah it's um there's an area called the ronad M which is H um well Amsterdam rdam and utre but they're all cities like close to each other and there's just a lot of um a lot of Industry there and a lot of smart talents and to choose from and um and so it's kind of also become a bit of an alternative instead of people setting up in say London they would set up there because the Dutch just make it easier for people to do business it's user friendly for right well you you run a business there and I remember you telling me it was quite easy to get started to get set up yes there actually is a um a old school treaty between the US and Holland or Netherlands it's called the Daft but it's it allows Americans to uh get an entrepreneurial visa for a year and that's how I moved there oh originally and I know you were having trouble getting you know your business started in Spain that's what took you there I love Spain for living not for business well the good thing is it's just a hop skip and a jump how how long was the flight you came here a couple days two two and a half hours that's nothing yeah it's no big deal and it's just so different too it's a completely different ball game well I hope you guys are going to join us in the bonus episode we're going to talk a little bit about the night life we're going to talk about some of the things that we must see that you can't miss and some of those things will be the top tourist things but some of those things Mike is going to tell us that are off the beaten path that maybe a little bit less known to the the average tourist also we're going to talk about our own memories there so you can expect a lot of laughs and uh who knows maybe I hope nobody gets in trouble here Mike and I mean I don't remember ever like I said you fooled me with that space cake over there man cuz normally you know I said well when in Rome I said when in Rome do as the Romans if you eat space c I don't even like brownies that's the thing I don't even like and you're like oh no no try it and it looked like a nice Bakery you and and and like an hour later I was like where am I what's my name I was just in another I was on another planet and then Mike very very coilly he says oh yeah that's the the strongest one in Amsterdam well you know welcome to Amsterdam yeah I wouldn't let you have a bad one I mean well folks we're going to share many more stories Plus all that stuff I just mentioned I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's[Applause][Applause][Music][Music] FYI