Graffiti found on Runstraat, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I recently moved to Amsterdam and have spent the last few weeks exploring this beautiful, unique, historically complex city, and trying to understand some of the customs. This picture, documenting several pieces of street art on a plywood board, captures a few notable elements of Dutch culture.

1) Free Tibet: This slogan is spray painted all over the city, in various sizes, usually scrawled across storefronts. Here it’s accompanied by a cute cartoon graphic of the Dalai Lama. I’m guessing the popularity of this slogan is due to the current Beijing Olympic Games and China’s continued colonization of Tibet.

Which leads me to my first point: Dutch society is very liberal and progressive. You might already know that marijuana and prostitution are legal here. But were you aware that in the Netherlands, partners receive the same benefits as married couples, whether gay or straight? Also, people in Amsterdam seem to enjoy speaking their mind on political issues. The other day a cab driver was taking me to my new home. She asked where I was from (of course, America) and immediately proceeded to express her extremely negative viewpoint of George Bush, the Iraq War, religious extremism, etc. I pretty much agreed with everything she said, but was taken aback at her enthusiastic criticisms of my country without first trying to assess my perspective or potential reaction.

[A side note: This woman was quite a character, with a unique style all her own. She was a large woman with bleached-blonde hair, with one of those Marilyn Monroe piercings (a rhinestone located above the upper lip, where Miss M's mole was), long and intricately painted fingernails, and ivy-designed tattoos on her arms and chest. She wore a black tank top that displayed her ample cleavage, and high heels of some sort. I was a bit concerned about her helping me load my extremely heavy suitcases into the van, due to her heels and long fingernails, but she was a total pro and arranged them effortlessly. This is the kind of woman I fear and idolize in equal measure.]

2) Dogs: The plywood depicts not one but two dogs, painted by two different artists. The bulldog holding a paintbrush was tagged by Fake, who has painted many other stencils around town. The cute white and bright-pink poodle shares a similar style to other wheatpasted animals posted in the city center.

There are a lot of dogs here in Amsterdam, many resembling the long-bodied Dachshund (perhaps due to the Netherlands proximity to Germany?). Dogs enjoy a privileged role in society, perhaps akin to membership within the family. Some people ride bikes with their dogs in the front basket, bring them to cafes and shops, etc. Yesterday I had a special experience which demonstrated the extreme importance of dogs to some Dutch.

My partner and I went to get ice cream at a popular local shop. Because the ice cream was so delicious, it was a weekend afternoon and it wasn’t raining (a rare occurrence), the shop’s outdoor seating area was quite crowded. Many people shared tables with strangers, or just sat on chairs, balancing their ice cream and coffees on their laps. Two older ladies near us appeared distressed that they couldn’t find a third chair. They kept pestering the customers around them for an extra chair, bumping into patrons and trying to finagle their chairs around to squeeze an extra one in. I was kinda confused (two ladies, two chairs, what’s the problem?) until I saw their dog. A dark mid-sized dog that jumped up onto my boyfriend’s chair as soon as we left, and promptly began to lick the large ice cream cone the lady offered him. “So that’s why she got four scoops,” I murmured to my partner, somewhat disgusted. I guess that’s just how some people do it here.

3) VNDLSM: yes, graffiti is vandalism. But note the clean, neat uniformity with which those letters are painted. Note the artists’ use of a plywood board that is part of a construction site, soon to be cleared away. These vandals may be naughty, but they probably also appreciate the clean, sleek lines of Ikea furniture as well.