Independent Reading Post 4

Prompt: 3

Chapters: 7 & 8

"When I was twenty I liked Amsterdam-indeed, admired it passionately-for its openness, its tolerance, its relaxed attitude to dope and sex, and all the other sins that on can't get enough of at twenty. But I found it oddly wearisome now. The people of Amsterdam were rather stuck with their tradition of tolerance, like people who take up a political stance and then have to defend it no matter how untenable it gets. Because the Dutch have been congratulating themselves on their intelligent tolerance for all these centuries, it is now impossible for them not to be nobly accommodating to graffiti and burned-out hippies and dog shit and litter. Of course, I may be completely misreading the situation. They may like dog shit and little. I sure hope so, because they've certainly got a lot of it." (page 89)

During his current journey around Europe Bryson recalls aspects of his last journey 20 years earlier. This is one example of him comparing the two trips. Since the passage of twenty years Bryson has grown a lot as a person and has experienced enough to make him change from the last time he traveled throughout Europe. As expected he is over the party phase that everyone goes through in their twenties, and now is happily married in his forties. He described his earliest trip through Europe as a care-free adventure with his buddy Katz and now he is going solo and learning more about himself. For example, as described in the quote above, he used to love the city of Amsterdam for its tolerance and freedom and now he doesn't want any part of it. He sees bad parts, like litter and graffiti, in the tolerance which are things he probably didn't even notice the first time that he was in the city. This exemplifies the changed Bryson.