August 5, 2012
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(written on 15 March 2013)
As Pride came to a sizzling end today, the Gay Expats Facebook group had organised a boat ride on Amsterdam’s canal, and even though I am technically not an expat, I do know many of them, love hanging out with them and besides, Limburg is as close as it gets to ‘abroad’ in this country. One of the expats, a guy from Duisburg in Germany, lives closer to Amsterdam than I did when I lived in Limburg. Just saying.
So once I again I found myself on a canal boat but this was an exceptional one! Not only was it a very long boat ride (four hours and a bit) but it also was the first one that got stopped by the police about half way. The captain of our boat got checked for valid licence and also because the city is trying to crack down on illegal boat cruises – no doubt under huge pressure from the regular canal boat industry. It took about fifteen minutes while we were moored just behind Central Station but then we were allowed to continue. All was fine. The nice thing of this boat ride was that it went through many city centre canals, avoiding the longer and slightly more boring canals in the suburbs. It was very nice although I must say that I was quite happy that we reached our final destination. It started raining not long after so that was a great cue for me to go home (while some of the others continued partying.) The guy in the picture is Frenchman Olivier, so he definitely qualifies as an expat, but here’s the trick; he’s not gay, proving for once and for all that you don’t have to be an expat or gay to be admitted to the Gay Expats group.
