A Walk Through Amsterdam
I recorded a walk that Chancey Fleet and I took through the streets of Amsterdam using my Meta glasses. Video edited entirely with ffmpeg in Terminal on my Mac.
Video Transcript
A Walk Through Amsterdam Transcript
Chancey: Going?
Marco: Yep!
Chancey: Ok we've gotta take a left on this street, I don't know what it's called, I can't pronounce it but we're taking a left on it.
Marco: I think it's Rosengraat?
Chancey: Rosengraat? And...there's some traffic on the cross street...mostly bicyclists...
Google Maps: 112 meters to your next turn.
Chancey: Alright, we've got the left, and we just continue straight for 100 meters.
Marco: Ok.
Chancey: And we're good. Forward!
Chancey: [Singing] We are at the street! They're not lighted...
[A bike clips Marco]
Marco: Woo hoo hoo! That was a bike! [laughs]
Chancey: That was a bike! It's Ok!
Marco: That was very close!
Chancey: It's ok! They respect us, we respect them, nobody gets hurt!
Marco: Yep!
Chancey: We're walking forward to, what is this?It says continue onto Westerbert?
Marco: Westerbert?
Chancey: Um, one thing about text to speech is in the secondary language it's just gonna butcher it worse than even I would, so...
Marco: [laughs] Bad habits being learned, and grammar...
[VoiceOver updates Chancey on directions]
Chancey: Yeah, Westenmart!
Marco: Westernmart!
Marco: Heavy cobblestones...
Chancey: Heavy cobblestones. Elly forward! Pardon us!
[Folks speaking in Dutch]
Marco: Oh, scusi!
Chancey: Pardon us.
Marco: Pardon! [in Dutch accent]
Chancey: Pardon!
Marco: So cobbley...
Chancey: Very cobbley. Don't wear heels. If you're blind, or if you are anyone in Amsterdam just don't wear heels.
Marco: [laughs]
Chancey: Make sure that the number is going down! That's all we want.
Marco: Yep!
Chancey: If the number of meters to the next step is going down, then we know we're not failing.
Marco: Yep!
Chancey: Now it says 100 meters.
Marco: This is also giving us a good workout on our metric system.
Chancey: Well, I work in design. I use metric all the time.
Marco: Whoops. We did hit some kind of thoroughfare though.
Chancey: We sure did!
[Dutch kids playfully scream as they zoom by on bikes]
Chancey: Ooh! It went to 90 meters!
Marco: Yay! We're making progress!
Chancey: Oh, we're not going to pull off into a random whatever that is, Elly. Alright, this is a street, it's not lighted, because none of them are. Everybody stops, everybody looks, everybody listens, nobody dies.
Marco: Yep!
[Truck slowly drives by]
Chancey: Cars are limited to what, like 20 miles per hour?
Marco: Yeah, it's like...
Chancey: The boat guy said that like the whole city is a school zone?
Marco: Yep.
Chancey: Great for us!
Marco: They're really trying to drive out the cars! [laughs like a goober]
[Voiceover speaking to Chancey]
Chancey: Turn left onto can't explain! Uh...kondijksplein...
Marco: Kondijksplein.
Marco: Street crossing, ah ok...
Chancey: Let's avoid the construction...
Dutch folks: Watch the curb, there's a curb!
Chancey: Yep!
Marco: Yep, all good.
Dutch folks: And there's a bike in front of you.
Chancey: I got you.
Marco: Thank you.
Chancey: Oh!
Dutch folks: Sorry, it's only me. There you go.
Chancey: Elly right! Thank you. Elly right, forward. Thank you!
Chancey: Continue onto Dam.
Marco: Damn!
[VoiceOver says Continue onto Dam]
Chancey: Literally continue onto Dam.
Marco: [Laughs] Oh, gotta get onto that Dam!
Chancey: Damn straight. Dam straight!
Marco: [laughs] Straight Dam, Dam straight.
Chancey: Damn straight!
Marco: Damn straight!
Chancey: Aah, sorry!
Chancey: Turn right onto Rockin!
Marco: Alright!
Chancey: Rockin' time. What is this neighborhood I wonder?
Marco: I don't know.
Chancey: It's more open.
Chancey: They have hot dogs, they have burgers...Madame Tussaud's! Across the street.
Marco: Oh god, we are in the most touristy of touristy areas!
Chancey: Where are we?
Marco: The Dam, the Dam neighborhood.
Chancey: Damn let's get outta here!
Marco: Literally...dammit let's go!
Chancey: Forward. Elly, get us outta here.
Chancey: Swarovski? Am I reading that right? Oh no!
Marco: Oh man, we're in like, the terrible part of... [laughs]
Chancey: Cheese world...
Marco: And we're running into pigeons.
Chancey: Pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon.
Marco: Whoa whoa whoa whoa...[struggles] caught, alright.
[Chancey's hair clip falls off]
Chancey: Swarovski...oh! I've gotta get my hair clip.
Marco: Uh oh!
Chancey: Alright, I think we better ask someone where Rockin is.
Marco: Rockit, ok.
Chancey: Rockin.
Marco: [singing] Rockin around, the plaza Dam tree...
Chancey: Hi, do you know where Rockin is?
Woman in crowd: Sorry, me?
Chancey: Yeah, anyone.
[Marco and crowd laugh]
Chancey: Do you know where Rockin is? [laughs]
Dutch woman: Eeem, the thing is my phone just ran out of battery, so...
Chancey: It's ok, we can just ask someone else. We know it's super close.
Woman: Yeah, sorry!
Marco:No worries, thank you.
Chancey: Thank you!
Chancey: Um, ok, well that's West. We know that's West because the Sun is there...
Marco: Ok.
Chancey:And that's Southeast goes...
Chancey: Oh, it's Roken.
Marco: Roken, ok.
Chancey: Ok, it says turn right onto Roken now so we made the right choice, ok. Elly right!
Marco: Excuse me, sorry.
Chancey: We're moving.
Chancey: Oh I think we have our own sidewalk for a while.
Marco: Yeah!
Chancey: We're living the sweet life now!
Marco: [laughs]
Chancey: Oh my god.
Marco: Woo!
Chancey: A sidewalk with no bikes? Sign me up!
Marco: [sniffing] There are so many fun smells...coffee, meat, food, veggies...
Chancey:Oh Uniqlo!
Marco: Oh! We can get some cool...cool tech.
Random passerby: I don't want to go into any more shops.
Marco: We're in the height of the financial district I guess.
Chancey: I like Uniqlo...
Chancey: I would do like really bad things for a juice right now.
Marco: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things from jumping around Amsterdam is no hydration. Because they just give you like a tiny little glass of water...
Chancey: Authentic Szechuan...oh wait, Massage?
Marco: Oh!
Video Description
Marco and Chancey along with Chancey's guide dog Elly start off on a quiet street in Amsterdam. Chancey is using Google Maps to provide walking directions to a restaurant while Marco films from his Meta glasses perspective/point of view throughout the video.
The buildings surrounding them are 4-5 stories tall and are grouped together quite tightly as Chancey and Marco progress through the streets. The streets and sidewalks are made out of cobblestones or red bricks, as are the biking lanes. There are very few cars throughout the bideo, but lots of pedestrians and people riding bikes.
Chancey and Marco walk by many shops, restaurants with outdoor seating, and along waterways and canals, eventually walking by the Royal Palace and a large, old church in the Dam neighborhood.
When running into construction, some Dutch people attempt to help Chancey and Marco out of the street and back onto the sidewalk.
Once in the Dam district, they are surrounded by tourists and international stores, much to the chagrin of Marco, Chancey, and Elly. They navigate their way through the large Dam square while bikers and pedestrians move out of their determined way.
Unfortunately, the video cuts short before arriving at the destination as the Meta glasses ran out of battery.