I'm typing my heart away here at an internet cafe in Amsterdam. What an eclectic city this is! Canals pass through the city making it very hard to navigate, but its so quaint...even when we end up going in circles. The food is absolutely delectable, and there are tons of little shops (winkles) selling everythin from buttons to housewares to illicit goods. The streets are all darling but as you pass by you inevitabley smell marijuana wafting through your nostrils from the many "coffee shops". We havn't ventured into one and we likely won't but every other shop sells magic brownies and internet under the shroud of being a coffee shop. Thats why it took us so long to find a coffee shop that sells just plain coffee and internet.
Everyone rides bikes here - it is the most efficient form of transportation...the cobblestone is a bit hard on the feet so our plan was to get bikes today but things didnt really work out as planned! The locals are quite nice and it is really neat to get to know them. We made some friends in random shwarma places and cafes - mostly locals that give us a glimpse of the "real" Amsterdam - the one that has police everywhere even when you think they aren't there, the open-mindedness, and the friendly locals ready to give directions when you are stranded in the middle of a gracht (canal) and a curving stracht (street).
Yesterday evening after we got in we decided to do a bit of exploring. We went to the red light district - which was so crazy to see. So many women, standing in windows lit by dim red lights and flourescent black lights beckoning tourists and locals to give them a try. Prostitution is legal here but to see it displayed so freely was a bit odd as it is something pushed so underground in most other countries. In the end it is safer for the women this way, but it was a bit disturbing nonetheless.
We had our first bump along the road last night in our hostel, and we ended up sleeping on the couches in the common room!!! It was pretty fun though as it was a good story and we had a tv! We immediately got transferred to a hotel this morning though which is nice. We woke up and trekked across the city (doesn't take that long...Amsterdam is pretty small) to the new hotel, checked in and then went to the Van Gogh Museum. It contains some of his most famous works including many famous masterpeices. It showed the works in chronological order, which illustrated his growth as an artist and transitions of different periods of his life...how he was influenced by artists and other cultures, such as the Japanese.
Then we went to the Anne Frank House, who was a victim of holocaust and whose house has been set up as a memorial to show how her family hid from the Nazis during that time period. 8 people hid in the house during this time until they were betrayed and split up in different concentration camps.
After some yummy crepes we ended up here, a non magic brownie coffee shop! Tonight we are just going to relax and tomorrow we have our first Eurorail experience to Paris!
