I Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam at 7 pm and our host, Stefan was waiting for us at the train station. We were all hungry so he took us to one of his favorite restaurants- a cheap Chinese food joint. The Netherlands at one point occupied Suriname (a small country in northeastern South America) and thus their Chinese food has a bit of a Suriname flare. I still can't quite connect the dots as to exactly why the Chinese food in particular is influenced and not the rest of the cuisine, but nonetheless, Chinese-Suriname it was! The food was accompanied by, of course, Heineken, the only beer (I think) that we drank the entire time in Holland.

After eating, we got the cursory tour of downtown Amsterdam: the Red Light District (not nearly as sexually explicit as I was expecting- girls in windows, yes, but no blatant nudity or obscene gestures), the coffee shops (I think there were more coffee shops than bars - each catering to a specific stoner personality and attitude), and the canals- hundreds of canals with hundreds of bridges and more bicycles (and bicycle attachments) than I can comprehend. We eventually hopped on the night bus (which seems to have the same connotations in every city in Europe- slower, comes less often, possibly more expensive, and a lot of partying kids coming home after a late night) back to Stefan's place, about a half hour ride outside of the city.

The next day we decided to rent bikes- 3 days for 30 euro a piece, and we could forgo public transportation for most of our time in Amsterdam. Given the fact that there is probably twice the bicycle traffic than car traffic, it's really an excellent city to bike in. It is strange though, walking out of a shop and having to look both ways before crossing the bike lane, then again to cross the street, and again to cross the bike lane on the opposite side. There is even a special set of traffic lights for bicyclers. No one wears helmets unless they are racing, in which case they have the tight pants, cool sunglasses, special shoes, etc. This includes the children that are seated two in front of mom, on her handlebars and cross bar, and one on the back, sometimes in a seat, but often just sitting on the bare metal. Hollanders have legs made out of steel. It was sometimes a little disheartening when I was out of breath and one of these moms passed me with three kids in tow.

For the most part the weather was really ideal for being outside as well. It did rain one day, but we decided to just go with it. We paid for these bikes and we were going to get our money's worth! We were soaking wet from the waist down (awesome EMS rain jackets kept our top halves completely dry!) by the time we made it to the Van Gogh museum that day. We are both glad that we went, however it was small and it cost 14 euro to get in, which is far more than we have paid for museums elsewhere. The good news is that the weather cleared up by the time we were ready to leave. Just outside of the museum we came upon a beautiful public park, an oasis from from the tall buildings along narrow streets that were absolutely teeming with people. The park was peaceful and lush with towering willows and vibrant, glistening gardens. Afterwards, we did some more biking around the city, found a tapas bar to grab a meal, and met Stefan to attend a party where a fellow Couchsurfer would be performing.

It turned out that this party was some sort of block party in downtown Amsterdam for all of the neighborhood inhabitants celebrating the completion of a local metro station. The guys who had been asked to perform knew Stefan through couchsurfing in Berlin, so he gave him an unofficial invite. It took place on the empty top floor of an office building and served free beer and cookies all night (we love free). The views of the city were amazing, and although the crowd wasn't exactly "our type" we had fun dancing to lady gaga (yes pokerface, Amy, and no, I didn't do the dance) and trying to get the party started. Riding our bikes home after that made for an interesting experience, getting lost multiple times and zig-zagging our way home.

The following day, we visited the Anne Frank house. It was very, very moving - particularly contrasted with our experience visiting the concentration camp in Dachau. Rather than walking around a compound where unfathomable amounts of torture and murder occur ed like Dachau, we were touring the confines of an attic area where eight people lived in near constant terror of discovery - it felt personal, and real, and sad.

One of our most enjoyable experiences, however, was our bike ride in which we were returning our bikes to the rental shop. With no real agenda for the day, our ride was slow and casual on a sunny Sunday afternoon. As we neared the city center we turned down a bustling street; a long, straight shot to the train station with no cars - only bikes and foot traffic. As we weaved our way through the crowds, the gamut of smells that we whizzed through was intoxicating - fresh, warm grain smell from local bakeries; fragrant wisps of perfume from the posh ladies in the streets; rich hues of curry from the Indian cuisine shops; exotic plumes of dank smoke emanating from the many coffee shops; the greasy smell of potatoes from fry stands; the pungent odors of cheese shops - it wall all terrific and ultimately a symbol of what Amsterdam is - a true melting pot of a variety of cultures all crammed into a tiny, beautiful, cohesive grid of humanity swirling about.

We ended up staying in Amsterdam for slightly longer than we had originally planned because Stefan told us we had to stay for the weekend. Twist our arms. On our last night in town we went to a couchsurfing event and mingled with about 30 other surfers well as some other Amsterdam locals. We actually met someone from Westerly, RI and Zoe from Portland, OR doing an eight month tour of Europe and Asia, with whom we chatted with for most of the evening.Later, we drank some absinthe (the stuff we've had at home in the past was better, apparently this was not the "real stuff"), and for the first time this entire trip stopped into a McDonald's. We would have liked to go home saying that we didn't go to one for the entire time we were here, but oh well. Everyone walking by us had fries and when we went to the place that sold them they had just closed and McDonald's was right there. Oh well, we're not ashamed.

That's about all for Amsterdam, sorry if you were expecting some crazy stories. Next up, we stay with a family in Dendermonde, Belgium and visit Brussels and Antwerp. We left there this morning and it was a really wonderful and different experience so we're excited to share. Check back soon!