Amsterdam

Our time spent in Amsterdam was interesting.
We had planned to check out the beach early Tuesday morning, but upon waking we gave that idea up since it was pissing rain. We took advantage of Jim and Julie's free Internet and printer and printed our boarding passes for our flight next week and other reservations.

Kat met us at Amsterdam Centraal and we took the tram to her shipping container. Due to the housing shortage in Amsterdam they stacked a bunch of old shipping containers and turned them into student residences. We dropped our stuff and headed out to explore the city. Unfortunately it was pouring rain so it was not that much fun to just wander around.

Of course we had to check out the red light district

We decided to grab lunch and sat marveling at how bizarre it is to see people smoking joints with their lunches in a restaurant. After lunch we got a city tour from Kat as we got more and  more drenched. Giving up on the tour we grabbed dinner supplies and went back to the shipping container to cook.

The problem with traveling to so many different countries is that in each country you feel you need to eat some food unique to that culture. In Holland that unique food is mainly pancakes and waffles. They have these snacks called stroopwafels that are basically two mini waffels pressed together with caramel. After eating copius amount of stroopwafels and Vla (a mousse type desert that comes in milk type containers) we felt so ill and obese.


We planned to go to an international students night with Kat, but after taking allergy pills that were not the non-drowsy variety and having a glass of wine we all felt very inclined to take an immediate nap.
We woke up an hour or so and decided that we would prefer to watch jersey shore instead of talking to international students about igloos and moose. Terrible, I know.

Kat woke early to attend class and Gillian and I just enjoyed having a nice bed, kitchen and Internet all to ourselves. When Kat finished class we all hopped on a canal tour, of which the highlight was definitely the houseboat for cats. Seriously.

We checked out the Anne Frank house, but didn't bother waiting in line to go inside. I haven't actually read Anne Frank so I didn't feel bad missing the inside of the house.

Typical Amsterdam Canal

Half a goat cheese and spinach pancake later, we wandered to find the Heineken Experience as Kat went to her second class of the day. Only one block later we decided we were too tired to do a brewery tour and we headed back to Kats shipping container. I think the couple sleep deprived days on the train finally caught up to us because we were exhausted the whole time spent in Amsterdam. Also out allergies were going crazy here which might be also part of why we were so tired. I slept for a good 3 hours in the evening before Kat got back from class and we started getting ready for our night out.

The 'Drunk Houses' along the canal

Along with Kats friend Jenny, we drank a few bottles of wine then hopped on the tram to go to some business school party opening. The night started out really fun but turned a bit sour as I met Lucy (gillians alter ego) and things got a bit heated.

I think so far Amsterdam has been my least favorite city.. Maybe because of the rain, allergies and fighting, but I think it is completely overrated. It it was too hectic and I constantly felt like I was going to be hit by a bicycle, car, tram, or motorcycle.