Amsterdamming (a week late)

There is so much to say and I've been really irregular about writing lately. This has been a really good past week in all ways except for money. Let me start off by getting into what I forgot to write about earlier.

Last Saturday myself, Christopher, Andre and Dirk (Germans) and Dirk's girlfriend Camilla (Polish) drove up to Amsterdam for 24 hours. Although the weather, never my friend it seems, wasn't as amazing as we had hoped, the town itself has a lot of beauty. And it is so amazing to be able to drive 3 hours and cross the border into another country and not even have to stop at a border. We just drove through and waved goodbye to Germany as we crossed over into the Netherlands. You hardly would even know there was a border aside from a couple small signs. We drove in and after parking (24 Hours = 43 Euros or @ 50+ USD) finally started to walk around 4. We ate and then ventured down to a Saturday flea market that seemed more like an entire square filled with resale shops. Had I more money and it had not been pissing rain in cold weather, I might have gotten more into it. Definitely something that I could enjoy more on a sunny day. Afterward we checked into a shady little hostel/hotel and tried to think about to do for the evening.

The Dutch are not really known for their food, in fact trying to find a description of typical Dutch food was sort of hard to come by. The cheeses, breads, apple pies and herring was about all I could find out. We had walked through a little Chinatown earlier in the evening and after reading about a restaurant in the travel guide and a local paper we decided on that. Good hole in the wall style place and good food.

Now, the big motivation for most people to go to Amsterdam is obviously the drugs and/or sex, or at least seeing the red-light district even if you don't participate. And I too admit that I was curious in seeing these things, but aside from just seeing another beautiful city, I really wanted to see my friend Troy who had just moved to the city a couple months ago. This was a shocking surprise that I learned about via mass email when I was in Thailand. It seems that my friends and acquaintances from back home are moving abroad, often for love, at a surprising rate. He (like Celeste who I'll get to later) met a Dutch girl while she was in town for SXSW last year. After a year of globe trotting and courting he packed all his stuff on a pallet and moved Amsterdam 2 months ago. Anyway, Troy and Merit met us outside the Chinese restaurant and took us to a nice little local pub around the corner.

Troy and I have never been super close, we worked together briefly every one day a week back home but we've always gotten along. Great guy regardless, always able to summarize life's little problems in a comedic and concise way. he seemed to have an enjoyment for life that I sometimes envied. I just can't say how lucky this guy is (actually several of my friends these days) because Merit, his girlfriend is awesome as well. We sat down and I immediately felt comfortable talking to her. She's really a musician but is doing a straight office job at the moment to appease the legal requirements for getting Troy into the country. I only had a few hours with the 2 of them but I look forward to going back and spending more time just hanging out, riding bikes, drinking and enjoying their little corner of paradise (but hopefully in the summer).

Well, when in Rome, right? Merit at our groups request brought us to one of the more local "coffee-houses". She, as from what I gathered applies to most Dutch, doesn't really smoke pot. It's considered more of a juvenile thing there and is a source of mild jocular frustration between her and Troy. Anyway this place sort of has a low lit bar feel to it. There is really nothing seedy about it. In fact, most of these places don't serve alcohol just coffee, juices and teas. There is a second bar at the back that has a pot menu like a wine list. Yes, it's all true, it's just like you've read in other places and I'm not going to spend too much time going over thins people have already heard about. I mean, it's not technically "legal", it's just not enforced and in general as long as you're over 18 it's not that big of deal. So, you buy your selection, pre-rolled or in bag and sit back and do your thing. And honestly, except for it being a bit crowded, it's a really laid back place to hang out if you don't find the small undesirable (I sort of like the smell, reminds me of music festivals and rock shows at Liberty Lunch). That was more or less our evening in Amsterdam as afterwards we all headed back to the hotel and crashed out, a bit wet and cold. Oh, one last thing. Turns out that for the coffee house we were at was actually used in in the movie Oceans 12. I haven't seen it, but Troy said there is some scene where Matt Damon is in a bar/cafe and that is the bar they used. What do ya know? I'm still irritated that I didn't run into LL Cool J who was in Prague filming, damn shame.

The following day we went to the sex museum which was not nearly as kitschy as I was expecting and is worth an hour browsing around the all the toys, art and videos and history of everyone's favorite pastime. At my request, we headed over to the Van Gough museum but we were not fully prepared for it's popularity. There was an hour long line outside the door which scared us off, that too will have to wait. Browsing around, coffee, venturing into random shops completed more or less our time in Amsterdam and we headed back to the car to admire the mixture of beautiful scenery including the most amazing car dealerships (VW, Mini, Mercedes, BMW, Audi dominate) interspersed with small farms, wind turbines and the occasional office building striking the landscapes and commanding them in their crazy modern way.