Dank U Wel...

And once again, that is the extent of my Dutch, but I like how they say Thank you in Amsterdam cause they do it in this kinda sing-song way. Anyway, I spent the last 3 days in Amsterdam and it is truly unlike any other place I have ever seen or experienced.

My time there began by arriving around 8 at night. Now normally, I try and stay in hostels that are right by the train station when I know I will be getting there in the dark, but in this case, those hostels were litterally double the price of the one where I stayed, so I went with the cheaper. Unfortunately, what should have been a quick ride on the tram ended up being a quick ride immediately followed by getting lost for about and hour because the directions were not clear. Luckily, I saw a guard at the Van Gogh Museum who spoke English and did now know where the street I was looking for was, but he had this handy little Blackberry with portable navigation, so he looked up the street for me, pointed me in the right direction, and sent me on my way to the hostel.

My hostel was quite interesting because it was the smallest room I have been in yet. There were 8 of us in there and, once again, it was me and 7 guys. Guys always seem to be messy when traveling, so there was really not much room to walk in our room and it was so small that if I reached my arm straight out to my side, I could touch my neighbor in the bunk accross from me. Tight quarters, but what could I expect for a hostel half the price of the others? I met some interesting people there. One of which greeted me my second morning there with a good morning. I was not facing him so all he could see was the raty main of unbrushed brown hair and my pjs. I turned around and before I could say good morning back, he follows up that greeting with a "Damn, you are prettier than I expected." I had to laugh, say thank you, and good morning back cause that was by far the most original greeting I have gotten in the morning in a while. He was a nice guy though. He showed me around for a few hours and then we split up cause he wanted to do some different things than I did.

I went to a few great museums there. First, I saw the Van Gogh Museum. It had about 200 paintings of his and some other great paintings by other artists also. It was awesome and I just wandered in there for a few hours. Next, I saw the Rjiskmuseum, which has a collection valued in the billions supposedly. They are doing some major renovations so there are only about 200 works on display right now but a lot by Vermeer and Rembrandt, including his famous Night Watch. The last museum I went to was the Anne Frank House. That was really good to see because it tells her story and also weaves in the story of the Holocaust as well. The foundation there promotes tolerance and had a great exhibition on freedom of choice that made you think. I like those kind of exhibitions. There were a ton more museums, but those were the only ones I went to.

I spent a lot of time just walking around too and taking in the city. The other thing that I did was head to the flower market where you can buy any type of flower bulb in the world you wanted to. I bought a few tulip bulbs and some calla lily bulbs that I have never seen. The city of Amsterdam is a very original place. It has a very unique perspective on their whole outlook. It is this contrasting city with these huge old buildings built around 5 canals and right in the middle of this modern, bustling city is the infamous red light district housed in some of these buildings where every other shop has skantily clad women there in the windows and the police right down the street to make sure all is well. Many of the buildings here are straight out of the 1700s and you can almost imagine what it would have looked like back then with horses and carriages lining the streets instead of buses and bikes. A cafe there is actually a pub or bar. A coffee shop is where you go if you want to get pot (which is technically not legal here, but tolerated up to 5 grams). A smart shop, which looks like a drug store, is litterally that selling variuos products for the consummer. I still did not manage to figure out where you go to if you just want a cup of hot chocolate or coffee like a normal cafe. In the midst of all this people here have a very laid back attitude and are very friendly. Their progressive thinking extends to the environment a lot where almost everyone has bikes or walks. There are very few cars making it a quieter city center with much less pollution and traffic. There are non of the parking problems and traffic jams of the US, instead there is a great system of buses, trams, and metros to get around if you do not have a bike. As in most European countries, when you go to the store, you better bring your own bags or you get charged more in an attempt to keep people from wasting bags and it works. It is a great city that is so different and unique. It is one of those places that everyone should see for themselves.