Amsterdam

Hi everyone-

Here's a really quick reflection on Amsterdam, since mylaptop is flirting with having a dead battery:

Tim and I arrived in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport about 40minutes early, successfully made it through customs, and snagged our bags.Unfortunately, we could not locate Sideori. So we paid for some internetprivilages (what the heck is that?!) Facebooked her cell number, and then tookanother 10 minutes figuring out dutch payphones. Technology has not been ourfriend on this trip, especially since my webpage won't upload any of mypictures. BOO.

After rendezvousing with Sidoeri, we found a train back toAmsterdam, and then a tram to our hostel. Figuring out public transportation?Another 30 minutes. We're slowly learning how things work, but we were ashelpless as toddlers those first two days.

Our hostel was actually a hotel and hella nice by teenagers'standards. It was in a quiet street with literally no street noise. We were astone's throw from a massive park called Vogelpark, which we revisited nearlyevery day we were there. It's hard to describe how awesome this park is, but itdefinitely provided excellent people watching opportunities. Favorite story: Wesaw a guy (assumably) on mushrooms trying to make his way through the park and failingmiserably.

Getting around in the city is a learned skill. I had truefear the first day or so: one has to dodge thousands of other aggressivepedestrians, even more aggressive bicyclists, moped riders, cars, and trams. Wewere all near death at least 10 times a day.

Pride was definitely an experience. Never in my life have Iseen so many gay men, or so many beautiful people. Europeans are gorgeous. Menare allowed to primp and be pretty, unlike in america, and they take fulladvantage of it. Everywhere I looked: hairgel, immaculate white shoes, pressedshirts, matching jewelry. Damn, boys. Pride events were mildly scary, giventhat I don't like crowds, but we learned how to push through people. WE SAW THEVENGABOYS! Completely by accident, and it was awesome. (For those of you whodon't know: The Venga Boys are a European pop group; they would never make inthe US, but I love their over-the-top ridiculous style. We even pushed our wayto the front row! We also tried hitting up a few street parties and even alesbian bar, but unfortunately, there aren't 20-year old gays, gaynessapparently begins at age 35 in Europe, and it comes with a partner. Hmph.

For nights 3 & 4 we were in a real life hostel, completewith it's own bar & smoke room, a sketchy smell in the stairwell, andshowers that you don't wanna touch the walls in. Love hostel living, haha. For27 euro a night, it wasn't bad- it was as centrally located in the red lightdistrict as you can get. We were neighbors with a "magic mushroom" shop andthree bars. Tim's and my window view was a canal and central station, threefloors up; we were lucky.

On day 3 we rented bikes for 10 euro and we rode all day.The first thing we did was take a free ferry that I heard about in my travelbook. We took it to an suburb-style island and learned to ride through mildtraffic. A warm-up ride, if you will. Then we just went for it- we rode east ofthe Red Light District, and then south back to Vondel park, and everywhere inbetween. We picked up bread from a bakery, some OJ from a vendor, and stuff forsandwiches (and chocolate) from a little grocery store and had a picnic at apark.

Last night Jen and Jacob did the pub crawl, but Tim and Iwere tired and not feeling upto spending more money on alcohol, so we had aquiet night- we grabbed dinner, hit up a few coffee shops, and hung out at thehostel. I find coffee shops really interesting- no two are the same. Some havereally upbeat vibes, some are really chill, some are for bros, some are forolder people, some really focus on cushy seats, some feel more like actualcoffee shops. I liked trying to find the perfect one- one with window seatingin a high-traffic area.

So! As of now: no one is sick, injured, missing any of theirpersonal items, and no one hates the rest of the group... yet. We'll be inBerlin in another few hours,hopefully I'll have time to update again soon.

Bis bald!