The land of wooden shoes and magic shrooms

Clearly, I was in need of an Amsterdam Update!

We left friday and slept in the airport again (which I hope Never to do again)
We got to Amsterdam early saturday morning and went to a tourist center to get a map and try to find directions to our hostel. After waiting for about 45 minuets we got the info we needed and headed off.
Our hostel was pretty much a peice of crap, we were in a room with 3 bunk beds and the others were full of strangers, including a creepy old guy. So we took a nap and then went out to explore and get some dinner. We went to one bar, but it was overpriced and not that exciting so we headed back to the bar in the hostel which was full of football and rugby players. However, we only met their creepy old coach so we decided to go to bed early.

The next day we walked to the Rembrant museum, it was really incredible because it was also his house, which they had re-created it using his paintings and writings. I loved his room of art artifacts that he had collected- it had Greek statues, ancient globes, and even dried aligators and turtle shells. It had an amazing collection of his etching as well as paintings of his, his close friends, and people who had inspired him. Then we walked to the Van Gough museum, detouring along the way for a capaccino. Also a really wonderful museum showing his progression as an artist. You could look at a painting and tell whether he was depressed when he painted it. I was really happy with out day of art. Then we went back to the hostel to rest a bit then headed back out for dinner and to go to Bourbon Street, a blues club we had read about. We met the lead singer/guitarist outside before the doors opened and felt incredibly cool when he and the drummer kept comming to our table nto talk during their breaks. He was Such an amazing guitarist, we were all very impressed. Of course we made sure to get up and dance before the doors closed.

The next day Sarah had booked herself a bike tour, I of course declined to join her, and Rachel wanted to go to the Ann Frank museum. I had no intrest in the museum but I was enjoying the city and wanted to explore a bit so I walked Rachel there and then walked around the area. That night we decided to finally have a nice meal, we had been eating as cheaply as possible, and went to a really wonderful Greek Resteraunt. during the main course we heard yelling outside and saw a huge group of men running around singing and chanting. apparently they had won some sports championship. Soon after, they were followed by an equally large group of Riot Police in full gear and a series of riot vans. After our large meal we decided to walk a bit and we observed the effects of the riot, punctured here and there by the riot vans or the police roaming on horses. There was trash everywhere, broken windows, and bus stops with their glass completly shattered. We all agreed that sometimes people are complete shits.
We went to bed early as we had to wake up at 3:45 (youch) to catch a bus to the airport.

So I really enjoyed Amsterdam. It doesnt seem to have much of its own culture, besides wooden clogs and tulips. There is no Dutch music and all the resteraunts were Latin, Greek, or Middle Eastern. But I loved the Canals, architecture and all the people riding bikes instead of cars.
All in all, it was a very sucessful trip.
And now I am focusing on my two HUGE papers, and my improv performance on wednesday.


love you all!

<3M