amsterdam, day 1

an old school windmill in amsterdam. i suppose that these are famous here.



we came in on thursday night, and the first thing that i noticed is that there is a lot of neat contemporary architecture. apparently there is something in the water in amsterda (and in teh netherlands) that makes a lot of its citizens good designers and architects. from the train station we took a cab to the hotel, because we didnt know where it was. the cabs here are quite expensive. the room that we got was nice (too nice, i think) especially since we reserved it last minute, earlier the same day. it was a bit out of the way, though, but that didnt prove to be too much of a problem.

after setting up camp at the hotel, we took the bus to the city center. it was neat, a bit like berin, actually, except with a lot of people walking around. the weather was very dreary, but the mood of the city seemed good. after eating at a bad chinese restaurant in dam square (a convenient square from where to start or exploring), we walked east. we came upon the red light district. paola was a bit amazed at what it was all about: actual hookers in the windows who will actually have sex with you. while we walked around, she had her mouth open most of the time. one interesting sight was right around the corner from all of the red light action was a little old black lady handing out pamphlets, suggesting that jesus wouldnt like us to partake in such sexual behavior. i couldnt imagine a more fruitless job than that (given the location, and the people who were around; i suppose if she were to save one person, though, it would all be worth it).

this is pretty much what amsterdam was: some gothic architecture, some contemporary architecture, hookers, and weed. i pretty much expected that, so the impression that i came to this town with was that we could lose ourselves in hedonism, more or less. that sounded like a plan to me. so we looked for any coffee shop that was selling pot. we walked in, and got two beers, and two joints. the joints were big, so we thought that we should probably start by sharing one. so we sat there and puffed away. paola got a bit paranoid and self conscious (despite that everyone around us was doing the same thing). perhaps i was not smoking properly, or the quality of the weed was not so strong, but i did not get obliterated as i had planned. instead, we decided to go back home and paola decided that she didnt want to smoke weed anymore, but said she was ok if i wanted to.