Amsterdam

Royal Palace or something.

Basically all of Amsterdam looked like this.

Pot plant shop

Hole in the wall fast food. 

Bier and peanuts!

A stereotypical canal with a urinal on the side of the street.  Ew.

The true touristy thing to do in Amsterdam.

This was my room.

I was pretty tired and grumpy by the time I got to Amsterdam.  I arrived at Schipol Airport and took a train to Amsterdam Central Station.  I tried to find my hostel, but I ended up walking in a large loop back to the train station.  It took another half an hour of searching before I could find it.  Right before I found it, I realized I was in the Red Light District.  I was about to stay in the Red Light District!!!  The hostel was actually decently nice.  It was extremely ironic when I found out that it was a Christian hostel that held bible discussions everyday.  I would also like to mention that I shared a room with 15 other guys.

I spent most of the first day looking for a prong changer for all my appliances.  I explored most of the highly populated areas.  I spent the rest of the day sleeping and updating my blog.  It was also rainy most of the day, so I stayed indoors for the most of the time.

I woke up the next morning.  I walked down to breakfast and went straight back to bed.  I finally woke up at 11:00 and walked around town.  When I approached the main square of Amsterdam, I saw tons of tour groups crowded around.  I though that this would be the perfect opportunity to see the city and learn some history.  After a good 3 hour tour, I ended up with a good idea of the city and 3 new friends.  I had a snack from a hole in the wall.  Literally, I put money into a wall and grabbed food out of it.

Friends that I made during the the tour.

Here are some random things I learned:

• Prostitution is legal, hence the hundreds of "windows"*
• There are a lot of coffee shops**
• People have to move large furniture through the upper level windows
• A stag party is a bachelor's party***
• There are shops that sell cannabis plants****
• Aussies don't drink Foster's
• There are always a lot of Aussie tourists

Random fun condoms.

My new friends and I ate lunch together and chatted about random travelling adventures.
Apparently the city almost exclusively sells and drinks Heineken. After that, I went to the Anne Frank museum with 2 other people.  It was pretty cool to see the house that her and another family for 2 years.  I decided to go on a late night walking tour of the Red Light District with my new friend Brett.  It was really interesting.

Here are some random things I learned:

• There are certain areas that "specialize" in different areas#
• There exists a condom specialty shop
• Prostitutes earn a decent amount of money



Van Gogh Museum.  Pretty cool.

• Amsterdam is trying to decrease the amount of windows and coffee shops to change their image

I woke up pretty early the next morning.  I don't know if I mentioned this, but the sun comes up around 06:00 and sets around 21:00.  It's pretty annoying with sun shining into my room that early.  I headed to the Van Gogh museum.  Before I went in, I did the super touristy thing to do and took a picture in front of the I AMSTERDAM sign.  The Van Gogh museum was pretty cool since it was in chronological order, but I got bored after a bit.  I got done and headed back to the main square to meet my friend that I met in Nashville, TN about a year ago.  It was crazy how we were both in Amsterdam the same time.  It is super nice to meet new people and old friends *coughdick"friends"ditchingmecough*.  

It was pretty cool hanging out with Amy and her friends.  We visited the tulip market place and found a lot of cool plants.  I wish I could have brought back that venus fly trap I saw.  We basically walked around a bunch and wound back at the I AMSTERDAM sign.  Amy and I took a picture to document that we actually met up in Amsterdam.  The last thing we did was visit a beer shop whose name translates to "The Beer King."  Carl, if you're reading this, I'm just saying that it would have you taken you years to decide on a beer.  There were literally hundreds of different types of beers.  The ones that I did recognize were Sam Adam Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Amy and I taking a picture together at the I AMSTERDAM sign.

I headed off to the train station to catch my 20:30 train to Munich.  I learned that reclining chairs don't really recline and they don't turn off the lights.  In other words, every time I travel, I am really tired and get no sleep.  

Random thoughts and side notes

• It amazes me that I've been the only American for some of my tours.
• It takes about 50 mins to upload 10 pics... I think my computer is a little slow.
• Formatting the blog to look nice takes too long, so I just gave up. 

*windows- where prostitutes stand and try to lure you in.  They are literally standing behind windows.  If you're interested, it's usually 50 Euro for 15 mins.  That's what the tour guide said.
**coffee shops sell pot
*** there were A LOT of stag parties.  Themes of outfits: Waldo, S&M, princesses, penis, etc.
****pot
#apparently I lived in tranny alley.