Monday July 23, 2007

i got into amsterdam wednesday night. christian met me at the train station and we went and had dinner. after dinner we went to the park with 2 bottles of wine and sat by a lake and talked for a few hours. apparently the park closed at dark and we got locked in and had to jump the gate to get out. thursday i slept in late after having a whole bottle of wine to myself the night before and only have a little while to walk around the city while christian was at work. the only thing i accomplished was buying some legal mushrooms at a smart shop. they had so many choices and each were labeled with a chart that graded each effect (visuals, mental, body, energy, etc). i went with the colobian, nice and balanced. after that we met back at his place and he cooked me dinner and we just watched a movie and relaxed for once. unfortunately, he got an email that night from his parents saying his mother was sick, so he had to leave on friday to go home for the weekend. i walked around the centre and finally found a hostel that had a bed. so i got my stuff locked up and headed back out. i met 8 guys from denmark and we all went to the pub crawl. i met so many awesome (drunk) people. the staff was particularly incredible (and hott, omg): kyle from south africa, jerimiah from cali, and cat from ireland. soo naturally, i got quite drunk - free vodka and beer all night - and danced my ass off for hours. after the pub crawl i went back to kyle's apartment and we talked for a while, but i had to go back to my hostel so i could wake up in time to check out. walking the 3 blocks back to my hostel through dam square at 6am was the scariest part of my trip yet. but, i made it back to my hostel just fine and slept for 3 hours before i had to wake up. at breakfast i met sebastian and sat and chatted with him for a long time. we went on the 3 hour free walking tour of amsterdam. it wasn't quite as impressive as the one in berlin, but it was still really interesting. after the tour i went in search of westerpark for the couchsurfing meeting. i found it much easier than i expected to, i ended up getting there an hour early. so i sat in the cafe for a drink while i waited. two guys, jos and hylke, saw me sitting alone with my bag in the chair across from me and decided i needed someone more interesting to talk to than a backpack. we spent a long time in the cafe, they bought me beer and food and i never found the couchsurfers. so i ended up staying with them saturday night. jos took my bag, and hylke took me - i had to ride on the back of his bicycle back to their place. its normal in amsterdam, but it was my first experience. (its actually much scarier than it looks.) at their place we ate pizza and drank beer by candlelight. it was hylke's birthday so we made mushroom tea with my beautiful LEGAL shrooms. we didn't actually have any tea bags, so we just boiled them and added a little sugar, which tasted surprisingly like tea. we watched creature comforts, hilarious clay animation series (which i do recommend). at first i wasn't sure how i was going to handle the shrooms since i didn't know the guys well, but we ended up having a great time. sunday i had to leave their house, so i was going to jump on a train to copenhagen, but i found out one i got to the station that i needed to reserve a seat (only some of the trains require you to do that), and the office was closed until 6 am, so i was stuck in amsterdam for an extra night (not that i mind really). so i went back to the pub crawl to see my new friends. it wasn't AS much fun since my denmark friends weren't there, but i met a few people and got to hang out with the staff more - who, again, are AWESOME. since i didn't have a place to stay i was doing the pub crawl with my backpack which most people were quite impressed with - apparenly, i'm a badass :). halfway through, cat let me put my stuff in his apartment since it was close to the club we were going to. i didn't really feel like drinking anymore so jerimiah and i went and sat on a bench by the canal and talked instead of dancing in the hot ass club (it was a pirate club and the bartenders were breathing fire). at the end of the pub crawl i went back to cat's house to get my things and we hung out and listened to music and talked for a while and i ended up staying at his place, which was really nice because i got lots of sleep and a shower, neither of which i expected to get that night. this afternoon i got to the train station to get my reservation. waiting in that office is equivalent to the DMV. literally. jesus. finally, i got my ticket, and 2 hours later i'm on my way to copenhagen. i survived amsterdam, and didn't even have to smoke pot. :)

Monday July 23, 2007

Amsterdam, Netherlands