“The economic realism of this great commercial city prescribed a tolerant attitude toward those of different religious convictions.” -Amsterdam Historical Museum Facts about the sex and drug trade of Amsterdam: 1) There are 200 licensed ‘Coffeeshops’ in Amsterdam. Although the sale and possession of marijuana is technically illegal it is officially ‘tolerated.’ 2) There will never be any more licenses issued. You can loose your license if you sell to anyone under 18 or sell hard drugs. 3) Smoking tobacco products in public buildings is prohibited by [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam is a scary city. Having recently been to London, Paris, Brussels, and Rotterdam all which are major European cities I can tell you that Amsterdam is an adventure just walking out the door. Despite the compact nature of the city center and the fact that it is possible to walk from one major attraction to the next in 10-30 minutes I don’t advise it. This is not a place that caters to pedestrians and from what I can see it doesn’t cater to cyclists, motorists, or to the trams that make up a bulk of the public transport. I [View Full Entry]

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June 30, 2009 I have a confession to make. I have a weakness. I feel this confession is appropriate as it hit me right away when I arrived in Amsterdam this morning. I love cheap touristy junk. I had to exert huge amounts of will power to resist the plastic Eiffel towers they were selling in Paris. And here it is even worse! There are cute plastic windmills! And witty t-shirts! What am I going to do? How can I resist for 5 whole days? This vice is dragging me down already, and I only just got here. Oh well, Amsterdam [View Full Entry]

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"Money is earned in Rotterdam, divided in The Hague and spent in Amsterdam" Hi Everyone! I have spent the last three days in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. I forget why I decided to come here other than I found a cheap hostel. Amsterdam is going to be very expensive, so I needed a break from that. Rotterdam is an interesting place, it is very Urban. It was bombed to the ground in 1940 during WWII. Instead of restoring the buildings and architecture of the past, they decided to rebuild completely differently. The buildings are very modern in their architecture. My favorite [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone! Yesterday I rented a bicycle and rode down from Bruges to the coast. I had a bottle of Diet Coke, my mp3 player was playing Twilight the audio book and it was a beautiful sunny day. A moment of pure bliss. Along the way I rode through a small town called Damme. It was quite adorable and had 3 used bookstores, though the only English books I found were the Harry Potter books. I hung out on the beach and watched people fly kites and generally frolic in the ocean. The bike ride was about 4 hours round trip. [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, Today was another fun filled day in fantasy land...I mean Bruges! This city is almost like being in Disneyland. It seems like it was created and maintained solely for the sake of the visitors. And everyone here seems to be a visitor. The streets are filled with people snapping pictures and buying postcards. Strangely enough I don't hear much English. I guess Bruges is one of those tourist places that attract, not just foreigners but people from within its own borders. This morning I walked up 366 steps to the top of the Belfry tower on the Markt square. [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Bruges around 11am. I took the 10am train from Brussels. They didn't check my ticket at all. I just walked on to the train and then off again in Bruges and I could have been completly without a ticket. I am told that is an honor system, there are occasional spot checks and huge fines if you are caught cheating. The funny thing is that my ticket is valid between certain dates, so I could concievable use it again and again as long as no one takes it away from me. I guess it is a moot point [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, Yesterday I arrived in Belgium. I took a walk downtown. The streets here are crazy. They are arranged like tree branches: completely organic. And there are practically no street signs! What’s a girl to do? Luckily, the city isn’t very big and most of the tourist attractions are located together in one place. I just wandered around looking at all the fun shops until I recognized something. This morning I walked to the European Union. Apparently no one works here on a Sunday morning because it was completely deserted. I was the only one around for blocks. After [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! As I write this I am in Brussels, but there are a few things that I did yesterday that were interesting. I went to the Eiffel Tower at 11pm and say the light show. I took a video of it, but the photo is good, too. Also I went to the Cluny museum. In the Cluny museum they have the heads of the king statues from Notre-Dame. Apparently during the Revolution the revolutionaries cut of the heads of the statues because they represented royalty. A teacher that lived near by gathered up the heads and buried them in his [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! Today I went to visit the Palace of Versailles. Built by King Louis the XIV, the Sun King. Apparently he turned his old hunting lodge into a palace and used it to entertain the French Nobility with games and parties in order to distract them from politics. So he could run the country however he wanted. Louis the XIV reigned for 72 years and then Versailles became home to Louis the XV and then King Louis the XVI who got his head chopped off. After seeing Versailles, I can see how the excesses of its royalty could have lead [View Full Entry]

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