I don't remember Amsterdam.

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After much thought, I decided to write down all of my travel experiences and make them public. At first, I thought it was a terrible idea, because I would be returning from Europe and not be able to tell any great stories because everyone would have read them already. That seemed a little disappointing. But then I remembered I have a terribly forgetful memory and my stories wouldn’t be that great at all because I will probably forget the best parts. And no one wants to tell the same story 10 times. So, I will try to write my adventures to you as vividly as possible, with all honesty and leave nothing out. However, I can not promise this to you, because as I explained before, I have a terrible memory.

June 18
We left at 5 am for the Phoenix airport. That was fun. It was a long day of travel and we finally arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 8 am the next day.

June 19
We immediately caught a train to Amsterdam, Holland. Four hours later, we were there. At first sight, the city is beautiful. Canals lined every other street. Little house boats (actual houses in the water) sat in every canal. The city was made for bicycles. There are huge bike lanes built into every road, complete with traffic lights made specifically for the bikes. Hundreds of bikers pass by every minute and the streets are literally lined with bikes. It is truly amazing. Most of the buildings are very old and have wonderful architecture. I loved it.
Since we are college kids on a tight budget, we decided we can not even afford hostels, the cheapest of the cheap. We wanted to couchsurf our way through Europe. If you do not know what couchsurfing is, please pick yourself out of the hole you have been living in and come experience the world with me. First, go here: www.couchsurfing.com. Now, listen to me. Couchsurfing is a website where people from around the world create a profile and basically tell others that they are welcome to stay at their house. You message a potential host, tell them a little about yourself and what days you will be in town, and wait to see if they can take you in. It gives you a whole new experience to travel. You stay with a local, learn about great places to go, the real culture of the city, and leave with a new friend.

My first ever couchsurfing experience was with Stephan Preeker in Amsterdam. We arrived at his flat in the afternoon and I was completely in awe. The stairs up to the place were very typical. Small, narrow, steep, and very, very hard to climb up. After carrying heaving rolling suitcases up two flights of that (don’t even ask why we didn’t use backpacks…I don’t even know why I thought a rolling suitcase was a good idea), we looked in disbelief at the beautiful view Stephan had, overlooking a canal and pebbled street of Amsterdam. After some formalities, Stephan took us to his university bar, Via. Yes, you heard me. The University of Amsterdam has a bar. It’s a very small but cozy room and they had lots of fun people and cheap beer. Like 90 Eurocents a beer cheap. But that didn’t even matter because as soon as we got there, Stephan bought us a round. And after we finished those, other Dutch men bought us beer. If you ever needed help, you should hope that a Dutch person is near. They are the nicest people I have ever met! When we would walk around town, clutching a map and looking at it with confused gazes, someone would always ask us if we needed help. We didn’t even have to ask! Ork, the Dutch man that bought me a beer, explained to me that Dutch like to give and they want you to just take it and be grateful. Shit, I can do that. Anyway, apparently there are pictures of this night on flicker.com. And Ork told me that the Dutch word for gay actually sounds a lot like flicker, so people get very angry when he tells them their pictures will be on flicker.com. After a couple beers and some nice pizza, we walked back to Stephan’s place at 9 pm and passed out. Sad, I know, but all I can say is jet lag sucks.

June 20
Today we walked around the streets of Amsterdam. I’m sure you are anxiously awaiting for me to mention the immensity of drugs and sex that is Amsterdam and that time is finally here. Walk down any street in Amsterdam and in less than 5 minutes you will come across a coffeeshop. Not only do they serve you a nice cup of tea, but they provide you a great menu of bud as well. Make your choice and smoke your weed next to the young teen or the old grandpa. Everybody’s doing it. Really. They also have smokeshops and headshops that are similar to American shops, except along with the “tobacco pipes” for sale, you can buy weed or magical mushrooms. Those are on menus as well, listing the name of the shroom and the effect it will give you. They have to sell the mushrooms fresh, not dried up, because they are not considered a drug in that form. I guess its like selling fresh produce? Either way, I get some mushrooms, so its terrific. After walking through roads filled with shops, coffeshops, smokeshops, and porn shops, I was very…happy? I really liked that nothing was hidden or taboo in Amsterdam. It was right there, on the street, and no one had to hide or be ashamed that they participated in those things. It was what it was and that was it. It was accepted as another every day thing. And that’s how it should be.
We also did a tourist stop at Anne Frank’s house, which was very sad. It was cool to walk through the museum and the bookcase door and see everything, but it also highlighted the cruelness that humans are capable of.

June 21
In the morning, we went to the Rijksmuseum. It had very old paintings from the 1600s, but they were very interesting to look at. Some were so realistic that they looked like a photograph. For lunch, we had some mushrooms in our sandwhich. They were magical. And so was our day at the park. Filled with giggles, interesting visuals, and beautiful views of green and lakes.
At night, the streets came alive with orange. It was the night of the big football game: Holland vs. Italy. The Euro2008 was in full swing and Holland was in the quarter finals. For some reason, someone thought that bright orange was a good color for Holland’s team uniforms, so literally everyone wore it to support their country. Somehow, we stumbled upon a huge square filled with orange, so of course, that was where we spent our night. I bought a bright orange cowboy hat and Ari got a gold gladiator helmet with fuzzy orange stuff on top of it. We had to blend in, you know. It was truly amazing. I loved it, being a big American soccer fan myself; it was terrific to see how excited and into the game everyone got. Sadly, Holland lost, and you could feel the disappointment in the crowd. It was a bad night for the Dutch.

After the game, we strolled through the famous Red Light District. Pretty much everything you hear about Amsterdam is true. Everything is legal - including prostitution. These streets are covered with porn shops and theaters advertising live sex shows. I don’t know about you, but getting aroused while watching a live porn show sitting in a theater next to a lot of people does not sound like fun to me. Our host, Stephan, told us he actually got to participate in a show once. Stupidly, I asked what that meant. He told me that he ate a banana out of a cunt. His words, not mine. And so, walking down the district means that you pass all of these places, as well as the girls in windows. Glowing red lights around the windows display girls in bikinis or less, selling themselves to men on the street. Personally, I think that it would be pretty boring standing in a window all day getting gawked at, but I guess they like it. It was quite interesting to see of course, but unless you are a pervert or a very horny dude, its no place to spend all your time.

June 23
We switched hosts. Today we meet Thijs (pronounced Tice, like rice but with a t) Roe, a really funny and friendly fellow. We rented bikes and had some fun exploring Amsterdam. The weather was beautiful and the bikes made getting around the town so much fun. We had dinner with Thijs and I ate some special cake I bought at a coffeeshop for dessert. I had to go to bed soon after.

June 24
Our last day in Amsterdam was another park and magical mushroom day. These were called Philosopher’s Stones, which were supposed to be the wisdom mushroom that helped you understand your connection with the universe. After a bad stomach ache, a weird mental high, and an interesting day in the park, all I got was a bug bite. No wisdom. Fuck.

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