amsterdam, netherlands: schmoke and a pancake?

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Hi everybody, ve're in Holland... isn't dat vvveeeiiirdd?
(Goldmember, Austin Powers 3)

Since the last email
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Rhine Valley, Germany

This will be brief I promise. Not because i worry about your lack of
patience reading my verbose emails, but because my po' ass can't afford all
these internet cafes! in germany (where we are now) its 2 euros for 16
minutes. thats $3 for 16 minutes! if they charged this much back at home,
i'd be broke after one day at work. haahah...

well anyway, T and i met up with our contiki tour group. so far, everyone
is really cool. the guide said that over 12 nationalites are represented
in our group of 52. mostly aussies, some americans, bunch of south
africans, mexicans, and some japanese. its really cool hanging out with a
bunch of different people in an area that nobody is familiar with. T and I
have been categorized in the "matrimonial group" (eeck!) so we basically
hang out with all the married or engaged couples. i think the other
younger single people kind of shunned us. hahaah...no problem, we actually
enjoy hanging out with the other couples. we spend most of our time
hanging out with a black couple from columbus, georgia (hanns, this is
wehre you went for airborne school right). well they're really "american"
like us so we're having a great time with them. we also hook up
occasionally with a latin couple from santa ana, california. when we're
together, we're like . two D's for extra badd (steve,
you're probably the only one laughing.

our group left london and took a cross channel ferry to france. from
france, we took a bus through belgium to amsterdam. we didn't stop in
belgium but we saw tons of pastures with cows and sheep, windmills, bicycle-
cars, and chocolate dessert shops. i thought to myself, "wow, these guys
just copied solvang!" huh, europeans are so unoriginal.

we arrived in amsterdam and spent about a day and half there. what a shady
city!! but regardless, it was sho toight. people are very toight. food
is toight. but we did a night canal cruise which was touristy, but a
BLAST - literally. teresa and i got blasted. its basically a flat, glass
covered canal boat that takes you through the canals around amsterdam with
a ton of wine. teresa got so wasted i nearly had to carry her back.

we cruised on the amstel river/canal. the hosts were these two crazy dutch
women that couldn't speak much english but they kept saying "down your
liquor bitch!! drink more you american bitches!!! smoke some weed
bitch!!!" pretty damn funny. but when one of them called me a bitch, i
almost cried. dutch women are scary. the boat dj played lots of cheesy
music but i guess it was the best for an international crowd ... love boat,
macarena, etc. we also learned that amstel and heineken have been making
beer using the water from the amstel river for the past 500 years. not
sure if they should have told us this because we all looked out and saw
funky stuff floating in the water. well, i shrugged my shoulders and
shouted "500-year rule!" then chugged my beer. its was sho toight.

the hotel in holland was really nice. it was rather quaint and cozy. it
was on the edge of a canal and it reminded us of sausalito. yachts and
boats parked at the pier, and people taking walks along the water. very
romantic. most of the homes along the canals run from $600,000 to over $2
million! man, i thought the bay area was expensive! well, i guess i can
scratch amsterdam on my desired residence list.

we also strolled through the red light district. as i looked at all the
scantily clad women in the windows, i turned to teresa and said "huh,
terrible. this is so wrong. i think i need to wash my eyes out with
soap." she didn't laugh.

we also saw tons of "coffeeshops". here's the thing - they aren't
coffeeshops. they're actually weed joints. marijuana is legal in
amsterdam so they have tons of places where you can get blitzed on some
indo. they also sell "space cake" which is basically cake laced with
chronic. pretty funny watching the dutch eating this cake while they ride
their bikes next to canals! amazing! the cafes also sell coffee tho, and
pancakes too! so i guess goldmember was right - shmoke and pancake? bong
and a blintz? cigar and waffle? its true!!! T and I passed on this, but
we did try some pancakes and weiner schnitzel. not as good as it is back
at home.

today, we went to Anne Frank's house. very sad, but very educational.
we're so glad we went. i really enjoyed this. almost everything is still
in tact... even the sliding bookcase that covered teh entrance to the
secret annex where the jew family lived during the nazi regime.

well time is running out on my internet machine.

i will update you later.

til then, take care.... don't go to war on me yet! wait til i get home!
reply to us, we love reading your emails!

peace,
A & T

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