Riding the Streets of Amsterdam.

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"Hey lovelies", yelled a big black mama, gesturing to Kell and I, as we wandered through the Red Light District. People watching in Amsterdam is much more interesting then it was in Paris. For those who have been there, you know I'm talking about, and to those who haven't it's not hard to imagine.

Our hostel was pretty poor, we were in a four bed dorm, sharing with two girls who probably found as much interest in the Red Light District as most heterosexual males. They were Brazilian and came in late every night giggling and trying to be quiet. They were good fun, it's nice to have room mates every now and then, though 2 is enough. One of the hostels we looked at had a 30 bed dorm. Wouldn't like to try that on.

Most of our time in Amsterdam was spent mastering the traffic and the bikes, they give you enormous bikes, a cross between old school and new school design. Quite strange to ride at first. The roads can be dangerous, though it's not the cars you have to look out for, it's other bikes. They come screaming past you, bells blazing and all you can do it go straight, otherwise you'll be taken out. Aside from that Amsterdam is extremely bike friendly, there are even traffic lights for bikes all over the city, but i guess you do have to watch out for trams, and people on mushrooms.

On our second day we had lunch across the road from our backpackers. We ordered some strange backed pasta dish which came out in a pot and was covered in a thick layer of cheese. Half way through our meal something disturbing happened. I had taken a fork full of what i thought was pasta but it turned out to be 98% cheese. The cheese had made it half way down my throat and there was still half of it in my mouth. (We are talking about some seriously stretchy, stringy cheese.) All my attempts to chew it, and effectively break it in half were in vein. The cheese was too cheesy to break, next thing i knew i was chocking, coughing up cheese onto the pavement, while by-standers looked on. Instead of getting sympathy everyone looked at me with a horrified, disgusted look on their face. Thanks for that, i agree that the sound may not have been tasteful but i was CHOKING!!! Anyway the cheese made it onto the floor, Kell and I laughed it off and continued eating. Apart from that the meal was delicious.

Unfortunately we missed the Anne Frank House, we talked to other backpackers about it and they reckoned it wasn't that good. Just depressing. Once again our stay was much too short, but we had to leave because the next day the price of our beds almost tripled.

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Photos

Break Dancing
These guys pulled a huge crowd. The youngest was a 10 year old kid, you can see him in the grey on the big mat.

Trippy
My camera was stoned when it took this.

Comments

[Sammy]

I personally loved the Anne Frank house (although I do agree it was quite depressing)

[Ash]

that photo of the canal is GORGEOUS!!!! sooo jealous right now!