A wonderful adventure in Amsterdam

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Ah Amsterdam, what a fabulous city. Forget Venice, the canals in the netherlands are cooler, cheaper to travel around, and light up at night to give the city unbelievable charm. I was staying at the Hemp Hotel toward the outer canals of the city where each room is themed by a different country growing hemp. I was staying in the Nepal room, but I heard there were ones for Jamaca and Afganistan too. It was very cute with the walls all painted, prayer flags hanging, little buddhas around, etc. Downstairs the hotel was also a great bar with an amzing bartender. For the first two nights one of my best friends from Boulder, Ashley, was to meet me but never checked her email so I sat around in the bar hoping shed get my messages and come over as her hostel which was only 2 blocks away. That may sound sad in some way, but it was quite fun. Only locals came into the bar and everyone drank heinekens. The charm of intoxicated 30 year old men speaking dutch is something i apparently am quite fond to watch. Especially when there is hassish involved. One guy Secco (pronounced Sicko haha) apparently was quite fond of me as well bought me drinks etc for both nights and eventually tried to kiss me. I explained of course that I was taken and promptly went to my room to sleep. The next morning Ash and her boy woke my ass up through the door and I packed up quickly, we went to a good coffeeshop, I ate some delicious truffles and bought train tickets to brussels.

Once we got back from brussels the next day we did our regular thing around town and Ashley and Stephen headed back to Rome and I rented a bike to explore the town. Exploring on foot a few days earlier had been quite hard on my feet so the whole bike thing was extremely convienent. So many bikes in Amsterdam its ridiculous. And of course everyone has shitty bikes because its hard to go a year without getting your bike stolen. The joke is that youd be pissed about losing the 50€ lock, not the 15€ bike. Riding around town was seriously an experience in itself because of all the other bike traffic and trams and cars etc.

My last days were nice, I made some friends at the hostel I was staying at and one ended up knowing Ash through the same program in Rome. Small world.... I showed them some of the nicer places to go and returned my bike with plans to meet them later, although they all got lost except for one so we had a good time and drank a beer. I didnt go to the Van Gogh or Rembrant museums but I did stop at the Anne Frank Haus and walked around that.

bottom line: amstedam was fucking awesome.

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Photos

buddha head
Secco told me i looked too young for my hat so i figured buddha is as old as it gets

my travel buddies
At gray area

human bubble
Ash steve and i went to a kids hands on science museum called NEMO. thEy had a big bubble section amongst a billion other cool exhibits

tulip buds
Seeing pictures of the tulips that grow in the spring is inspiration for me to return next year.