Amsterdam, what a trip

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So I am in Amsterdam right now in a coffee shop. I am not smking though, the group of people I am with stopped off and I found this computer. The wafts of marijuana are all around me right now but this is not the case with all of Amsterdam. I was really surprised by how in the public and hidden the coffee shops are at the same time. I mean when you are walking through the shopping district or through an area with alot of restaurants you don't see people stoned out of their minds or everyone with a joint. The coffee shops are all tucked away or not on the main rand discreet themselves. I mean it is not hard to find them while at the same time it is not hard to stay away from them. I mean I have really enjoyed the city without smoking and hope that most people can also. I think a big reason the coffe shops are not so in your face is because you can't leave with any pot or smoke it anywhere but in the store you bought it. IT seems to parralell alot of the laws with drinking in bars.

Lets talk about the train ride here though, it was rediculous. Laki and I were in the back part of the train, not sleeper cabins, but really nice seats. We were travelling with Rachael and Beth and were really enjoying the ride especially from Innsbruck to Munich. On the way to Munich though the train had to stop becasue another train ahead of it was stopped in the station. We started to worry and freak out because we were already on a tight scheduale as it was let alone stopping for a train. Once we got started moving again we had pushed our 10 minute window of time to a 4 minute window between trains in Munich. The train stops in the munich station and we are all jumoping off the train andrunning. We only have three platforms to cross but we dont want to miss the train as it is already sitting there. We make it on just as the conductor blows his whistle and find our seats. The feeling of releif is unmeasurable becasue we thouight we might miss this train. So now we are on our we to Amsterdam. Laki and I always get restless on the trains so we decide to go see if our friends who were suppose to be on the same train made it. About three cars ahead we find them already drunk from being in Munich for two hours with nothing to do. Laki and I have a bottle of wine that we orght so we crack it open and start to mellow out a little as we chat with them about what we are going to do. As the night goes n and we get louder we decide to move to the bicycle storage car bcasue no one is sleeping in there. As we do the train stops and we all get off to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. When we get off one of our more woveridulged friends decides he want st o explore a little and goes downstairs under the platform. The whistle blows and he is nowhere to be found. We start yelling his name nd he gets on the train right before it starts moving. THe conductor omes by and is angry with him becasue he almost made the train wait. But in the end we are okay. The conductor aleady perturbed and us getting tired everyone went their seprate ways and went to sleep. IN the morning as we wake up and get together Laki finds that in the night someone had dropped something or hit his pocket with their bag and broke the screen of his cell phione. So now he is without the ability to know who he is calling or who is calling him but the phone itself still works, yet another interesting thing to happen to us.

So I don have much time to edit this entry because my time is aobut to run out on this computer and I dont want to pay to use it again. The sound of cars though and lapping of the canals will be enough to occupy me while I wait on my friends. Amsterdam is more beutiful and complex a city than I ever could have imagined. W are going to go to the Van gough museum and Anne Frank house later tody. I am sure I will write another entry tomorrow from this crazy city. I can't upload pictures now but as soon as I get a chance Ill be able to put all these up. Ill update you on everyhting new like the events of today and yesterday tomorrow.

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[Christin]

Nosmo King.