3 2 1 Blastoff...Over the Atlantic and a layover in Amsterdam

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April 25th

Oh Amsterdam how I love thee. My sixth time in the Dutch capitol and not a bad time yet!

The flight from LA landed about 15 minutes late, and as such I made it to the Durty Nelly Pub 15 minutes into the Aston Villa v Birmingham derby (rivalry) match. Straight away I made friends with a group of English guys that were in Amsterdam celebrating a stag (bachelor) party. One of them was a Villa fan like me, his name was Russell. Like all the other guys in the group they were from Luton, England. I had a couple beers with them and then at half time we went to The Bulldog - Café Mack. We watched the second half there and celebrated the Villa win.

After the game we sat outside on the canal and enjoyed the Sunday in the ‘dam. I was jet lagged as hell and didn’t drink much. One of the English guys named Adam, about my age, had agreed to get a tattoo on his ass that said “Amsterdam 2010’, and so we walked over to a tattoo shop. On the way over we saw a huge group of Ajax Amsterdam football fans. They were preparing to goto a cup final match that night, and so they sat on the canal and drank and light smoke bombs and small mortars. You can check out the video here.

Adam didn’t get the tattoo, because the tattoo shop was only taking appointments. We played it off like he got it done and fooled all the friends that were there. Not long after we got back from the tattoo shop we went back to the Durty Nelly Irish Pub and watched the Chelsea v Stoke game. It was around this time that I went and got a doner kebab from an Egyptian restaurant that I’ve ate at each time I’ve been to Amsterdam. It was bliss per usual. I headed back to the pub and watched the game for a bit before heading back to Schipol airport.

All in all it was a great lay over in Amsterdam, there isn’t anything else I would have done different! Hope you all enjoy the photos!

Until next time, pura vida!

-Brendan k

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