Amsterdam, Day 4

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Today was probably the most interesting day of the trip. I don't mean it in terms of intellectual appeal, but shock factor. Today was the day I set foot in the red light district.

Will and I woke up this morning to find Joon gone already. We had to get a head start on our day too, so we decided to do a little morning workout before having lunch. I went back to Fit for Free, while Will had a run around Vondel Park. I can't lose too much muscle while I'm out here on this trip, so even though I would've loved to go on a run with him I had to go workout.

I got back around 1:30 pm to find that Will had already showered and was waiting on me to go buy some lunch. I felt bad that I had made him wait, so I showered and quickly changed, and then we both started off for this cheap supermarket that I had been told about, whose name I can't pronounce. I was a little disappointed when we got there, because it wasn't as cheap as the person who had told me about, but at least we did save a few euros.

I think I made some more sandwiches while Will had mini burgers, which were really good. After lunch we hung around the hostel for awhile as Will was trying to make arrangements for us to meet up with some Dartmouth friends later on in the night. To kill some time, we payed for a boat ride which turned out to be more romantic than we had expected. It was a night cruise along one of Amsterdam's canals that was going to pass by the hundreds of light art pieces that were on display for the holidays... I know that sounds pretty romantic already, but even our tables came with a cup of peanuts and lit candles.

To make it less romantic (and more fun) Will and I snuck on a bottle of some kind of coconut cocktail drink, and a 6 pack of Heineken. The challenge was to finish all the drinks that we had brought on with us, which was actually a little bit more difficult than I had anticipated. To be cautious, we bought a bottle of heineken from the bar and had glasses with it so we could keep sneakily pouring our alcohol into it to make it seem as though we had ordered more. The plan worked perfectly.... The waiter never noticed, but everyone else on the boat sure did. At least they were laughing with us, as we kept bringing out drink after drink from our backpacks. Man, that was fun.

After the tour, Will told me that our Dartmouth classmates wanted to meet up. Their names are Olivia and Sarah, and they were only in Amsterdam for three days, so it was one of the only opportunities to meet up with them. We met up near a bar in Amsterdam's downtown area, but decided to go somewhere different (and cheaper). Glad these girls were on board. We went back to their hostel, which happened to be in the red light district. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. There are alley ways with girls standing behind large 6 foot windows, illuminated by a red light bulb. They all wag their fingers, beckoning you to come on in, but it's actually quite aggressive when they stare at you for so long. One of the funniest things to see was when a guy quickly walked out of one of the rooms, trying to be hidden from everybody's view. We hung around there for awhile and then went to one of the coffeshops nearby. We followed that up by going to a light night fast food restaurant, that was selling pastries and cheap slices of fake looking pizza. I know that "late night fast food restaurant" might be an excessive title for a fast food joint back in the states, but in Europe, it is much more difficult to find a place that is open past 10 pm. In fact, Mcdonalds and Burger King were even closed around the time. We stuffed down some pizzas and warm pastries, and then said our goodbyes after we had walked the girls back to their hostel. It was an unbelievable night, and one that I will remember forever.

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