Amsterdam: Pretty, but that STENCH!

So this is going up late.  I think this is something of a habit at this point, but who cares, right?  At least I'm writing in conjunction with doing things.  I intended to finish my last post yesterday, and catch up with the amount of days I would actually be blogging, but we magically bonded with our couchsurfing host over the day of doing random things and riding around (and me almost killing him on a bicycle.  I should be nicknamed "The Two-Wheeled Terror," or something equally lame and bicycle-related) so there was no free time to be had.  I managed a conversation on Skype with my dad, who happened to be online while I was online, and Gillian magically cured my computer of disgustingly annoying virus yok.exe, which reproduced itself every time I opened a new executable file on my computer.  So anything that I would every want to do ever with my computer was off-limits.  But we fixed it, and might not actually be going to Frankfurt any more.

Simon and Gill in front of a canal in Amsterdam.  Yeah, perfect lighting and temperature.  This looks like a freaking post card.

I'm not too sure of the plans at the moment.  We're not going to Frankfurt any more, because ALL of the trains were sold out.  Skipping over Germany is sad, but the alternative is getting there at around four in the morning, and there's a relatively-direct train that Gillian found between my freaking out over computer viruses and Simon making dinner.

Enough things regarding logistics.

Yesterday was the first day in Amsterdam.  The temperature was in the mid-70's, so a light jacket was necessary.  There was a breeze, but apparently every actually Dutch person was at the beach, so we had the run of the city.  Except for the tourists, and the potheads.


Woke up at eight in the morning, since I'd slept fitfully after not having laid down for sixteen or so hours.  Brussels was horrific.  Maybe one day I'll have the strength to confront Brussels in writing and actually supplement the very short post that directly proceeds this one.  Maybe not.  Suffice to say that the land of chocolate and waffles was delicious, but not really worth the trouble.  So I woke up in Amsterdam to the sun reflecting off the windows on the other side of the courtyard.  Simon doesn't like to have his curtains closed, so the sun is always shining.  it makes the room look a bit bigger, and is a welcome addition in my opinion.

We ate breakfast together, after I bumbled my way through a shower.  In The Netherlands, the taps open counter-clockwise.  I noticed that when I was washing dishes from dinner on Friday, and made a verbal note of it since I knew that it would be important in the future, but it's so counter-intuitive to me at this point that I had resigned myself to a shower the temperature of ice-water when I realized that the hot water tap opened in the other direction.  I'm not a religious person, but I might have considered a prayer of thanks at that moment.

Simon procured bicycles for us, since in Amsterdam, the bike lanes are larger than the car lanes.

Actually a pedestrian street, but the red brick usually symbolizes that bikes are allowed

Cars and pedestrians who aren't tourists keep out of the bike lanes, and yield to bike-riders.  It's pretty awesome, and makes you instantly appreciate a sliver of Dutch etiquette while on foot.

Our three bicycles.  Mine is the right-most, then Gill's, and on the left is Simon's.  We parked in front of a canal, and my glasses promptly fell off my face and almost landed in the water.

We rode the bicycles from the flat in the Student Housing building into the city proper, and parked the bikes next to the Bloomen Markt (flower market; Dutch is hilarious!  Try saying it!) and walked through looking at the beautiful flowers and not-so-clever tourists.

Yeah, you like flowers?  How about every single flower in existence, and some pandered exclusively by the Dutch?

 See above picture, and then imagine that at every single shop for blocks.  Pretty intense, right?  I'm surprised I didn't die of pretty.  From there, we walked around the city, and I took innumerable pictures of the sights because they're unspeakably gorgeous.  The canals give the city a sense of movement, and as Simon very rightly observed, the streets never seem crowded because there's a giant bit of water going through.  The water itself was a little murky, but there was wildlife in the form of aquatic birds, and everyone was just so relaxed that it didn't feel like a proper city.  I ran into people on my bike; I would apologize, and they would smile and I'd actually believe them when they said that it was okay.

A lovely clock tower, near where we dismounted

Some pretty graffiti I noticed

Lego bike stands xD

Beautiful Amsterdam

Regarding the potheads.  I know that most of you are aware of the fact that I worked in a dispensary at some point during my professional career.  I know that you know that I hated it, since potheads are annoying at the best of times.  They're okay when you know them, and they're just being silly, but when they're literally every person that you see in the space of a day, they get very old very quickly.  Which is why yesterday was stinky.  Every few feet, we'd walk by a "Coffee Shop," which is the euphemistic term for "You can get stoned herre lolz!" and the smell would overwhelm you from across the street.  It reminded me of a gorgeous guy who's sweet and amazingly good-looking (not to mention tall, since the Dutch are without exception some of the fucking tallest people I've ever seen IN MY LIFE), but smells like a joint.

I didn't want to spoil the pictures with pictures of the pot smokers, so here's another canal and beautiful houses

Read it aloud.

Leave it to the Dutch to mix strange architectural styles.  Barrel vault (Romanesque) with pointed arch (Gothic).  Srrsly, wtf?

I need to go shower now, since it's Amsterdam museum day.  Apparently, the Dutch have more museum/square meter than anywhere else in the world, so it should be awesome.  I'm very excited, but it's definitely time to go.  Excited for more biking; hopefully I don't kill anyone today.