Amsterdam

Stepping off the train in Amsterdam was like stepping into a whole different world. The station itself was big and grand like a beautiful monument. A little canal with other adorable Dutch buildings surrounded it, and the thick of the chaos instantly surrounded us. Amsterdam makes Las Vegas look like Disneyland. The streets, our hostel and basically any other public place we entered smelled similar to the dorms in Humboldt. The smell of marijuana and sin filled the air. We dropped our things off in our overpriced hostel situated down a shadey allyway just a few feet from the insanity of a main street. We walked down streets filled with pubs and "coffee shops", which don’t really sell coffee, and tons of sex shops. I kind of felt like I stumbled upon one big bachelor party - boys of all ages walked in packs, with tired red eyes, all looking like they were up to no good. In addition to all the legal drugs readily available, illegal drug dealers selling hard core drugs approached us anytime we stopped, which was a little disturbing. We just ignored that part and kept walking. We walked through the red light district which was everything it had been described to me as before. A pretty canal ran right down the middle leaving just sidewalks for the people to walk on and gawk and tease the women selling themselves in the windows like manequins. The whole street literally glows red. Surprisingly in Amsterdam, everyone spoke English, which was strange being back in an English-speaking country again. One thing I loved was that there are these little munchie shops (that’s what I named them), obviously catering to people who just came out of the coffee shops. They had every immaginable snack available - waffles, brownies, cakes, cookies, donuts and treats all homemade, french fries, pizza, sandwiches...you name it, they had it. It was pretty funny to see all the stoners shamelessly going in and out of these places for munchies. And they were literally everywhere. I ended our first night with a Stella as big as my head and a brownie (without any herbal enhancment, just lots of chocolate) from one of the munchie shops. By 3am, I was ready to end the craziness and we decided to call it a night, although I think that was early on Amsterdam standards.

The next morning we woke up to a shower with no hot water that continued to have no hot water during our entire 2 day stay. My initial impression of this hostel was turning out to be right, pretty dodgy. In fact I am not sure it was even a real hostel, as it had no name on the outside and we had to meet some guy on a corner to take us there. At least we didn’t see any cockroaches this time. We went to the Van Gogh muesum which was awesome. Many of the colorful paintings I have always seen copied in books were now in front of me, so close I could see every brush stroke that Van Gogh himself painted. The rest of the day we spent walking around taking in the colorful gingerbread-like homes along the many canals, the millions of cute little shops and restaurants, pretty sites and mellow atmosphere. We were really in awe by everything about Amsterdam. The liberal spirit here was truly unique and something you really have to experience to believe that it even exists. We kept finding ourselves saying "Does this really exist?!" It's almost like it's not real. We had a full day and another fun late night out. We hardly noticed the shady hostel room by the time we got back, we crashed out the second we walked through the door.

We woke up early to go for another walk around the city and take some photos. It was nice to be up in the cold morning, although not surprisingly it was still very happening out. Not sure if anyone went to bed, or if they all got up early like us. I have to say, I really liked Amsterdam and we had a lot of fun, but I couldn't imagine staying for more than 2 nights either. It's a beautiful city that is also a big adult playground full of temptation and naughty things. We got our stuff together and headed out for a very long day of travel - bus, flight, bus, metro, tram, walk and finally we arrived to our hotel in Prague.

First impressions of Prague have been very good. The metro took us right to the center of it all, which is beautiful - almost reminding us of Rome, much cleaner though, with chic shops along the cobble stone streets and a huge monument sat right in front of us. Every time we look lost (which has been a lot already) somone walks up to us and says "can I help?" I am amazed by how nice everyone is, it’s very refreshing and helpful. The currency here is different! We aren’t using euros anymore, which is so bizarre. I had to ask someone for help because I had 1500 koruna and had no idea what that meant. Turns out it’s about $88....not as rich as I thought I was. We relaxed for a bit, had a nice Italian pizza dinner in a restaurant full of Italians. And I am now about to take advantage of my first shower with hot water in the last few days.