Amsterdam - the third stop of the trip.

In Amsterdam we stayed on a boat that was docked in the harbor. It was not, as Rachel suggested, a houseboat. In fact the owner seemed to take great offense at that. She corrected that it was in fact a ship and was sea worthy. Think of it as a cruise liner for 7-8 people. Cabins were nice, though cramped. The lady who owned it made us breakfast every morning. The best part of the ship was the deck, which had lots of chairs and tables. It was enjoyable to sit up on the deck, feeling the nice sea breeze, drinking Heineken. Which, in fact, is brewed in Amsterdam. That was my favorite thing about the city, as Heineken is my favorite beer.

The city itself is very neat. There are canals going everywhere, with residential structures lining the canals. So when you want to travel to a friend's house, you can go by bus, car, bike, or boat. For the most part, I found the city to be fairly clean.

Many drugs are legal in Amsterdam. Because of that, there are a lot of people that I might describe as 'professional potheads' that sell things along the streets. Things like T-shirts (with 'edgy' anti-Bush, sexual, or pot-related themes), pipes, shoes, and tons of other random stuff. I dunno...walking through these shops was interesting. But in retrospect all of their wares are exactly the same, and I think they really cheapen the atmosphere of the city in some places.

We went to a really expensive Chinese restaurant one night. It was 30 Euro or so per meal, which is maybe 40$ American. We were all served a collection of different dishes; shrimp, beef, pork, duck. I'd never had duck before, and really liked it. Its always a great experience to try something completely new and discover that it is very tasty. So, overall I thought it was a pretty good meal, but the girls all felt really sick to their stomachs after and said they never wanted to eat Chinese again. Apparently their stomachs couldn't handle the spices as well as man stomachs can; Ted and I had no problems. We didnt complain; we got to eat all of the leftovers.

We did make it to the Red-light district one night, with the infamous girls behind the windows. It was basically a strip, with girls standing/sitting behind windows. Most of the people there were gawking tourists, laughing and pointing. Every now and then you'd actually see a customer; either some shady old guy trying to sneak in a brothel unnoticed, or some tourist who thought his friends were laughing with him. It was ok at first, but then you notice that a lot of the girls are forcing their smiles, and you notice the despair in their eyes. Then it becomes kind of depressing. Oh well, its the world's oldest profession, who I am to judge?

Overall Amsterdam was definintely a city that was worth seeing and spending a couple of days in. However, as I'm not into the drug scene, it didn't appeal to me as much as it might to other people. Something to keep in mind.