Jesse and I arrived in amsterdamn in the late afternoon on January first. We met up with his friends Casey and Mayra and went out for dutch pancakes for dinner. It's just a weird pancake with food on top. It was a little weird, not the best thing ive had along my trip (the food in paris was wonderful). Casey, who has been living here for a year, said that the Dutch are known for their bland food. After dinner we went back to his studio where the 4 of us are sleeping. It may sound cramped, but it's better than a hostel. Later that night we went to a local bar here whose walls were covered in great graffiti art. Aparently they change the art on the walls constantly. It was really nice hanging out in the the amsterdam bar except that most of the beers here have twice the alcohol content as the beer back home, so i definitly had to slow down. I only had 2 beers the whole time we were there.
The next day we got a late start. We left the house around 2pm. We went out walking around the neighborhood and all the popular streets around here. The funny thing about the streets here is that there is the road for cars, a bike lane for bicycles or a sidewalk for bicylces, and then a sidewalk for pedestrians. Everyone here rides around town on one-speed bicycles. For dinner that night we went to this great restaurant with great food with some swedish friends of Casey. Sweden sounds really great. Beatiful country, free health insurance, they pay you to go to college. Later that night we rode our bikes over to the casino. I had a wet bike seat and walked around all night with a wet butt cheek. Maybe it brought me luck though, since i won 50euro at roulette. After the casino, time for the late-night snack around here. French fries. Mayonaise is pretty popular with your fries, but Mayra and I opted for ketchup instead.
It is now tuesday around noon, and my butt is very sore from riding aorund town last night. Not sure what today holds for us. I think Casey has some museum passes, so i think we are going somewhere. I really don't know much about Amsterdam so it's kinda nice just having a tour guide tell us where to go. TTFN. Ta ta for now.
love,
grace
