Amsterdam

Hi everyone,

After Dave's sad attempt to writing an entry in the middle of the night, I thought I would offer a proper description of our time in Amsterdam thus far. As Dave mentioned we are staying in a 20 bed dorm, by far the largest dorm we've been in but so far it's been pretty good. We arrived at the train station yesterday afternoon and despite looking up directions to our hostel in advance, still found ourselves pretty lost. Fortunately getting off the train in a new city being completely confused and disoriented is something we have both grown accustomed to. Amsterdam is beautiful. There are several canals flowing through the city making it near impossible not to be beside water. I highly suggest you google map the city if you don't already know what I'm talking about.

We found our hostel in good time and were designated a bunk. After throwing our very heavy packs down we went down the street to grab a Heineken. We are about 3 minutes to the Red Light District and it is far unlike anything we have at home. There are 'coffee shops' everywhere with 'smoking rooms' in the back and pre-rolled, massive joints for sale at the front for 5 euros a piece. There are also sex shops every 10 feet with plenty of women on display in the windows. We knew all of this going in to this city, yet still seems surreal when we're actually walking down the street. Next year they are making all marijuana sales illegal to tourists and I wonder what this will do to their economy. At the same time I feel like this beautiful city is being overlooked by the people coming here to get a good high. The women in the windows and the overabundance of sex shops is distracting when next to the beautiful waters and bridges that really make this city unique, and frankly, it's a little disgusting looking at sex shops and windowed ladies when it's in the middle of the day. Don't get me wrong though, Dave and I certainly enjoyed the night life. We purchased some legal joints and walked around the city until were lost and confused with had no idea how to get back to the hostle. Tonight we are going on a Red-Light pubcrawl which will be a great experience.  I haven't been on a pub crawl since my first year of university, but in this city, it almost seems like Frosh week all of the time.

The food here however, hasn't been great. Usually we have been surviving off of sandwich shops and pizza places, as it offers delicious foods quickly and cheaply. When it was time to grab some supper last night, we did as always and I got a sandwich and Dave got hot dog. I had high hopes for my sandwich. They had a large rotating spit of chicken (souvlaki), which is what I pointed at when ordering. Despite my pointing, he still took out some dry, cold meat from under the counter and put it in the oven to warm up. I've gotten this same sandwich many times before and it's always been fresh meet with a delicious homemade garlic sauce. The sauce last night however, was warm garlic mayo, which had me throwing it up a few hours later. Dave's wasn't go great either, even though he got his food from a different place, his hot dog had chunks of what we guessed to be bacon fat on top of it, then also some mayo substance for a sauce. This morning I woke up early and took a walk down the street to see the pizza shops had slices in the window which were clearly from the night before, sitting there without any refrigeration or heat. Needless to say, we did some grocery shopping this morning and will be very careful of what we eat for the next few days.

Other than that though, we love Amsterdam. The scenery is the most beautiful we've seen next to Prague, and the city is a perfect size for walking, with the train station in the center always offering a point of reference. Also it's been nice to get away from the constant German. Although Dutch doesn't sound much different, there is plenty of English in Amsterdam.

If there is anything interesting happening at home please let us know! We are starting to grow a little homesick. We miss our friends and family, and we miss having a home. Every time we sit down to have a beer we think of you guys and how much better it would be if you were all here!

Much love,

Sarah

P.S. Happy birthday to Alexander Keith! We will surely miss the celebration and hope our Nova Scotian's can have Keith's for us!